Quarantine & Ick Question

Yes I plan on moving all fish to the qt tank. I am also planning on getting a couple of Clown fish and was thinking maybe I should get them now and add them to the qt so that I would not have to do this twice. That might be too many fish in the qt tank though. Also I plan on removing the Anemones as they will not host with clowns and have already ate 2 that I put in the tank....:( ( lesson learned the hard way) So I could remove them now and all that would be in the display tank is shrimp, crabs and sponges. As far as the cleaning the tank is pretty clean only been set up for 3 months.

Art
 
The comment that "Garlic, UV sterilizers, etc. are preventative maintenance and will not get rid of ich." is true. However , in all fairness there is more to the story and upon further research you'll find documentation available within this website and others which states that ich is always present in all of our tanks and can therefore become an issue given the right circumstances.

Again, you've received a lot of good input. Sometimes knowledge only increases our indecision. At the end of the day, it's your call as to what will work best for you.
 
Last edited:
Dingo.
with all due respect I think the statement that it is always present in our tank's is incorrect. I have read all over the place that Ich has a lifecycle and that they have had problems keeping the strain alive for over a year using new host's. Read up on it, from all that I have read if you pull out the fish, for the life cycle and do not reintroduce the fish till your display tank is free of ich you will have no ich. I think what leads to the belief that it is always there is not following the qt route for long enough, and your fish building a resistance only to have it break out when you add a new fish with no resistance, or a stressful event. At any rate I appreciate your input and the problem with this is all the info is contradictory to some extent.


Art
 
'I think the statement that it is always present in our tank's is incorrect.'
Whatever! I did read that in this website but don't have time to continue searching or trying to further this issue.
Have a nice day!
 
Dogs aren't born with fleas and fish aren't born with ich. If your tank has ich then you put it there. Not a hard concept to master but the myth that ich exist in all tanks tends to live on.
 
my 2 cents, I tried the copper thing, and most of my fish died. I think it's because they were already stressed and the copper added to them stressing out even more. the hypo thing works well, if you do it for a long period of time until your main tank is ich free. what worked best for me was to feed the fish well, keep all my param in place, and watch the fish fight off the ich. seems like once they have ich and fight it off by themselves, they don't get it anymore. but that is just my experience, it might be different for someone else. I've tried many methods and lost many fishes, but this one worked best for me.
 
Fish can develop immunity or partial immunity to ich on exposure. That can work well enough for many people, but the ich likely remains active, and newcomers might have serious problems. Also, stressors to the tank might cause a flareup of ich. There's also no guarantee that the fish will develop immunity before dying, or that the immunity will continue.

All in all, I'd do the hyposalinity.
 
hi everyone i am trying to learn here ,,just setting up new tanks
i wonder
1- how do you prevent from itch as first starting new tank set up? or every tank have to go through this itching process when they add fish in ? thanks
 
Khovio,

The way to prevent ich is to quarantine all fish before adding them to your tank. I guess that even goes for your plants as if they have spores that are alive on them and fish are in the tank they could spawn to the fish. I had that happen with my freshwater tank's, added plants and boom ich. Correct me if I am wrong here but do you need to quarantine everything? What if you got a snail from a lfs that had fish in its display that had ich? Wouldn't there be the possibility of spores on the snail?

Art
 
Yes you could get ich from almost anything. If the LFS has fish mixed in with their coral tanks for example, then there is no reason why the parasite can't drop off to a coral or snail etc. I really wonder if half the reason people are convinced ich is always present is because of that. A lot of people qt their fish, but far less qt corals, and so on down to snails etc. It seems that people with large display tanks are much more careful with qt' ing anything they plan on putting in it. IME I've read the arguments about ich always being present and it hasn't convinced me yet.
 
So the answer on how to avoid Ich is q.t. everything you put in your tank that you get from the lfs. I will be following that procedure from now on.

Art
 
ok so do i have to take every fish that i had in the tank out to qt to treat or just the one got ich? i read that ich can come back so what is the best way avoid ich coming back or spead to other fish??
i have salinity 1.025 normally but if i only have FO then should i go with lower salinity like 1.020 or even lower , would it help fish not getting ich or sick?? thanks
 
If one fish has ich .. then the tanks infected and you need to treat all fish even if they show no signs of ich. Further .. if your want to eliminate ich within the show tank you need to let the show tank go without fish for approximately 5 weeks to insure the ich within the tank die off (ich need a fish to perpetuate their life cycle)

Ich is easy to eliminate in a QT environment .. however once it gets into the show tank is can be a real PIA.
 
So I removed all the rock and Caught 2 of the 3 known fish in my tank. The #$#%#@ tiger goby is nowhere to be seen. Not sure if he is even in the tank or might have gone over to the other side. I saw him about a week ago and he had ick but he is small only about a inch long, he could be in the rock holed up in a hole or cave. What to do now? he hasn't come out through all of this should I just proceed and If I see him that resets the display tank clock? Also Starfish don't get ick right? If the Tang was any example getting the Tiger goby out might just be the end of me...:)

Art
 
Also how about adding 2 clowns to the hypo tank now? I know they will end up getting ick but it will save me some time in the long run.

Art
 
I don't understand what you say about if you see the goby then you start the clock on the display. What do you mean by that?
 
Back
Top