Ich... its in your tank ... I now know that

[jrdoan]

Ok I just thought I would share a story that answers the age old question about Ich.. is it in your tank or do you add it by not QTing a new fish. Ok so I have a tank that has been set up for about 3 yrs with no new fish added in about 2plus years.. no new coral for about 6 months.. I have been busy with work. I still do my weekly 20 percent water changes and all but anyway on with the story. So here in my community they decided they were gonna put a gate on the parking lot so they could call us a gated community and charge us more rent. This happened on Friday apparently they severed a power line and we did not have power for about 9 hours. I know this cause I walked in after work and my house was dark and i checked the timers on my lights(what time did they say it was). Well anyway the power was apparently out about 9 hrs .. it popped on about 15 min after I was in my home and totally freaking. boiling water on the grill to put into plastic bottles to get my temp back up in the tank. Anyway that night the fish looked great...I was like WHEW... the next morning I come down and every fish in my tank was just covered in ICh.. I don't know if it was from the temp dropping 12 degrees or due to the lack of oxygen from not having the pumps going but anyway they were a mess. Today is tuesday and i just pulled out my powderblue dead... my flame angel yesterday dead and my grommis dead... I have had these fish years. I am devestated. That grommis i was my first fish moved him across state lines etc... R.I.P. sweet baby Ray. I stil have a sailfin and yellow tang and two clowfish fighting but .. well we will see i did my weekly waterchange and they look better but from what i remember from when i first got going in the hobby years ago they look good today but ich is just nasty. I lost a bunch of coral as well but the point i am making is .. Ich is in your tanks. I had not had an ich prollem in 3 plus years and like i said i had not added anything in about 6 months. I am NOT saying QTing is pointless I FULLY recomend you do it as adding a sick fish will definatly make problems for you.. that being said I always wondered how it got into peoples tanks.... I am heartbroken and thought I would share something I learned this week. Apparently its in our tanks.

Jeremy

 

[andrewsmart]

yes but you did not q/t or do a prophylactic treatment like hypo so it would be in your tank.

 

[Aquarist007]

Really sorry to read your story--after 3 years that's a terrible loss.

You violated rule 1 in reef keeping--avoid rapid changes.

Yes, the fish probably caught the ich due to the fluctuation in temp but the ich would not have killed them.
When you brought the temp down quickly--that's what probably would have done it. The temp went down slowly over the 9 hours but then you raised it too quickly
Keep all conditions stable and treat with Garlic guard--the other will probablly make it

 

[Aquarist007]

It is a real debate whether the ich is in our tanks or in the organisms themselves. Kind of like when we get sick--our immunity system gets run down and bacteria etc that are inside us or normally hosting on the outside are allowed to take over.
Alot can be said to using a garlic based food or soaking flake food in garlic over a long period--it builds up the immunity system--kind of like us taking vitamin supplements.
Fish are going to catch ich from time to time just like we catch colds. It's nothing to really panic about.

 

[jrdoan]

I have been using garlic like a madman... and I never did not qT. I just said that i haden't added anything in years...when all of my fish went in they went through QT... and i belive that is why for a Very long time i have had no issues. That being said... Them messing up my power for that long just put me behind the 8 ball.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

Ich is probably the most researched and well understood fish disease out there. There is no controversy among any professional aquarist about whether ich comes with your tank .. if you have ich then you put it there (normally with an ich infested fish).

Remember that you can't see a low level of ich infestation .. also remember that fish can develop various levels of immunity to ich.

Your situation is the same as many aquarist who don't QT .. they put an ich infested fish into their tank and the fish develops partial immunity to the parasite. This keeps the parasite population at a low level where the aquarist doesn't recognize it.
Later a stress event takes place reducing the fish's immune system and allowing the parasite population to explode.

Terry Bartelme has a series of good articles on ich ... worth a look.

Hope this helps.