Triggerfish, are your fish dying from Ich? The reason I ask is that I know I've had Ich in both tanks now, yet the fish did well, and I haven't seen a spot on any fish in either tank for long enough that I feel it's under control. You've been dealing with it longer than me, so I am curious what happens to a tank once you've seen Ich. I don't intend to do anything else, since I don't have any realistic options, and hypo/ copper are not possible. My quandary is weather or not to add any more fish, and to decide when or if it's safe to move my Sailfin from my 50 gallon tank to the 230. The 50 gallon had the worst signs of Ich, and I lost several fish. Out of the group that were in the 50 gallon, three survived and are not showing any more sings of the parasite. I have to assume that the parasite is in the tank, as I wasn't able to treat it. I did use No Sick Fish, but I'll never believe that this killed the parasite, yet during the course of treatment the parasite seems to have stopped affecting the fish. My 230 showed a few spots on my clowns and copperband, but just a few spots, and those are now gone also. I used NSF in that tank also.
So here's my dilemma. Eventually the Sailfin will need to be moved to the 230, and I want to add a Blue spot jawfish also. My thoughts are to wait a few more months, then move the Sailfin. In the mean time I am considering adding the Jawfish to the 50 gallon tank, then move him after several months. But during all of this, I have to worry about an Ich breakout. That's the dilemma, and the question that needs to be asked to help decide is weather or not Ich can vanish on it's own.
I used to think I new how to deal with Ich well, but now I have to question everything. All my well thought out plans are out the window. Ich has been seen in both tanks, yet my fish are fine, and the parasite seems to be gone. My prior studying on the subject tells me that it's still there and just waiting to rear it's head. If this is true, how is it surviving. Why isn't it growing in population, since we know that the hatchlings per single parasite are many, and the cycle of hatching is frequent. I am going to deduce that for the parasite to continue to live in my tank it has to live on my fish, yet the population isn't growing, so it seems that most of the hatchlings must not be able to find a host, and die off, leaving just a few to rejuvenate the population. This is a hard concept to believe in. From what I've learned, my tanks should both be showing sings, and those symptoms should be getting worse, yet they clearly are not. I have never been as confused about Ich as I am right now. My tanks look great, everything is thriving, yet I have seen Ich in both tanks.
Very Confusing, Guy
