Is ick always present in a tank?

[jjoos99]

Just wondering if ick is always present in a healthy tank? I added a powder blue tang to my tank awhile back(eventually loosing it). My other fish have never showed any signs of ick before or since. Upon adding the pb it showed ick within several days from I am sure stress. Just wondering if ick is always there in a tank that can flair up under stressful conditions?
thanks
jeff

 

[sfboarders]

Read this post.

 

[bigreefnutt]

Yes I beleive it is and as long as your conditions are correct and your fish are healthy then they are not affected

 

[sedor]

I believe it is in most tanks yes...can it be eradicated...also a yes, but the chances of reintroducing it someway in the future its great. It would be A LOT of trouble to keep your tank completely ich free and its really not as dangerous and most people think. We just assume it is because its usually a visible symptom we see on a fish when its died. Chances are the ich showed up towards the end of the fishes life because of the stress it was under from an unrelated illness.

 

[kingfisher62]

I am a true believer that ich is always present in a tank.

 

[jjoos99]

If the ick is not on the fish what would it be feeding on to stay alive in a tank and reproducing? I dont see any active cyst on any of my fish so you would think that there are none present.
jeff

 

[kingfisher62]

If the ick is not on the fish what would it be feeding on to stay alive in a tank and reproducing? I dont see any active cyst on any of my fish so you would think that there are none present.
jeff

You might not see them in the gills!

 

[RBU1]

NO NO NO NO NO ich is only present if you introduce it.........

If you take your time and QT/Treat your new fish you should never have ich.

 

[wooden_reefer]

Just wondering if ick is always present in a healthy tank? I added a powder blue tang to my tank awhile back(eventually loosing it). My other fish have never showed any signs of ick before or since. Upon adding the pb it showed ick within several days from I am sure stress. Just wondering if ick is always there in a tank that can flair up under stressful conditions?
thanks
jeff

My belief is that ich is not present in my DT's. I believe that when you have a tank full of ich susceptible fish and no treatment, after a year if no ich infestation occurs, there is no ich in the system.

Ich is an obligatory parasite, although the length of lifecycle may vary from strain to strain, perhaps.

The eradication of ich is virtually possible always. In just one lifecycle, a few ich organisms may have secured onto a fish before being killed by copper or hypo, but if you extend treatment to a few lifecycles, the chance of eradication should be quite high. This seems empirically true; I have not have a single case of ich for over 25 years after I started to eradicate ich; before, I had a lot of problem of treating for ich every month or so.

One LFS owner long ago (uncommonly wise on this subject) told me aptly, "Ich is a disease of the tank"; that is, if you don't rid it from the tank, it remains a time bomb.

 

[RBU1]

I agree with the time bomb annalogy. You might be ok for a while with ich but eventually your odds will run out.

 

[clittrell]

Re: Is ick always present in a tank?

My timebomb went off. The tangs (3) had spots the 3 others did not. All are eating and looking more healthy. Obviously I did not QT like I should. From what I have read I need to QT to rid the DT of ich. 8 weeks. The DT has coral and inverts. My question is should I do that now or wait for another outbreak so I can see the life cycle in QT? If I QT now and QT all future additions even tangs should be ich free going forward, right?

Thanks

 

[RBU1]

My timebomb went off. The tangs (3) had spots the 3 others did not. All are eating and looking more healthy. Obviously I did not QT like I should. From what I have read I need to QT to rid the DT of ich. 8 weeks. The DT has coral and inverts. My question is should I do that now or wait for another outbreak so I can see the life cycle in QT? If I QT now and QT all future additions even tangs should be ich free going forward, right?

Thanks

You need to remove all fish from your display and treat them in a seperate tank. The main tank needs to stay fishless for 12 weeks.

My treatment suggestion would be Cupramine at .5 for 4 weeks.

If you properly QT yes your main tank should be ich free.....Keep in mind you have to QT everything wet....