Ich!

[Snausy]

What the heck! My tank was put together perfectly...every fish was put in after a hypo QT treatment. There was no ich whatsoever and hasn't been for four months.

I just installed a new lighting system and all of a sudden my puffer and Tusk has ich on their bodies.

I was under the assumption that there had to be ich introduced to the system by an outside source. That just being "upset" wouldn't be able to start up ich.

They really didn't like how bright the new lights were at first but have gotten used to it. I'd say they were aggrivated by it but can that start ich? I had no ich for months...they all went through hypo before going in tank. All of a sudden now I have ich. The only other thing I can think of is that I took out some rubble and put it in my sump and did a major blow-off of the LR that got the tank pretty cloudy.

Argh!...I'm going to wait a day or two and see how it goes. If it gets any worse they all come out and go into the hospital hypo for 4+ weeks... :mad2:

Can someone confirm or not if ICH can just spontaneously show up....or does the parisite have to come from somewhere else? This doesn't make any sense to me.

Temp 78
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate < 20ppm

 

[Campbell]

Hello,

You are right, Whitespot, C. Irritans, has to be introduced from outside.

However there are a few other diseases that manifest as white spots it could be one of them.

It could also be small grains of sand or silt stuck to the fish from the blow-off.

Give it the couple of days and re-assess the situation.

How long did you have the fish in Hypo in QT? Was it
a full 4 weeks? Shorter/longer?

Campbell

 

[spike78]

I would be interested in how long you had the fish in QT and what you had the specific gravity at.

 

[Snausy]

I keep my fish in QT for at least 4 weeks(lifecycle of ich is 3 and add one for good measure) and I drop my SG to 1.009 and keep it stable there for the duration.

 

[paulamrein]

Temprature has a lot to do with it too, there is a good chance 4 weeks wasn't enough. Of what everything I have read, (and believe me I have read alot.) They say 6 weeks is minimum. I am on my 5th week and I am going for 8. Also, Campbell had a good point, there are alot of things that causes the whitespot considering the actually white spot we see is the fish's flesh. It would be like us having a cut or rash. So look into that as well. I know that velvet can survive hypo there are a few others that hypo does nothing for. The reason I mentioned temperature in the beginning was that if it is ich, the lower temperature can actually cause a longer dormant state. There are a lot of factors.

 

[ouuduy]

I'm glad that there are some useful threads about ick. I have some tangs and they started to get ick and I almost did the copper treatment but read these threads before I did that because that would've been a big no-no. I opted for the garlic treatment instead.

 

[Snausy]

I raise my temp up to about 80-81 for hospital tank. I really hate the idea of having everything in my HT/QT for the next two months...oh well. At least I'm lucky in that it's only 4-5 fish. I'd hate to have a huge setup with 20+ fish going through this.

Catching the Damsels is such a pain!

 

[Snausy]

Well I did a 25 gallon WC and cleaned out the sump. Fed them and today it looks like the puffer is pretty much ich free. Yesterday he had it all over his fins...they are clear now. Is it possible to get it one day...lose it all the next?

The Tusk is still scratching a bit on the overflow boxes but I can't see anything on him at all.

Suggestions?

 

[oct2274]

ich goes through cycles, they can look bad one day and clear the next

 

[paulamrein]

only to be worse a week later. They have no where to go but on the fish. There is a theory that they die out after a year or so if nothing else is added, but that is about 32-40 cycles. I don't know many fish that could stand that.

 

[Snausy]

Yes but can he be clear one day, have ich the next, then clear again the next...

I thought each cycle was about a week?

If it keeps coming back I know I'll be doing a hospital tank...but for now they are clean and clear.

What else could look like ich but isn't ich and has symptoms that last one or two days?

As I said these guys went through hypo for 4 weeks before going in a fishless tank that sat there for two months with no signs of ich...They lasted a few months with no signs...then all of a sudden there is white spots one day with no new addittions to the tank, then the spots go away the next day?

This is weird

 

[paulamrein]

It could be micro bubbles. There are numerous things that are ick like I guess. There are some threads I remember reading about all the parasites and things that have the same characteristics but now I can't remember it at the moment. perhaps a google search could help.

 

[350nine]

If indeed you now have ich it most likely have always been in your fish. They were in the gills. They can live in the gills for a long time and not show on the fish until something stressful happens. Then the ich begin their offensive. There is some controversy on ich treatment. I personally don't think hypo is a 100% sure thing. I think copper is better. Both need to be monitored carefully for the full 4 weeks. You need to take all the fish out. Treat them in copper and fallow your tank. You know the deal. I am on my 3rd round with ich and planning to give the nasty buggers a TKO this time. It's very difficult to follow through with an 8 week treatment course but I believe it's the ONLY way to win this fight. There are alot of links to this topic, check them out. Good luck.

 

[350nine]

Oh yeah, if your fish are scratching but show no signs of ich then it's in the gills.

 

[Snausy]

Can it stay in the gills without showing up for 4 months? I thought the life-cycle went like this:

1 week on fish
1 week fall to substrate and stay dormant in substrate
1 week free swimming looking for new hosts
repeat

How can they stay in the gills of the fish for months and months then all of a sudden show up?