Chloroquine Phosphate

[maddhugan]

although I agree with most of your views.....

although I agree with most of your views.....

Ich is the one parasite I'm very little concerned about.
Unless the fish are really sick I don't even bother to treat it - then with Hypo and/or TTM but would never use a immunosuppressant poison like copper.
I had that case so far only once when I left my first pair of percula for a months at the LFS while my newly set up tank was cycling. At the LFS they got so stresses out and loaded up with parasites that they got really sick and couldn't handle it on their own.
In all other cases my fish have acquired immunity faster than ich could reproduce and it just faded away after 1 to 3 waves. I had that happen countless times in the past and present.
IMO ich is a weakness parasite that will only take down fish with compromised immune system due to being kept in a highly stressful environment or other substandard conditions. Tangs fit that bill in most tanks.
Ich eradication is the only way to manage such fish and systems.
To me it is more an indicator that something is wrong in the tank.
Also, sooner or later it may just die out due to lack of suitable hosts.
That said, I still do TTM and formalin dips on new fish going in there, but more with the focus on brook, velvet, uronema and other things fish may not be able to deal with on their own.

As for CP - I used it once on a QT when a few fish showed heavy breathing and apathy (suspected velvet) and it fixed that on an instant. From all I can say Ich was not affected as some fish showed a light infection several weeks later. Likely a cyst survived somewhere.
But I know of others that used CP with success against clearly identified ich. But you have to combine it with tank transfers at begin and end of the treatment or cysts can survive and re-infect the fish.

Ich can't be taken that lightly. People have had entire tank wipe outs. Also, keep in mind that most hobbyists love to keep tangs. A tank without a tang may limit the ich reproduction on the subsequent waves of ich cycle and weaken the ich, and I see a possibility, but even in such a tank it is like a time bomb, If the water quality drops or some conditions lowers the fish's immunity then the ich will take over very quickly.
I would recommend ich eradication on all type of tank set ups, i.e., the ones with the tangs and the ones without tangs as well.

I agree with you on copper. I only tried copper only one time and to never to use it again. since my previous post my treatment methods had changed significantly and having good success.