Folks, I want your opinions about ich, not a debate please!

[Miamireefer]

Hey guys and gals,

I have had an ongoing debate in my head along with others throughout time with regards to ich.

My question I pose to the locals is have you

A) had ich

B) If so did you pull fish to qt or feed them propperly and see if there immune system would fend it off for themselves.

C) If you had ich and didn't allow the tank to go fallow, did you add fish after the fact with no ill effect?

I know the cycle and the constant debate, arguements etc of ich so I am basically asking others experiences and the answers to the questions above so please no wars or debates on this thread.

Much appreciated folks,

Nick

 

[Kewlworm]

B) feed them propperly and see if there immune system would fend it off for themselves.

 

[gasman059]

feed them ie garlic no qt for me altough i have an uv so some part of the cycle gets eliminated

 

[Sk8r]

Personally, I have 2 opinions, based on how long you've been at it.

1. If you have a new tank and you're a new reefer, a) you're going to get it and you'd better qt your fish or everything will die.

2. I'v been at it for decades and haven't lost a fish to it since the '80's, because a) I don't buy sick fish, and I know what I'm looking at, and I don't put tangs and angels and clowns into a new tank b) if a fish does show with it, I treat with garlic and excellent water quality c) and I don't keep a lot of fish in a new tank that could be hyper-susceptible. Most of my fish are blennies and gobies and don't tend to get it in the first place. Honestly, I think corals eat the stuff, and I haven't had an general outbreak since I've had coral-dense tanks. I will now step aside while the brickbats fly.

 

[chrisaggie]

I constantly have ich in my tank. My powder blue tang almost always has a spot or two on his fins. I believe many tank are like this. If conditions are right the ich with grow.

 

[Miamireefer]

Cool guys,

I am kinda agreeing in the sense as well with regards to a more established tank where conditons are right the fish will fight it off....I had a outbreak due to a tang and my gold striped maroon and eel didn't even flinch when it all happened. I do feed them a wide variety of foods soaked in garlic and vita chem.

I just got a blue throat trigger which is almost 1.5 months later since the tang died(bad decision of fish choice on my behalf), and sure enough the trigger is doing great so far with a little cloudy eye but he is getting cleared up by the day and eating like a pig. I feed him twice daily but smaller portions.

I just simply wanted to hear what the masses around my area think rather than hear another war on the disease forum....it gets old after a while.

 

[Rogger Castells]

IMO, Ich is dorman in most tangs and other fish species, it will errupt under stress situations, fishes that get it once are more likely to get it out of their system faster or not show it at all.

Healthy tanks and healthy eating combined with garlic is the key to avoid casualties in a ich breakout.

Fishes in my tank will once in a blue moon show ich and will go away just as fast. I do not QT my fish but don't mind this practice, I just don't have the time.

 

[jeffbrig]

I QT every fish that comes into my tank, and several have shown ich while in QT. I preventatively treat all my new fish with hyposalinity, and I have never seen signs of ich in my display tank.

I'm also cautious about taking mounted corals from another tank. I will either re-mount them on clean rocks, or they go through a QT period just like a new fish to make sure no ich cysts travel into the tank. I actually prefer unmounted frags for this reason.

 

[Miamireefer]

Personally if I had the time to qt I would as being a safe practice from introducing anything else besides ich into a tank like velvet but I am not always their to ensure that exact measure of 1.009 of sg level. I would personally pay someone a cash amount who does in fact have experience and time to qt fish for me... not a bad business if you ask me but space is limited and depending on what fish it needs a suitable qt so it doesn't stress due to space issues.

Again thanks for your experiences thus far people!

Nick

 

[gregbot9000]

a) i have ich

b) i started feeding with garlic to see if they could fight it off, but they didnt so i went to qt and hypo.

c) i dont understand the question..=) lol

 

[Sk8r]

Just as a for-instance, I had a rabbitfish break out with a few spots in my relatively new tank. He got over it and I traded him back to the lfs when he'd eaten all the weed. That was in the tank's 3rd or 4th month. The tank is now 11 months old, has had no recurrence of ich, and now houses a tang, with no ich, no problems since the rabbit. I ordinarily don't feed pellet food because of the phosphate problems, but do feed it [it contains garlic] when introducing a new fish. I very, very rarely add a new fish, and ideally hope the fish I do have will live for decades. The more often you have new livestock coming into your tank, the more exposed you are to the pest.

