Ich that will not quit!

[monicaswizzle]

I am having a problem with ich that is reoccurring even two months after I removed all fish from the tank and treated them with copper. I seem to recall some discussion about ich that seems to persist even after the theory says it should be gone. Are there any threads that I should read about this situation? It also occurs to me that although the tank was fishless for two full months, I did add some hermit crabs and snails a few days after I returned the fish to the tank. I used proper acclimation procedure, etc etc, but I assume it is possible that the water with the cleaners contained live ich and, even though I was careful not to add that water to the tank, some of it came along with the crabs and snails when I transferred them to the display tank?

This is very frustrating!!!! Any suggestions or help are welcome. In the meantime it is back to removing the fish to QT and treating them with copper--AGAIN!

 

[tmz]

Hi,
Been there. Cryptocaryon(ich) is very persitent and appears to be everywhere.You may already know this but it has a three stage life cycle. Basically: in the fish, in the water column, and in the substrate or rock. It can be killed in the water column in a quarantine tank with a copper based medication such as sea cure as it swims about looking for a host. Different articles give it a 3 to 7 day life cycle in the water. It also remains in the fish for several days where you can't kill it, effectively, although hyposalinity treatments in the 1.010 range have some effect. The most persistent form is the eggs which can remain viable for as long as 70 to 80 days, according to some articles.Most, however, recommend 28 fishless days.
Quarantine of new specimens appears to be the key-a full 14 days in in a tank where they can be observed and treated as necessary. That's 14 days symptom free.
I use uv sterizers. They help keep it down but are most effective against wareborne bacteria and algae which are smaller organisms than the crytocaryon which is a a protozoan. The sterilizer if properly sized can be very effective against amyoodinium(the more lethal form of marine ich commonly referred to as velvet), since this parasite is actually a dinoflagellate algae. A sterlizer can probably kill the protozoans but needs to be large with long dwell time to do so.
I also mix a few drops of garlic extreme in my food mix as a daily preventative measure.
Needless to say water qauality and stress management are key.
I don't remeber the citations for the articles I've read on this but if you would like to research it further a webb search for marine ich or crytocaryon should provide plenty of additional reading.
Good Luck,
Tom

 

[Young Frankenstein]

the eggs which can remain viable for as long as 70 to 80 days

ouao i was under the impression it was only 28 days. Thanks

 

[Shagsbeard]

Operative word there is "can". Under conditions where you are trying to keep ich viable, I'm sure you can maintain the eggs longer than the 28 day rule of thumb. Keeping the temperature up in the low 80's seems to help spur the developement of the eggs, and hense speed their demise when they find no fish to infect. The problem with all creatures like Ich... if you kill off 99% of them, all you've done is delay them a bit, and the 1% that survive will pass what ever survival adaption on to the next generation making them that much harder to deal with.

You really need to elliminate 100% of them or they'll be back.

 

[Lee_Bay]

I had this problem once. My LFS (which is great by the way) suggested lowering the salinity and raising the temp.

POOF

Like magic. I kept it that way for 2 or 3 months just to be sure. never had a problem since.

salinity to 1.018, temp 78-80