Do I still have ich?

[a.browning]

Basically, here's what happened. My tank has been up for about a year and a half, I was new and didn't know about quarantine. To cut to the point, I have about 10 fish, most of which got ich along the way because of no quarantine, this happened in my display. I have actually never lost a fish to ich, they seemed to "fight it off" if that is the correct wording. For a couple months after adding my last fish, ich would occasionally pop up on a couple fish now and then, but now I haven't seen ich for probably 6 months straight, on any of my fish. Question is, does ich still live in the tank? Is it in their gills? At the same time, another question came to my mind. If my fish show no signs of ich, but are harboring it in their gills, then couldn't this happen with a fish you QT as well? It shows no signs but carries the parasite? Wouldn't this mean all fish should be treated no matter what? Just trying to understand everything. Thanks!

 

[MrTuskfish]

A fish with ich in the gills will almost always show it; it may be hard to spot in a DT. A big advantage of a QT is being able to study a fish for longer periods. He will scratch gill area on something, have labored breathing, twitching, etc. If you're looking for it, abnormal behavior, that points to ich (or other parasites) in the gills is really pretty obvious. Any fish can show one of these symptoms once----but repeated acts are a give-away.

 

[a.browning]

A couple of my fish, starry blenny and blackcap basslet, will dive-bomb my star polyps occasionally. They only do it on that coral. Could this be a sign? All of my fish look, act, and eat perfectly normal, they don't show any signs of problems at all.

 

[b0bab0ey]

I don't think it's impossible that if your fishes' immune systems were strong enough and able to fight off the parasites, your tank could be Ich free without having to go fallow. However, that's probably one of those 100-to-1 scenarios. Odds are Ich is still lurking in your tank somewhere, probably in the sand/rocks. Your fish may be getting attacked here and there, not enough for you to notice, but enough for the parasite to feed, reproduce & continue it's life cycle. You'll know for sure if you ever have one of these stressful events (power loss, temp fluctuation, fighting, etc.) which stresses your fish out.

 

[jimmyj7090]

I would assume that you can't assume that the tank is clean.

I disagree with "A fish with ich in the gills will almost always show it". lots of "managed" tanks will look clean for good periods of time only to develop observable infections when there is a stressor or new addition. It must have been living somewhere, no?

 

[b0bab0ey]

I disagree with "A fish with ich in the gills will almost always show it".

I'm starting to wonder if "A fish with ich in the gills will almost always fall out" is correct. Or how long can it live there before falling out? I've had a PB Tang in full strength copper for almost a month now and she's still twitching/rubbing like she's got Ich in her gills.