ICH: how to cure it, id it, understand it.

Ok, so currently I don't have an aquarium. I have been planning to get back into this after being away for 10 years, but all my reading lately has me qustioning it.

ICH.... So you start up a new tank with sand and rock, it cycles, and then I have wait 72 Days until I can introduce ANYTHING (corals, fish, inverts) new into the tank. Each and every fish should be put into a QT tank and observed for 4 weeks. If ich appears at which point am I suppose to transfer to yet another QT for this transfer method to be effective? How many times am I transfering and changing fresh water while merely quessing what stage the ICH is in and if it is just going with the fish from tank to tank? Is the plan to to have a fish in QT ich symptom free for 72 days?

But wait there's more! I also have to QT each and every since coral I wish to put in my tank which means I need yet at least one more tank with good lighting for the purpose of coral QT. If I want to QT more than one they have to go in at same time, or start the timer over. How long is this waiting period? My guess would be 72 days.....

Who in the world has time, money, and space for this? I am counting at least 4 completely separate system tanks up and running for this. I assume each would need to be around 3 gallons each.

Am I crazy?

Please correct anything I stated incorrectly here.


when i got into tank hobby 6 years ago i just had a nano, then went to a 30 bio soon after... i did not take long to establish a solid system. through time i got another 30 and a 19 gal (saltwater reef) the LFS i go through is awesome though. and offer really good advice. Of course it depends on the size of the system you would like to start with, and what you actually want to do with it. but my tank cycled fast and i was putting fish and coral in it as soon as two weeks with very little interaction and letting the ecosys establish itself. I would encourage it.
 
It is a painful process. We quarantined our first 2 fish for 6 weeks, no signs of ich so moved them to the main tank. Bought new fish to qt then when we had waited the 6 weeks, we put them in the main and boom!.. ich outbreak. So we took tried hypo salinity method, still had ich when cycle was finished. So we caught them all and treated with copper in qt tank for 72 days. When they were all put back in we waited a few weeks and the ich showed up again... it's a headache. We gave up and decided to just let it run the course as it was stressing the fish out badly being moved and treated with different things.
 
It is a painful process. We quarantined our first 2 fish for 6 weeks, no signs of ich so moved them to the main tank. Bought new fish to qt then when we had waited the 6 weeks, we put them in the main and boom!.. ich outbreak. So we took tried hypo salinity method, still had ich when cycle was finished. So we caught them all and treated with copper in qt tank for 72 days. When they were all put back in we waited a few weeks and the ich showed up again... it's a headache. We gave up and decided to just let it run the course as it was stressing the fish out badly being moved and treated with different things.
Once you introduce the ich bacteria into your tank that's it, which you did when you added the second batch of fish. Was your copper at the proper levels where they should be? Suppose to be a 1 to 2 ppm. Your screwed although I heard that ich has a 11 month life span. Ich is a true mystery. I've got it myself and whenever my levels get too high the fish get stressed out and back comes the ich. I just lost half my fish from ich but I let my nitrates get too high and stressed everyone out starting a ich outbreak and BOOMB! All gone.

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Remove 50% water and
Lower sallinity to 1.009 and install uv sterilizer.
Repeat removing water at 20% percent keeping salinity at 1.009 measured with a hydrometer. no swing arm!
don't ever use medications no matter what.
 
I had a major Ich infestation in my 180 a year or so ago. I tried to aquire all my fish and transplant them to a "quarantine" tank and treated with copper. I managed to quarantine 3 of the 4 larger fish, luckily I was never able to get my other moorish idol to enter the fish trap. Of the 3 fish, 2 died. Not to mention, there were several other smaller fish that would require disassembly of my tank. At the time I read up on the lifecycle and the preferred treatment.

In the end I was never successful in treating the Ich, and I was able to give away the lone surviving Powder Blue to a party knowing that it had the Symptoms.

My tank to this day, since then, has not had so much as a fish rubbing a gill. In other words, not a single sign that the bug exists. But Im sure it does...

My point is, sometimes the safer thing to try, is donate or quarantine a fish or two. Try the bully or the wimp, or maybe its the water quality or crowdedness, whichever/whatever is causing unrest and nervousness. How to find someone's name from address to believe me, I love science and the theory and facts about the Ich lifecycle and the ways to disrupt and end it. But in all practicality, ask yourself, are you doing more harm then good? Maybe you can pull off an entire quarantine of your tank. For me it proved too difficult and deadly. I should have just removed my to aggressors upon first indication, and waiting a couple weeks.
Cruel decision, but I think it's the only right one.
 
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I treated the fish with the transfer method, and generally the ICH disappeared completely after 14 days.
As for the tank, I would remove all the fish and leave it empty for a month.
I think the transfer method is a very good treatment method for fish. If the disease is not serious, this method can be used. If the disease is very serious, it is recommended to use drugs and strictly follow the dosage.
 
A great set of articles from Advanced Aquarist...

Aquarium Fish: News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans: Part One of Five
Aquarium Fish: News From The Warfront With Cryptocaryon Irritans, Part Two Of Five
Aquarium Fish: News From The Warfront With Cryptocaryon Irritans, Part Three Of Five
Aquarium Fish: News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans Part Four of Five

A great review of the lifecycle of the ich.
Why the suggested lengths of treatment.
Scientific data to back up the claims.

Did you know there is a strain of ich resistent to hyposalinity.
Ich only feed on host for 3-7 days before falling off.
Then encyst on the substrate and reproduce to form 200 to 1000+ progeny.
Then only have 12 to 48hrs after they excyst to infect a new host.

He stresses that ich IS NOT present in all SW tanks. And can be eliminated and prevented with proper QT and treatment procedures.

If the life cycle is that short, what's up with the 30 to 62 quarantines in copper?
 
The lifecycle is relatively short in most cases, but the tomont stage can vary depending upon the conditions, as well as the different strains of the species. There have been some recorded cases where the lifecycle has lasted for 72-90 days, but the generally accepted duration is 28 days.
 
generally speaking a 45 day fallow should rid ich or velvet. but like mentioned above, there are some strains that have lasted 60-70 days. Also lately wah we have been noticing is cyst lasting for ever in low oxygen pockets under the sand for a long time and then bursting open later to start ich cycle all over again. That what is termed as failed fallow. most people dont know how it happened but sometimes it does and fallow is not 100% guarantee unless you rake the sand and do all other measures like increase temp etc.
 
generally speaking a 45 day fallow should rid ich or velvet. but like mentioned above, there are some strains that have lasted 60-70 days. Also lately wah we have been noticing is cyst lasting for ever in low oxygen pockets under the sand for a long time and then bursting open later to start ich cycle all over again. That what is termed as failed fallow. most people dont know how it happened but sometimes it does and fallow is not 100% guarantee unless you rake the sand and do all other measures like increase temp etc.
I hadn’t even considered that they might survive in low oxygen environments. That certainly changes traditional understanding of the timeline. I actually presented my research project on cryptocarion irritans during a National Science Foundation visit to my college years ago. The coolest part of the whole project was when we swabbed the gills of one of our pompano subjects . We literally had a camcorder taped to a microscope, and recorded a tomont (swabbed from the gills) bursting and releasing its tomites…pretty cool stuff at that time
 
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