Ich...will it go away by itself.

[kamil5000]

I've had my reef doing great for a few years without any disease or any other significant problems.

Idiotically, I added a Yellow Tang (first time without QT) and paid the price! Now I've got ICH in my tank and some Fin and Tail rot.
I am treating the Fin and Tail rot in the tank and that is going well.

My problem is with ICH! - there is no way I can get all the fish out of the tank into a sperate treatment tank - so I am treating with plenty of vitamin enriched foods.

My quesion is, assuming that the fish survive this outbreak, will my tank now always be contaminated with ICH and will a new outbreak occure everytime the fish become a little stressed?

Tks.

 

[itsthesong]

Yes they will always break out when stressed. ONce there is ich in the tank, the only way to get rid of it is to leave the tank fallow for six weeks. QT your fish in hypo, 1.009, for six weeks while the tank is left fishless. From that point, QT and hypo all new introductions.

 

[mccrat]

I find raising the temp to about 81 helps too. The ick goes through the life cycle a little faster at a higher temp.

 

[Freed]

Yes, ich will go away on it's own. That's all part of its life cycle. Then it will reappear a few days or weeks later. That is why so many of these "wonder treatments" claim that the product is what is taking care of the ich. That is more usually false. So many people get suckered into thinking that this reef safe product or that reef safe product is the treatment of the century when in actuality it is only the life cycle of the ich that is making the ich disappear after only a few days of treatment.

itsthesong is correct in one of the best treatments that is scientifcially proven to eradicate ich.

 

[tmz]

The protozoan cryptocaryon(aka ich) has a three stage life cycle. Basicaly in the fish ,in the water and on the substrate or rock. There are several informative articles you may wish to review. If so just do a web search for cryptocaryon irritans.

When it leaves the fish it goes to the substrate and forms numerous cysts which generally "hatch" within a few days and attack the fish again usually in greater numbers. This phase can only survive in the water column for several days without a host. The cycle continuopusly repeats itself. Please note that some of the cysts can survive for 28 days with some articles noting survival rates as lon as 72days. So if you have no signs of ich in your tank for 90 days or so it is probably gone except there may have been a spot oor two you didn't see.
If your fish are able to shake off this episode you may wan't to supplement feedings with some garlic. Although not proven it seems to make good sense that this will boost their immune systems and may improve slime coat and ich resistance.
Using an oversized uv sterilizer for at least several months can also help rid a tank of this persistent but not immortal parasite.

 

[Beaner3]

I have it bad in my tank as well, real bad,.....cowfish, and 2 hippos have it, but not affecting my clowns, jewelled blennie, or shrimp goby at all, why is that I wonder? I guess I assumed the infection would be tank wide, why only hippos and the cowfish?

 

[Freed]

Those are the only ones the ich found so far. The others aren't "immune" to ich it's just that they have been lucky not to have run into it yet.

 

[kamil5000]

Tks for the info guys.

Let's assume that there are no more 'visible' outbreaks of ICH in the tank for the next 60 days, would that mean that all ICH cycles have been completed an the parasite is now effectively extinct? or can it survive in very small numbers indefinetly with a fish host and then become an epedimic when the oppertunity arises.

 

[tmz]

Some fish have stonger resistance to cryptocaryon. Most speculate it is related to their slime coat. Others are more vulnerable,most notably surgeon fish,particulalrly hippos and powder blues. If the outbreak is big enough and virulent enough most will contract it.

 

[Beaner3]

I lost a hippo this morning,.....It was hanging near the overflow, so I transferred it into the fuge, dosed it with Chem Marine stop Parasite (a non copper supplement) and the poor thing died. I'm devastated,......I hate losing inhabitants like that. I put a rush order in to DR. F&S for a 25watt UV. Now I'm pretty sure this will nuke the free floating stage of the ich, but my other inhabitants are going to have to tough it out until the visible form on thier skin works it's way out right? Oh,.. I've also been trating with melafix to curb any secondary infections that may arise, have slowly raised temp and am almost to 82 degrees, been feeding with selcon soaked food, and skimming like crazy,.....is there anything else I can do without using copper treatment? Thanks in advance, and this thread has been very helpful to me so far. And thanks for the info Freed.

