is ich alays present in saltwater fish tank?

C

ctenophors rule

New member
my understanding of ich is that it can be on fish indefinately, and is always trying to infect fish, but as long as they stay heathy it will not ...kindof like thethree percent of parasitic bateria on humans that can only infect if we are weekend by an injury or disease....

thank you for your responses......bye!
 
i dont know if it has ever been proven either way? but i do know that i have had or do have ich in my system. i use garlic in the food and never ever see a white spot. my fish are all over 3 yrs old:)
 
in probably 99% of people's tanks, yes.

the 1% that religiously QT everything before it goes into their tank no.
 
I agree with NCSUsalt - In cases where we have tanks that have not had new animals added to them in 6+ months, we just don't see Cryptocaryon. Our quarantine period is > 6 weeks and we always QT with copper. This is NOT the case with all protozoans - Uronema can be isolated from tanks years after the last fish was added. It's a facultative parasite though, so when it isn't infecting fish, its busy eating bacteria and such.

Jay
 
I'm going to be the voice of dissent here and say that it is not always in a tank. It can be eliminated from a tank and never reintroduced. As to how common it is... well it is obviously pretty common or there wouldn't be 3 threads a day in Noob and GRD about ich. If I had to guess, (and this is totally a guess) I would say a third to half of tanks have it.

WIth a proper microscope you could theoretically scrape you fish's gills but for the most part it is hard to tell if your fish has it if it is not stressed. I could only 100% prove my fish don't have it by stressing it to death without ever seeing a bloom. Not worth it to prove a point :D
 
I had ich years ago in my tank, one fish died rest survived. Just recently I move them all to a new tank at my new house and what do you know the ich came back.

Its only on the Tangs and it must have been the stress of moving / catching / new home that did it.

Not one sign for years, perfect water conditions and it never went away.
 
My experience is ich is always laying under the radar. I've experienced ich only on my tangs usually when a new tang is added. Once the new addition fits in, the ich disappears...
 
Crypto is obligate, it needs fish to survive and complete it's life cycle. When you aren't seeing it, it is still completing it's life cycle in the gills and mucus membranes of the fish. People speculate whethor these subclinical infections cause harm or discomfort to the fish. I don't think that has really been proved one way or another.

THe longest crypto has been seen to survive w/o fish is 72 days at cold temp. a fallow period of 60 days will get rid of 99.9% of cases if the fish are treated seperately with copper, hypo, or tank transfer method. There is a guy named Lee Birch who did research on crypto in like the 70s and has had home aquariums free of ich for over 30 years.
 
No. Burgess examined Crypt cultures and if they were isolated from other C. irritans cultures toavoid renewing the genetic virility they tended to become progressively weaker, and then died out after approx. 22 life cycles. If you haven't added any fish in a couple of years, or have qt'ed everytihng for that sort of time period properly then it's probably died out in the tank.
Academic searches for C. irritans reveal a lot of interesting things on the infection, and it's variability in appearance and characteristics. And it's omnipresence in low levels on wild caught fish.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15415918#post15415918 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
Cliff,

That article is on the FW ich, Ichthyophthirius. While our SW beast is Cryptocaryon irritans. Similar life cycles, but entirely different critters ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Bill, for pointing that out. ;)
 
No. Burgess examined Crypt cultures and if they were isolated from other C. irritans cultures toavoid renewing the genetic virility they tended to become progressively weaker, and then died out after approx. 22 life cycles.
Click to expand...
Yes, but this hasn't been replicated by other authors, who have been able to maintain cultures for longer. It may be real, or it may be an artifact of Burgess' method or the strains (species?) used. Hobbyists shouldn't count on ich just dying off in their tanks after a while.
 
Bottom line, if you want an ich free tank, QT from the start and you'll never have it in your display tank ;)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15418306#post15418306 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
Bottom line, if you want an ich free tank, QT from the start and you'll never have it in your display tank ;)
Click to expand...

If you do use a QT is there an additive, etc. that should be used to make sure the pest is not present when the fish is transferred to the DT? ie Hypo salinity; NO-ICH, etc. Or just observe and after ~4 weeks if nothing observed, transfer.
 
Ich/Crypto is present in all tanks at varying levels. The key is to keep fish healthy and non stressed. Like you in your worls bacteria exisits but you avoid it by staying healthy. A healthy non stressed fish can live around the Crypto without being infected. QT is not the answer to avoid Crypto. QT can add stress. QT is a personal choice with unknown results.
 
I respectfully disagree. QT is not a choice that is unproven. Is QT stressful? It can be depending on the species, and I don't reccomend it for 100% of species. But Crypto is not in every tank. If it is not in a tank no amount of stress will make it magically appear. I could certainly stress my fish to death... but they would not die from ich.


I run a chance of infecting my tank in that I run a 6 week observational QT and don't treat w/o reason to. But if I did introduce ich I have enough QT room to pull everything out and treat it and re-establish a crypto free system.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15423506#post15423506 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jenglish
I respectfully disagree.
Click to expand...

x2

The science and lots of persanal experience back what Jenglish, greenbean, myself, and several others have said about this. It is easy to run a Crypto free tank just be using a proper QT procedure. It is also easy to infect a healthy fish with Crypto, so while keeping your fish healthy and stress free is always better, it is not the key to preventing Crypto. QT is far from having unknown results and does not add stress if properly set up. There is a reason why professional aquarist take the time and resources to QT ;)
 
ich free and loving it. I have never had ich. i have had 2 different tanks and in the hobby the past 7 years. I always quarienteen (sp)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Tamara Marshall
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐜𝐡 - 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞
Replies
3
Views
147
Patrick Seastar
Patrick Seastar
Tamara Marshall
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐜𝐡 - 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞
Replies
0
Views
88
Tamara Marshall
Tamara Marshall
Paul B
How Fish are Different from most of us
Replies
1
Views
98
Paul B
Paul B
S
Fish slime: An answer to antibiotic resistance?
Replies
6
Views
242
Subsea
S
Paul B
The Benefit of Parasites
Replies
4
Views
520
kelly_12
K
Back
Top