does ich have to be introduced or is it always present?

F

fastjunkie

Member
I'm sure this has been asked a billion times but my searches come up with iffy answers at best. My reason for asking is I have a kole and chocolate tang who have come down with ick. These are the only 2 fish I have in my 125gal. I added them about 2 months ago and have had no issues until now. I've added no others so I'm not sure how or why this is happening now. Now I have added quite a few frags, could the ich have hitch hiked? All my water params are in check and I see no visual signs of stress. I've prepared a QT and I'm gonna do the whole hyposalinity thing....just curious on everyone's input
 
Introduce, if you never quarantine its likely they had it on them but never showed signs of it until now.
 
Ich has to be introduced. It could have come in the water on frags, inverts, etc or could have been a low level infection in your fishes gills. Ich won't hitchhike on frags or inverts, but can be introduced in mere drops of infected water given the right circumstances
 
Yes, ich must be introduced, it does not spontaneously occur. It is vastly more likely to come in on a fish, either one that shows symptoms or on one that does not. It is also possible, though less likely, for an ich cyst to come in on a coral, snail, rock, etc. if you wish to approach a 100% probability for an ich free tank, you must QT everything wet.

You can have an ich free tank; you can also have a tank with ich, yet the fish are asymptomatic - though there are no guarantees that they will remain that way.
 
Great replies everyone....thanx. my next question is how long will ich survive in my display tank without a host? I have a hospital tank set up and plan on using the hyposalinity method for my tangs and even though I may cure my tangs in QT....how long before my main tank is safe?
 
ThaBeast said:
Ich has to be introduced. It could have come in the water on frags, inverts, etc or could have been a low level infection in your fishes gills. Ich won't hitchhike on frags or inverts, but can be introduced in mere drops of infected water given the right circumstances
Click to expand...

This.
 
O.k.all.....opted against hypo and going the cupramine route. Set up a 29 tall with a 10g sump. Filled the sump with fresh rodi and salt and filled the qt with water from my main tank. Gonna move them in and give them a day or so to settle in before I start treatment. They are still eating like pigs so they aren't too stressed yet. Hopefully all goes well!
 
Scuzzy......will it cycle? Im using water to fill my 29 from my main tank which has been cycled. Shifty....why not a sump? I basically added it to increase the water volume a bit. Thought it may help beings I'm adding 2 tangs to a 29 gal(39g) with sump. I also thought it would help oxygenate the system since copper treatment depleted oxygen.....thanx for your input! Everything is helpful
 
nothing really wrong with a sump setup if you already have the equipment. I was thinking you didn't have the stuff.

it really won't cycle because in a HT there really isn't anywhere for the bacteria to colonize, plus the copper will kill it off anyway.

In a QT you will have a sponge filter of some sort that will help cycle the tank.
 
fastjunkie said:
Scuzzy......will it cycle? Im using water to fill my 29 from my main tank which has been cycled. Shifty....why not a sump? I basically added it to increase the water volume a bit. Thought it may help beings I'm adding 2 tangs to a 29 gal(39g) with sump. I also thought it would help oxygenate the system since copper treatment depleted oxygen.....thanx for your input! Everything is helpful
Click to expand...

Water isn't cycled. "Cycled" simply means that your tank is supporting enough friendly bacteria to handle the ammonia, etc., that builds up. The bacteria live in rock, substrate, filter media, etc. Cupramine will make a dent in the friendly bacteria, but not destroy it.You can quickly cycle a tank with a HOB filter and Bio-Spira or Dr. Tim's; both proven bacteria starters.
 
Update.....well did a 1/2 first dose of cupramine and 12 hours later..........2 dead tangs. Found one dead and the other lying on its side gasping for air. All params are good and there was an air pump to help with oxygen. Anyone experience this before?
 
With copper you have to really go slow upping the dosage over days. Are you sure you don't have any water neutralizer in the new water you made.?
 
Scuz....positive. just rodi water and oceanic salt, and only about 10 gal of it too. The qt tank I filled using water from my main system. Thing is only my tangs died, the blue chromis are fine. Just checked copper levels again and they are less than .25. Didnt even get a chance to up the dose to correct levels
 
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