Just wondering.........

[MrsPuffs]

I was just sitting here thinking and a question popped into my head... If a person has a fully loaded reef and for one reason or another their fish get ick, is there a way to treat it if the whole tank needs to be treated? What steps would one take to care for the sick fish if they were not able to catch them without ripping appart their reef? Is there a natural way of treating ick or any other fish sickness for that matter? What would be the best way of dealing with this kind of thing?

OK, so it was more then one question. hehe, got carried away.

Anyhow, I DO NOT have a reef tank, I have a FOWLR as of now, but would someday like to make it a full reef tank and those were a few questions I was wondering about. I want to know peoples openions on what they would do.

Thanks

 

[SnailBert]

an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

QT all new fish one month before adding to your tank. maintain perfect water quality (do regular water changes), feed appropriate foods for the species you keep, vary the foods you feed, don't overfeed, and all in all maintain a regulated system with no stress.

Ich is stress induced. Since you can control this, you can control the ich outbreaks.

 

[TerryB]

I agree with what Snailbert said, other than ich being stress induced. Stress does contribute, but fish can get ich without any real stress. All that is required is fish and the presense of the parasite in the system. I don't believe you can control or cure ich by controlling stress and diet alone.

Terry B

 

[SnailBert]

You don't think stress and poor diet are a pretense? A good diet will boost the immune system and the fish can fight off any parasitic infection unless another environmental or physical factor plays a role (overcrowding, actual increase in new parasites in the system- ie you added them with another sick fish/didnt QT, temperature increase/decrease, etc.)

I'm not saying stress is the only reason, it's just the most common. A healthy specimen ina healthy system won't get sick from ICH. I'd like to hear your opinion, Terry, on how that's possible.

 

[TerryB]

Healthy specimens in a healthy system can and do get ich. They are just less likely to. It has been done many times in scientific trials. Cryptocaryon irritans is an obligate parasite. That means it cannot survive without a host fiish for food. You can stress a fish to extreme and they cannot get ich unless the parasite is in the system. Its not always present and it can be eliminated. You can also easily re-introduce it again.

The confines of an aquarium is much different than the open ocean. Ich does not have far to go in an aquarium to find a fish to attack. A natural balance between host and parasite is next to impossible in captivety. Simply put, fish have a very limited ability to fend off a population of CI in an aquarium. Far too dense a population of parasites.

Are stress and diet a factor? Yes, in that a weakened host has less resistance. Does no stress and a great diet mean the fish will not get ich? Certainly NOT. If you don't want your fish to get ich then quarantine them for 30 days BEFORE they go inot the display tank to be safe from importing the parasite. Most infections are imported by placing an infected fish into the system. There are other less common ways to import it.

Cheers,
Terry B

 

[MrsPuffs]

Do UV sterlizers work to kill ick? My questions above still stand though. I know about the Qtank, doing that now with my fairy wrassies. They have been in QT for almost a month and are looking great. I know that most people use a qt before adding fish to their main tank. I was just wondering what one would do if by some weird quirk they did get ick in a full reef tank. Would it hurt the corals and things of that nature? How would you treat it if you couldnt catch the fish? Questions still stand. Anyone have an answer? (read first post)

 

[TerryB]

The only way to eliminate ich from a reef tank is to remove all the fish for 6 weeks or so. 30 days is usually long enough. I have yet to see a reef-safe treatment that works consistently. If you cannot (or will not ) remove the fish for proper treatment then you have to hope for good luck, or maybe the fish don’t actually have ich. If I was in that position, I would use a powerful UV and feed the fish garlic in the food for a month or more. Then I would cross my fingers. A UV light is not a cure for ich, because plenty of theronts will find a host fish when they hatch before they get caught in the UV. Yes, a powerful UV that is clean inside with new bulbs and the correct flow rate will kill some ich. It just can’t get it all. Some people claim feeding the fish garlic will work, but I haven’t seen any scientific evidence to support it. Garlic does seem to stimulate appetite and it can kill some intestinal worms. There is no magic bullet , or natural cure that actually works. This means quarantining ALL new fish BEFORE they go into the display tank is NOT optional.

Terry B