Can ich exist on a fish without seeing it long term?

[WayneL333]

Hi everyone,

Let say I bring home a fish and keep it in QT for a long term like for 3 months and it looks super healthy at the end of the three months. However, I never medicate it or perform TTM on it. Could it still potentially carry ich on itself?

The reason I ask is becuase I have several very delicate (and exepsnive) wrasses and I'm worried that medicating them or ttm may be too stressful for them and they might die. I've had them in a QT tank now for over a month and they seem super healthy and are eating very well. I plan on keeping them in qt for another 2 months. If they look the same, I want to make sure it's safe to introduce them into my DT

Many thanks in advance!

 

[ThRoewer]

If you want to be sure they are ich free you should do TTM.

However that makes only sense if you know for sure that your DT is ich free.

As for your question, yes, they can carry ich (among other things) without showing.
How likely it is they carry it without showing is another question.

 

[Mishri]

except for that .001% chance where TTM will fail even if executed properly


Yep, they could have ich. Many people are willing to take that chance.

 

[Dmorty217]

Hi everyone,

Let say I bring home a fish and keep it in QT for a long term like for 3 months and it looks super healthy at the end of the three months. However, I never medicate it or perform TTM on it. Could it still potentially carry ich on itself?

The reason I ask is becuase I have several very delicate (and exepsnive) wrasses and I'm worried that medicating them or ttm may be too stressful for them and they might die. I've had them in a QT tank now for over a month and they seem super healthy and are eating very well. I plan on keeping them in qt for another 2 months. If they look the same, I want to make sure it's safe to introduce them into my DT

Many thanks in advance!

This is a catch 22 really, if you observe your fish often I think you would see tell tale signs of ich if it was present, like twitching, flashing, cloudy eye or eyes and heavy breathing. The catch lies in that you have all sorts of rare and expensive fish Wayne so I can't hardly see not proactively treating for something like ich. Have you spoke with Ted about this? What does he say about it? I think he just observes like you do and you both have some rare and expensive fish

 

[snorvich]

TTM won't hurt. A practiced eye can catch parasites, however. With rare fish, I would not take the risk, however.

 

[WayneL333]

I see. What worries me is that these wrasses need sand. 2 are jeweled leopards from Maritius and the other two are m/f femininus. In TTM my tanks won't have sand and I'm worried without sand they can't hide and feel safe thus stressing themselves out for 2 weeks.

 

[Mishri]

Wouldn't you be able to put sand in a dish (plastic container) and put it in there? get new fresh dry sand for each tank and you should be fine.

 

[WayneL333]

Yeah, I thought of that. Ok, yeah I'll probably do that just to be on the safe side. I was torn becuase I didn't want to risk stressing out such fragile fish, but then again I don't want to risk my DT fish more.

I was also curious to know my original question. For people who don't qt or treat their new fish for ich, can ich exists in a tank even though it hasn't been visibly seen over a long period of time...months...years...etc.

 

[Deinonych]

Yes, ich can exist without visible symptoms if the fish have acquired some level of immunity. They can continue to be infected at a subclinical level but not show symptoms. A naive fish introduced into this environment will likely show visible signs shortly after introduction.

Agree with others above that TTM would be the best course of action. I personally would never introduce a new fish without TTM and prazipro. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Mishri]

There was that study that after 11 months with no new strains introduced ich will die off. (Not sure if that would be 100% of the time). My theory on that would be the fish hosts became immune to them and they could no longer feed and so died off, any new strains and they might not be immune to them.. just a guess.

I'm sure that a display tank can have ich in it for months and you never notice it.

 

[Deinonych]

There was that study that after 11 months with no new strains introduced ich will die off. (Not sure if that would be 100% of the time).

Yes, that study was done by Colorni and Burgess in the late '90s. They observed that a given strain of Cryptocaryon "burns out" after something like 10 generations or so. That was just one observation, and I wouldn't assume it's universally true.

 

[WayneL333]

Wow, ok thank you for the info. It's greatly appreciated.

 

[Deinonych]

Wow, ok thank you for the info. It's greatly appreciated.

You're welcome! So, which lovely labrids are you getting ready to QT?

 

[ThRoewer]

As for sand or other decoration in TTM tanks - I would say you can put all kinds of things into the tanks as long as you either don't transfer them with the fish to the next tank or disinfect them properly.
I would use sand and dead / man made liverock and boil them for sterilization for transfer between tanks.

 

[Deinonych]

I would just use some rinsed sand in a container as suggested above, throw it out after each transfer, and replace with new sand and a new container.

 

[WayneL333]

You're welcome! So, which lovely labrids are you getting ready to QT?

I have a pair of males and one female Femininus wrasse, 2 Maritius Jeweled leopard wrasse and about a half of dozen ORA neon cleaner gobies in qt right now. They've been in there for awhile and all look very healthy and are eating well.

TTM doesn't worry me as much as prazi does. I may only do a 3 day treatment of Prazi in conjunction with the last transfer of the TTM.

 

[WayneL333]

As for sand or other decoration in TTM tanks - I would say you can put all kinds of things into the tanks as long as you either don't transfer them with the fish to the next tank or disinfect them properly.
I would use sand and dead / man made liverock and boil them for sterilization for transfer between tanks.

I would just use some rinsed sand in a container as suggested above, throw it out after each transfer, and replace with new sand and a new container.

Noted. Thank you.

 

[solitude127]

Would formalin be an option?

 

[ThRoewer]

Would formalin be an option?

for what?

 

[solitude127]

for what?

To treat for unwanted parasites