How do LFS rid ich?

[125mph]

Just thinking about the LFS I got my tang, which was invested with ich.. Does that mean all his fish are contaminated? With the kind of business most LFS run, they move fish in and out, wouldn't all the fish be exposed to contaminated water with ich and other parasites running around the systems? They obviously cant go fallow since they're running a business.

 

[sandwi54]

Just thinking about the LFS I got my tang, which was invested with ich.. Does that mean all his fish are contaminated? With the kind of business most LFS run, they move fish in and out, wouldn't all the fish be exposed to contaminated water with ich and other parasites running around the systems? They obviously cant go fallow since they're running a business.

Most of the LFS do not treat their fish, for the simple reason that medicine becomes a big part of the cost and their fish move in and out so quickly. There is no practical reason for them to treat their fish, especially if the business is good and fish are sold on a weekly, or even daily basis. Some of them may run a low dosage of cupramine just to make sure velvet does not remain in the system, but since ich is a slow killer there's no point trying to treat for that.

Now that we know this, we should always assume that every fish we buy carries some disease. In reality, that's not really true as I believe 1/3 to 1/2 of the fish I buy do not carry anything. However, why risking that if a prophylactic treatment is made so easy nowadays. Cupramine + prazipro pretty much take care of most of the external parasites and only require 2-3 weeks of treatment.

 

[AcMonster]

I appreciate when a lfs marks diseased tanks with NFS and treats any infections. Still, ax quarantine tank is a must.

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[geaux xman]

in their fish only system, they run a low dose of copper. 2 of my LFS uses Copper Power. Copper Power is just copper sulfate(same as CopperSafe) and does not precipitate out of the water.

What you mentioned is the same reason why you couldnt pay me money to put a non-QT fish in my DT.

 

[Tin_Whistler]

I used to work for a LFS, and we did treat fish for ich.

All the saltwater tanks run to one sump however, so fighting ich there was a battle that wasn't winnable. The infested tank in question though would be cut off from the main system, dosed with copper, and all the fish were placed on hold until the ich was removed.

However I know once the tank was treated and the tank gets put back into the system that ich infested water is getting pumped back into the tank.

 

[evsalty]

How does a LFS rid Ich? The same we do. The ones that do do it by proactively QT'ing all inbound fish. We have two out here that do this stringently and one that did this well when it was new but I think they have been slacking lately. Most however do not have or are not willing to dedicate the time, space and money to QT their livestock. Some of these will take some steps to try to help reduce the amount of infections or the onsight of these infections by running copper (like mentioned above) or running the system at a low salinity. It is just not always practicle for a LFS to qt their livestock.

 

[LargeAngels]

Most don't do anything about ich and the ones that do use copper, like mentioned above. Big wholesalers usually run big UV's to keep the ich from transfering to other tanks.

 

[qfrisco]

I think some also run a lower SG (1.020 or thereabouts), which, in addition to keeping salt costs low, they believe to prevent or at least keep parasites at bay. No idea if that works though, i.e., not going down to the 1.010 "hyposaline" level.

One of my LFSes keeps several of their tanks at 1.020 (one even lower at 1.017), which just drives me nuts when I buy fish, as I have to run my acclimation that much longer, raising the SG slowly. Anyway, but to topic....

 

[b0bab0ey]

This is how it's "supposed to work":

Most big LFSs run all their s/w tanks on one big system. If you ever get a chance to sneak a peek behind the scenes you'll see that in a lot of cases this is just a small swimming pool (or pond) filled with LR. Pretty ingenuous if you ask me. Anyway, all of the aquarium intakes drain here. A big UV sterilizer is on the common return line killing anything before it goes back into the tanks. So, in theory, a fish can only infect the tank he is in and not all the others. But practically speaking, there are two big problems with this setup: It only works 100% of the time IF the flow running thru the UV is slow enough and the bulb is working perfectly. Meaning, the LFS has to change the bulb religiously every 6 months.

How many LFSs do you think actually do that?

 

[jcw]

I think some also run a lower SG (1.020 or thereabouts), which, in addition to keeping salt costs low, they believe to prevent or at least keep parasites at bay. No idea if that works though, i.e., not going down to the 1.010 "hyposaline" level.

One of my LFSes keeps several of their tanks at 1.020 (one even lower at 1.017), which just drives me nuts when I buy fish, as I have to run my acclimation that much longer, raising the SG slowly. Anyway, but to topic....

My shipment from liveaquaria tested 1.020 on a refractometer. The same one I use to keep my tanks at 1.025-6.

 

[b0bab0ey]

My shipment from liveaquaria tested 1.020 on a refractometer. The same one I use to keep my tanks at 1.025-6.

Also, salinity can vary considerably from LFS to LFS. And you're not supposed to use the drip method with fish due to ammonium quickly turning into toxic ammonia once the bag is opened. So, it seems to me the only safe thing to do is to have your QT's salinity already matched to that of your online seller/LFS water. Kind of kills the joy of hitting a few shops on a Saturday and just buying something on the fly.

Unless you want to come home and try to get the salt right before you put the fish in. I wouldn't trust most LFS where I live to even know what their salinity was. And if you open the bag to find out yourself, the clock starts ticking.