 

[tmz]

As I understand it the parasites leave the fish at night,settle and multiply into cysts right in the fish's sleeping spot. A few days later they reinfest. The higher temp will accelerate the life cycle and get more of them into the water more quickly. Be sure to run your sterilizer slow enough to achieve lethality on protozoans.As an example the performance chart on a coral life18watt turbotwist goes something like this off the top of my head: bacteria 300gal per hr,algae 200 gal per hr,and protozoans 50 gal per hour.

Some have also recommended running a diatom filter to trap free swimming parasites.

Godd Luck to you and your fish

TOm

 

[kamil5000]

My Tang has been ICH free for a couple of days now, should I expect a bigger outbreak now or is this a remission of the Protoza.

Also I heard that if fish survive an ICH outbreak, th seconed time their immunity becomes stronger and more resistant to future outbreaks - any truth in that.

 

[Beaner3]

Thanks Tom, I'll be playing the worst waiting game ever for the next few weeks I guess. And thanks to kamil for starting the thread.

 

[tmz]

kamil5000,It could be a week or so before reinfestation occurs if it occurs. Sorry to say that reinfestation is usually worse. I don't know if fish develop an immunity or not. I haven't dealt with ich except for qt specimens in over two years. I do have a hippo which I have had for 4years that went through a couple of bouts of cryptocaryon but nothing in the last two years. Hope I didn't just jinx it. Fish can sometimes beat a cryptocaryon infestation but almost never amyloodinium(aka ich,velvelt). Fortunately for those with sterilizers,this parasite is actually a dinoflagellate algae,much smaller than the cryptocaryon protozoan and more easily killed with uv radiation.

 

[wayne in norway]

If (and this a big if) your fish develop some kind of immunity it was demonstrated that after about 21,22 life cycles (about 2 years effectively) that if the ich bugs don't meet some other new ich bugs to refresh their dna that particulr population will die out.

So if you haven't put anthing new in your tank for a few years (oh yes, there are tanks like that ...) then it will be ich free as any cryptever present has died thro a lack of genetic variation (there's a technical term I don't recall - sequeiscence or something).

I think Burgess demonstrated that.

 

[Zooguy]

cleaner shrimp and garlic

cleaner shrimp and garlic

Get 2 cleaner shrimp(yellow with red and a white strip down the back) then grind garlic with the fish food and soak for 10 minutes. It has worked for me. The shrimp jumped my powder blue and he froze and slowly sank to the bottom and then onto his side as the cleaner shrimp went to work then he flipped over and they did the other side, it was really something to watch. You can tell when they pull one off as the fish jumps alittel. That and the garlic worked for me. Good luck.

 

[kamil5000]

Tk TMZ, I guess it's going to be a waiting game now.

Wayne, I'm not putting anything new in my tank for a while. Let's see if these protoza will become extinct.

Zooguy, I'v egot a Skunk Cleaner and a fire shrimp and both have done their cleaning duties on the Hippo, also garlic xtreme and Vitamins on the way to be mixed with the food.

So far there have been no sightings of ICH, I hope that it doesn't rear its ugly head any more.

 

[Zooguy]

raw garlic

raw garlic

raw garlic like still in the clove 1/4 square to 1/2 square is better than preped garlic, the good stuff in it has ahort shelf life.

 

[Beaner3]

Lost the other hippo yesterday, I'm sick over this,...I am setting up a hospital for moo the cowfish right now. I really really hate this ich stuff. I want to nuke it all. Will treat the cowfish in isolation and run the UV on the main tank, I don't want to medicate the main tank because of my cool little inverts living in there. I'm going to prep some small chunks of garlic with the food for tonight and mix it all with some selcon. fingers crossed....