 

[Bullredchaser]

I've never seen ich in my tanks either which in the present I have three.I've always quarantined and have been succesful.I believe if you do add a fish that is infected then you will probably have ich in that tank forever unless you remove all fish for 6 to 8 weeks.Maybe not an infestation but an occasional spot every now and then.I know alot of people believe that ich comes from stress but that's like saying your kids got fleas or lice because there immune system was down.No matter how strong a persons immune system is if the person comes in contact with fleas or lice which is a parasite chances are there going to contract the parasite.I talked to alot of respected fish doctors at MACNA none believed in the fish always have ich theory.Also none where convinced that UV would cause complete illimination of ich in an aquarium without actually removing all fish from the system.Kelly Jedlicki is just amazing when it comes to knowledge on fish disease and she felt UV was a complete waste of time for ich control and the only known cures for ich is hyposalinity and copper.

 

[Fish2reef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8804934#post8804934 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rogger Castells
IMO, Ich is dormant in most tangs and other fish species, it will erupt under stress situations, fishes that get it once are more likely to get it out of their system faster or not show it at all.

Healthy tanks and healthy eating combined with garlic is the key to avoid casualties in a ich breakout.

]

Rogger I second your opinion

 

[ReefWreak]

I had a tomato clown that had Ich right after I bought him from the LFS. I was worried that he would transfer it to the green chromis that was in the tank, and since those fish are a PITA to get out of the tank, that I would be forever doomed and would have to keep the tank fish-fallow for months.

Instead, I bought a cleaner shrimp (wanted it regardless of whether or not he fixed the problem) and after the tomato settled in, he kicked the ich without any outside influence. No other fish in my 120 have shown signs of infection. I occasionally do see fish pull up to the cleaner shrimp for a light cleaning, but I've never seen a spot on a fish since the tomato's outbreak, and I observe frequently.

The tomato did not get re-infected either, as I stressed him out trying to capture him 3 times at night (he stopped sleeping in the same place he always slept in) and when I finally did catch him and moved him to another tank, he showed no signs of ich, and that tank doesn't have a cleaner shrimp.

 

[reefsahoy]

i dip my new fish in copper treated water for a several minuites then add him to the tank. I haven't had any outbreaks for years. lucky i guess.

 

[luke33]

I have a 75g QT i use to hypo all my new fish after the ick incident...I haven't had an outbreak in a long time. Left my display tank fallow for 6weeks, thats tough to do! Do i think all the ick is gone....dono, but as long as my fish thrive and conditions stay great, i don't see them getting it again. I do feed garlic and selcon on a regular basis.

 

[gregbot9000]

oh..

yea, ive heard stories of people put the fish back in main tank from qt after 4-6 weeks and still got breakouts.

mine are still in qt so idk how long i should wait.
is there a proven amount of time?

 

[mistermikev]

never had ick till i had a hippo. still my hoevens/lawnmower/firefish/watchman don't show spots. I took the hippo out and treated w copper - must have been crap cause it said 48 hr treatment and I did two doses of copper med and put him back in and he was scratchin immediately. My wrass does have a lil faster gill action - sm w my blennie. I will wait it out and treat with garlic now... if I get spots on any other fish i am going straight to qt with everyone.
prob is, if you add a fish or a coral or an invert - you COULD add ich back in. Bcuz of this I think I am almost better off letting them dev immunity or die. harsh but true.

 

[Miamireefer]

Well proven fact is ich is a parasite, no doubt there. Can it be avoided.. 9 out of 10 times yes if precautions are taken. 2 big reasons thate precautions that could be taken like qt, and use hypo or copper for treatment is A) impatience to add B) not enough time to lookover a qt every hour on the hour... But again only my opinion.

Didn't think I would get this many responses but truly appreciate the feedback and value everyones opinion to the fullest. Cheers everyone and Happy Holidays.

Nick

 

[redboxer13]

A) YES
B) Feed promptly with garlic. If I could catch him gave it a almost fresh water dip. But since I usally didn't catch him. Stick to the garlic.
Oh i also tried Kick Ich, well that was a waste of money.
Bought a UV light, Cleaner shrimp and a neon wrasse. THIS is what worked best for me, along with the garlic.

Every so often you may see the tang rub a rock, but not majot outbreaks anymore.