When does ich appear on a new fish if it has it?

[TitanCi]

Gents/ladies,

I asked this question in a different thread but it got overlooked when someone else made a comment about ich being in 99.9999999999999% of tanks out there.

Anyway, when a fish is brought home, if it has ich, when does it typically appear? Obviously dependent on the life cycle, but is there an average length of time before it presents?

Say I put a fish into a QT, is it better to do TTM when it actually appears and then falls off? Thus, I know for sure its in the QT water first and not in the first transfer tank?

 

[zeebies]

Why wait and wonder? Just start TTM right away as a preventative.

 

[TitanCi]

Why wait and wonder? Just start TTM right away as a preventative.

I get that, but just as a general rule of thumb... Just seeing when it may appear?

Say ich appears on day 7, which is transfer 3... Since they don't fall off synchronously, wouldn't there still be some left on 12th day? That's why I am asking... If it were to appear on day X, wouldn't it be more advantageous to do ttm as you see them gone from the fish, and thus that will be the initial transfer?

 

[ThRoewer]

To answer your question from the title - sometimes never.

I had a pair of ocellaris that never showed any Ich symptoms over the 20 years I had them.

The assumption that every new fish has Cryptocaryon and needs to be treated (back when I started with copper) killed more of my fish than the few Ich parasites that actually showed up in my tanks.

How you treat a fish depends on its condition and where you plan to put it. There are some fish I wouldn't put through any prolonged treatment if they don't show symptoms.

And if they are the only fish I plan to put into that tank I just put them in there and hope for the best. I have done it often that way and didn't suffer any losses from Ich.

Of course if you want to add them to a tank with fish you don't want to risk you better do a proper quarantine.

Though I do my quarantine a bit different than it is usually recommended. To my experience fish don't do too well in naked tanks (or those decorated with PVC pieces) over extended periods of time.
So if I plan to buy new fish I set up a new tank with live rock (these days I use the man made dry "live rock" that I prime with life in my tigger pot culture) and let it run for a while.
When I get the new fish they get a 10 to 15 min freshwater with formalin/malachite green bath against the nasties and another 10 to 15 min iodine/PVP bath against wounds and opportunistic bacteria.
After that I let them recover and observe them closely for at least 2 weeks before even thinking about any preventive treatment.

Now back to your question:
if you want to do TTM you may do it at any time you like as long as you do it properly.
If you are currently having the tank you want to put the fish in running fallow I would suggest to time it so that the last transfer of the fish is into that tank on the last day of the fallow period.

 

[tehachappi32]

If the fish is stressed it will have ich very easily.....

 

[ThRoewer]

If the fish is stressed it will have ich very easily.....

Yeah, but in general it is never a good idea to stress a fish so much that it gets sick.

 

[TitanCi]

To answer your question from the title - sometimes never.



I had a pair of ocellaris that never showed any Ich symptoms over the 20 years I had them.



The assumption that every new fish has Cryptocaryon and needs to be treated (back when I started with copper) killed more of my fish than the few Ich parasites that actually showed up in my tanks.



How you treat a fish depends on its condition and where you plan to put it. There are some fish I wouldn't put through any prolonged treatment if they don't show symptoms.



And if they are the only fish I plan to put into that tank I just put them in there and hope for the best. I have done it often that way and didn't suffer any losses from Ich.



Of course if you want to add them to a tank with fish you don't want to risk you better do a proper quarantine.



Though I do my quarantine a bit different than it is usually recommended. To my experience fish don't do too well in naked tanks (or those decorated with PVC pieces) over extended periods of time.

So if I plan to buy new fish I set up a new tank with live rock (these days I use the man made dry "live rock" that I prime with life in my tigger pot culture) and let it run for a while.

When I get the new fish they get a 10 to 15 min freshwater with formalin/malachite green bath against the nasties and another 10 to 15 min iodine/PVP bath against wounds and opportunistic bacteria.

After that I let them recover and observe them closely for at least 2 weeks before even thinking about any preventive treatment.



Now back to your question:

if you want to do TTM you may do it at any time you like as long as you do it properly.

If you are currently having the tank you want to put the fish in running fallow I would suggest to time it so that the last transfer of the fish is into that tank on the last day of the fallow period.

Thank you, that was very insightful. Sometimes it's very nice to read things like you wrote. Just food for thought

If the fish is stressed it will have ich very easily.....

Im sure we all agree this is the case of the system has ich.