stlcards14
New member
My PH dropped to 7.5 killing all the fish I had in QT once and since then I've been monitoring it. I can never keep it's up. It always drops on me
My PH dropped to 7.5 killing all the fish I had in QT once and since then I've been monitoring it. I can never keep it's up. It always drops on me
For the tank transfer method, do you still transfer the fish even when you see there have white salts on their skin? Thereby, the cyst will erupt?
The cysts can stay on the fish for up to 7 days, so is completely possible you see them for the first 3 transfers, but this is why we keep going the 4th transfer. You could go a 5th transfer to be safe if you saw them on the 3rd transfer still... i would personally do this.
Stages derived from this sticky and other posts:
Trophont - is when attached to the fish - 3 to 7 days attached to the fish
Protomont - drops off fish and crawls on substrate - 2 to 18 hours
Tomont - begins to encyst on substrate - probably quick
Tomites - while a cyst, it splits into daughter parasites - 3 to 28 days inside cyst, however possibly 72 days max
Theronts - new parasites hatched from the cyst - 24 hours to find host or die
So to answer your question, it can be anywhere up to 72 days, minimum of 3-4 days before they go on their search.
Day #1 (1/7/2014): Transferred to hospital tank and started cupramine
Day #4 (1/10/2014): Abandon cupramine and transferred to tank #2
Is TTM failing me?
My day #1 was Friday 1/10/2014. I've observed the fish every day and as of yesterday and last night, there were no white spots to be seen. I believe all the cysts fell off.
My day #4 is this morning, Monday 1/13/2014. I transferred the fish at 6am and then observed the fish... I noticed my potters angel has 1 white spot and my other clown has 2 white spots on his fin.. There's a marginal chance I missed it when I was looking yesterday but I highly doubt it...
Could it be when I transferred the fish over before, I transferred a few eggs? I use an acrylic clear container which I drilled multiple holes at the bottom. When transferring the fish, only 1-2 drops (dribbles) make it to the new tank.
Would there be any disadvantage to increasing the TTM to every 2 days instead of every 3 days thereby ensuring the eggs dont turn into free floating ich in time? I know that may produce more stress on the fish but my fish seem to be pretty healthy with TTM, they are eating well and I catch them really fast with the container. Obviously still do it for 12+ days.
Just to confirm, 100% of equipment is changed out as well right? including airline tubing, etc?
There is no harm (other than minor stress you pointed out) in doing 2 days instead of 3. You would just do 6+ transfers instead of the 4. If I had the time to do so I would do this. Given the minimum possible hatching time is 72 hours, you are playing with a small margin of possibilty, while still highly unlikely.
The 'eggs' are actually cysts that are attached hard to a surface, highly unlikely they come over with you. I haven't heard any research on the possibility of them becoming unattached and still survive, but am curious on this.
As for the eggs being cysts, do they attach to the glass? The tanks im using for TTM are bare glass tanks with just PVC pipes, a heater and a pump to agitate the surface for air. So the eggs would just attach to the glass?
When I pick up the fish with the container, since the fish are usually at the very bottom, the container makes contact with the glass... Just cautious that they can come with me. I'll observe the fish some more and see if I can speed up the transfer to every 2 days instead of 3.
No soap, no bleach, no nothing... rinse the used equipment off with fresh water. As long as the equipment has been completely dry for 24 hours, any remaining cysts will be dead.
No need to kill a fish with left over soap or bleach.