Another ich debate...

[Dyzio545]

Hi everyone. I heard many opinions over a long period of time from people about the long term effects on ich. I would like you guys to clarify on this argument. Here's a scenario: Lets say you bought a blue hippo tang (very prone to ich), and it's fine and maybe a little stressed upon introduction to the tank. Let's say the hippo got 2 white spots on him from stress for the first day in the DT. (First off, does this necessarily have to be ich?) 5 months later, the hippo is clean, no parasites ever since. Does this mean the tank still has ich, even though the hippo and every other fish in the tank is eating well, healthy, and not a single spot on it?

 

[betamed]

Hi everyone. I heard many opinions over a long period of time from people about the long term effects on ich. I would like you guys to clarify on this argument. Here's a scenario: Lets say you bought a blue hippo tang (very prone to ich), and it's fine and maybe a little stressed upon introduction to the tank. Let's say the hippo got 2 white spots on him from stress for the first day in the DT. (First off, does this necessarily have to be ich?) 5 months later, the hippo is clean, no parasites ever since. Does this mean the tank still has ich, even though the hippo and every other fish in the tank is eating well, healthy, and not a single spot on it?

I'm one who believe once you have ich you always have ich. I've gone years without seeing spots only to see it pop up when the fish stress. I belive this is due to the fact that the gills of the fish are often infected therefore the fish carry ich without any visable signs.

 

[125G Reefer]

Could a couple spots mean ich, no. I say after 6 months you see nothing, its gone from the tank.

 

[Dyzio545]

Could a couple spots mean ich, no. I say after 6 months you see nothing, its gone from the tank.

Agreed...I mean i do not think ich would come back after 6 months. I hear people who said ich came back after 8 weeks or 2 months, that kind of a range, but I never heard 6 months...

 

[greenbean36191]

I mean i do not think ich would come back after 6 months. I hear people who said ich came back after 8 weeks or 2 months, that kind of a range, but I never heard 6 months...

The problem is that it doesn't leave in the first place. It's not sitting around waiting for 6 months- it can't do that. It's simply reinfecting at low levels that you don't notice for several reasons. One reason is that it's usually in the gills where you have no chance to see it. Over 90% of the surface area of a fish is in the gills, so that is by far the most likely place for the parasite to settle. The other main reason is that the parasite is so small that it's just at the lower threshold of what you can resolve with the naked eye. If you have 20/20 vision and the parasite is on a dark colored fish and you look very carefully, you might be able to see it. The white spots are NOT the parasite itself, but are damaged skin that overlies where they have burrowed in. When multiple trophonts are in the same area, the nodules become conspicuous, but in the case where parasite loads are low, the damage from a lone parasite is just as likely to not form an obvious white spot. You simply can't look at a fish and judge whether it's carrying ich or not. If it was that easy, no one would ever bring home an infected fish. The only reliable way to tell is through biopsies and skin scrapings.

 

[frankpayne32]

The problem is that it doesn't leave in the first place. It's not sitting around waiting for 6 months- it can't do that. It's simply reinfecting at low levels that you don't notice for several reasons. One reason is that it's usually in the gills where you have no chance to see it. Over 90% of the surface area of a fish is in the gills, so that is by far the most likely place for the parasite to settle. The other main reason is that the parasite is so small that it's just at the lower threshold of what you can resolve with the naked eye. If you have 20/20 vision and the parasite is on a dark colored fish and you look very carefully, you might be able to see it. The white spots are NOT the parasite itself, but are damaged skin that overlies where they have burrowed in. When multiple trophonts are in the same area, the nodules become conspicuous, but in the case where parasite loads are low, the damage from a lone parasite is just as likely to not form an obvious white spot. You simply can't look at a fish and judge whether it's carrying ich or not. If it was that easy, no one would ever bring home an infected fish. The only reliable way to tell is through biopsies and skin scrapings.

Thank you. That was the best description of ich that I have read. Hopefully more people will read this and understand what ich actually is better.

 

[tkeracer619]

Crypto is easy to get rid of. It is absolutely possible to get rid of it completely.

It is not immortal. It is alive and anything alive can be killed.

Is it gone after 6 months? Doubtful, but it might not have been ick in the first place.

Proper QT will keep it out of your display. The unfortunate truth is that most people do not QT properly if at all and most of us do not have a setup to QT everything that goes into the tank. You can run a fallow system for 6 months, copper in QT for 2 months followed by hypo for 2 months... but if you add anything wet you run the risk of bringing it in.

I dream of the day that I can afford a fish room that will allow me multiple QT systems for everything wet.

 

[WienerDog]

I personally just struggled through a battle with it. I QT'd all of my fish for 7 weeks and left the tank fallow for that time. I treated the fish with cupramine. Though it was very tempting to make purchases, I started practicing twelve step programs. I am hoping that all the questioning and reading I've done, including all of the advice you guys have given me has come to give me an ICH-free tank. All are going back in a few days.