My 180 gallon reef tank had a tang that got ich a month or two ago. I removed all the fish but one tiny damselfish and a goby that evaded me. I have an established reef so much of the liverock is completely covered in coral and connected by sponges and corals and the like. All the same in order to let my tank fallow I tore apart the rock and managed to catch the goby. I tried to catch the damsel but he seemed to have vanished so after 30 minutes of searching, with some very unhappy corals in tubs on the floor, I called it off and put the rocks back in. A few days later he reappeared from the rockwork. At this point I have been trying bottle traps for several weeks and nothing has worked yet. I can not dismantle my tank again as it took a heavy toll on the corals. I will continue to try to remove him, but if I cannot how soon would it be considered safe to return the rest of the fish. The only fish that had shown signs of ich were removed immediately and none of the others including this damsel ever showed any. I understand that ich can hide out in fishes hills but how long can it do this in a tank with one fish that has not shown any white spots?
How long can ich go undetected?
- Thread starter Megalonyx
- Start date
Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
+1
lapin
New member
my 2 sense
From what I have read, is that ich can live in the gills as a cyst form until the fish dies. Gills being the most vulnerable. The fish can naturally fight off the parasite and show no symptoms for years. When stressed the problem starts, as it compromises the immune system. The fish may no longer be able to prevent more of the parasites from attacking. This can cause secondary infections. The white spots you see are scar tissue where the ich has penetrated thru the slime coat and attacked the flesh. We can kill ich in the water column. The hard part is to kill it in cyst form. Different methods are found to be effective at this, but none are 100% effective.
