Must ALL Fish be Removed to Eradicate Ich?

[Kengar]

Or are some ich-impervious?

Despite have QT set up and running, once again I've jumped gun and introduced fish with ich into display. Soo, once again, I'm in ich eradication mode. (How many times do we have to make the same mistake????)

What I'm wondering is whether absolutely every fish must be removed, or whether some fish are impervious. In particular, I've got a number of small and/or fast fish that would be exceedingly difficult to catch without breaking down the reef. The ones I'm wondering whether they are ich impervious are the following:

mandarin dragonette
yashia goby
engineer goby
rainford goby
flaming prawn goby

If I removed all others (for six weeks) and left those fish in place and they did not exhibit clear signs of ich, is it possible that they could be carring it without showing, in which case I would not have achieved the goal? Or are those fish ich-resistant, such that if they don't exhibit after six weeks of the system being free of all other fish, I could assume the ich has died off?

Thanks for input.

 

[dynamixone]

if the ich has any way to complete its life cycle then it will always be in the tank.

leaving the tank fallow for 6 weeks sucks. I have 2 weeks left. but the upside is the DT is pristine,pods are everywhere and the ich died a hopefully horrible death!

 

[jwatson31]

I am also curious about this as I just removed the blue tang from my 150G reef tank and placed it in a QT where I am beginning to treat ich with hypo.


My question is, if ich can be carried by fish that show no signs of it, then what good is it to quarantine a fish when you first buy it? Because then theoretically, the fish could be carrying ich and you still wouldn't know it even after a 4 or 8 week quarantine period.

 

[dynamixone]

the ich IMO would have to show. part of the lifecycle is whitespots.

 

[pescadero]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12386803#post12386803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jwatson31
My question is, if ich can be carried by fish that show no signs of it, then what good is it to quarantine a fish when you first buy it? Because then theoretically, the fish could be carrying ich and you still wouldn't know it even after a 4 or 8 week quarantine period.

Quarantining without treatment is worthless. Not all ich infestations are externally visible on the skin, so looking at the fish may provide you with a false negative observation -- The fish can have a subclinical infestation on its gills, and you won't see that unless you take the fish out of water, anesthetize it, and perform a gill scraping to look at it under a microscope.

Because most hobbyists aren't sophisticated enough to perform anesthetized procedures and microscopic exams, for most people the most sensible technique is to treat all fish for ich before putting them in the community tank.

FWIW there is a hypo resistant strain of ich that is becoming more prevalent. I have had enough hypo failures that I have decided not to waste time with hypo any more. From now on I will go right to copper.

YMMV.

 

[dynamixone]

My tank was in hypo for 3 weeks and fish kept getting sick. 2 days with cupramine and they seem to be on there way to recovery!

 

[dynamixone]

I will go right to cupramine in the future. it works well. easy to dose and test. all fish seem OK with it.

 

[Kengar]

so back to the original inquiry, based on first hand experience? (for academic purposes, since I committed to removing all fish to be on the safe side)

 

[pescadero]

sorry, i thought that question was answered already. YES.

 

[Philwd]

Yes. From my experience leaving even 1 non-symptomatic fish(that I couldn't catch) left ich in my tank. Ich sucks.

 

[weluvfish54]

how long would they need to be in copper tank? since u cant rely on visible signs...iv been treating my 24 gallon with Rid-ich for bout a week...no signs of improvement..actually worsening. PM with answers.

 

[dynamixone]

RIDICH is no good. do a water change and begin cupramine asap

 

[weluvfish54]

yea im switching over to copper...will that stuff work as a preventitive for ick?

 

[dynamixone]

use it only in a QT. cupramine is the least harsh IMO out of copper treatments. follow the directions.

Get cupramine, a seachem ammonia badge and a seachem or a salifert copper test which i have been having more luck with lately.

 

[dynamixone]

you might want to run a little carbon or something to get the rid ich out or do a good sized water change then start the cupramine.

 

[weluvfish54]

what is the differance from that and copper?

 

[dynamixone]

it is copper.

goto www.seachem.com and it will tell you all you want to know.

 

[weluvfish54]

ok yea im already using that in my 70 gallon.. i was using the other stuff in the 24

 

[dynamixone]

the 70 is a qt right? no inverts or live rock?

 

[weluvfish54]

correct