ThRoewer
New member
Most people don't really know enough about ick to make a call why it seemingly went away in a reef tank after using alternative methods and (reef safe) medications.
In reality, if ick goes away due to things like feeding garlic, "reef safe" medications and similar methods that lack scientific validation in any form the underlying cause is usually that the fish acquired a sufficient level of immunity against the parasite. The fish basically got over it themselves because the outbreak was light enough and the fish fit and healthy enough to acquire immunity before the parasite could do too much harm. In such cases, the parasite is usually still in the system and most fish likely still have a very low-level occult infection that doesn't affect them enough to show symptoms. In a stress-free system, this status can be maintained indefinitely. In fact, if no new strains of the parasite find their way into the system to replenish its gene pool and the fish are healthy and have fit immune systems the parasite may die out after around a year.
The key in all of this is that the infection is light and the fish not stressed out or otherwise compromised in their health.
The only methods that have been scientifically proven to effectively kill (or remove) the parasite even if the fish are seriously sick, stressed and their immune system compromised are:
You can actually immunize new fish by letting them get sick with ick and then clean them up with any of the 3 above methods. After a recovery period of a month, the fish's immune system will be able to fight off the parasite even if you add the fish to a system with a latent infection. The fish will remain healthy as long as it doesn't get stressed.
I actually tested this myself and my observations align perfectly with the findings in research papers.
In an infected system with (partially) immune fish, you may see flare-ups when a new fish is added due to the stress this causes to the other fish, and especially to the newly added one. But as long as the stress level isn't too high and the fish get along without serious chases and fights, the infection will go back to an occult state.
I had a system like that going for years without losing any fish until my regal angel pair broke up and the male beat up the female. The injured and stressed out female regal got a full-blown ick outbreak and died of it since I wasn't at home to intervene and separate them in time (these kinds of things tend to happen when you are out of town.) However, the other fish only got a light flare-up that went away once the female was removed and the overall stress-level was back to normal ( = low).
As for UV - A UV sterilizer may help to keep the count of the infectious stages down and limit the probability of spreading it to connected tanks, but only if it has enough wattage and the throughput is at least 7 times the tank volume. And all this actually still applies only to empty/undecorated tanks as you find at wholesalers, laboratories and the like. A tank with a sandbed, rocks, or anything else that may create low flow zones inside the tank will seriously diminish the effect a UV sterilizer may have. In short, any low wattage and low throughput UV sterilizer is unlikely to have any significant effect and is basically a waste of money.
In reality, if ick goes away due to things like feeding garlic, "reef safe" medications and similar methods that lack scientific validation in any form the underlying cause is usually that the fish acquired a sufficient level of immunity against the parasite. The fish basically got over it themselves because the outbreak was light enough and the fish fit and healthy enough to acquire immunity before the parasite could do too much harm. In such cases, the parasite is usually still in the system and most fish likely still have a very low-level occult infection that doesn't affect them enough to show symptoms. In a stress-free system, this status can be maintained indefinitely. In fact, if no new strains of the parasite find their way into the system to replenish its gene pool and the fish are healthy and have fit immune systems the parasite may die out after around a year.
The key in all of this is that the infection is light and the fish not stressed out or otherwise compromised in their health.
The only methods that have been scientifically proven to effectively kill (or remove) the parasite even if the fish are seriously sick, stressed and their immune system compromised are:
- copper
- hyposalinity
- tank transfer method
You can actually immunize new fish by letting them get sick with ick and then clean them up with any of the 3 above methods. After a recovery period of a month, the fish's immune system will be able to fight off the parasite even if you add the fish to a system with a latent infection. The fish will remain healthy as long as it doesn't get stressed.
I actually tested this myself and my observations align perfectly with the findings in research papers.
In an infected system with (partially) immune fish, you may see flare-ups when a new fish is added due to the stress this causes to the other fish, and especially to the newly added one. But as long as the stress level isn't too high and the fish get along without serious chases and fights, the infection will go back to an occult state.
I had a system like that going for years without losing any fish until my regal angel pair broke up and the male beat up the female. The injured and stressed out female regal got a full-blown ick outbreak and died of it since I wasn't at home to intervene and separate them in time (these kinds of things tend to happen when you are out of town.) However, the other fish only got a light flare-up that went away once the female was removed and the overall stress-level was back to normal ( = low).
As for UV - A UV sterilizer may help to keep the count of the infectious stages down and limit the probability of spreading it to connected tanks, but only if it has enough wattage and the throughput is at least 7 times the tank volume. And all this actually still applies only to empty/undecorated tanks as you find at wholesalers, laboratories and the like. A tank with a sandbed, rocks, or anything else that may create low flow zones inside the tank will seriously diminish the effect a UV sterilizer may have. In short, any low wattage and low throughput UV sterilizer is unlikely to have any significant effect and is basically a waste of money.
Last edited:
