What Good Water Conditions Can Do!!

[Just Another Fish Guy]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently running a 60 gallon freshwater community tank with 2 Emperor 400 HOB power filters. Current stock includes:

8 Black Skirt Tetras
8 Neon Tetras
5 Bloodfin Tetras
3 Corys
5 Cherry Barbs
4 Zebra Danios
8 Black Neon Tetras
1 6" Common Pleco

These are all of the species that I want to keep and will be adding to the schools until I have about 10-12 of each. The Pleco will be rehomed soon when I switch him out for a Gold Nugget Pleco.

Now...when I was going through the fishless cycle...I had a few issues and ended up going to a fish-in cycle. Because of this...every time I add new fish, my tank goes through a mini-cycle. Part of this could be due to me adding too many fish at once and part of it could be because I just don't have enough BB to support the new load.

Any way...the last fish I added were two Corys and 10 Neon Tetras. Unfortunately I lost 2 Neons and 1 Cory through the mini cycle. Now that it's complete, my parameters are:

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrites - 0ppm
Nitrates - <10ppm
pH - 8.2
Temp - 77 degrees

During the mini-cycle...I had slightly cloudy water due to what I'm thinking was a bacterial bloom. Also, a couple of my fish broke out with Ich.

Now, I'm not saying that good water conditions cure Ich, but what I can say is that all of my fish are clear. My thoughts are that the less than ideal water conditions (Ammonia rose to about .25ppm during the cycle) stressed out some of the fish which caused them to break out. Now that everything is back to normal, they aren't stressed and everything is fine.

What do you guys think about this correlation? Even though the fish don't show signs of Ich...should I still treat the tank or just leave it alone?

 

[PerfectDepth]

Sounds like one of your new fish was infected with ich and introduced it to the tank.

How long have your fish been free of white spots? I ask because the white spots are supposed to fall off the fish- it's part of the life-cycle of the parasite, which is usually about a week at normal tropical temperatures. The white spots will return within a week unless ich is eradicated from the tank.

I would slowly raise the temp to 86 F and increase surface agitation (warmer water holds less oxygen) by either lowering the water level, raising the filter outlet, or adding an air stone. Leave it at 86 F for at least 10 days, then slowly return to the regular temp.

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

Fish have been spot free for about a week and a half now. My plan is to keep an eye on them to make sure it doesn't come back. Now that everything has settled down in the tank...I'd like to leave it that way before making any drastic changes.

 

[44Paps44]

what he said...

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

But here's the thing...if none of the fish are showing signs of Ich...should the tank still be treated (whether it's natural or medication)?

Is it possible that it will just go away and die off or is Ich one of those things that lives with the fish and shows up when the fish gets stressed?

 

[Masha]

Ich has about a 3 week cycle. It does depend on the temperature of the water though, the warmer the warmer the water, the faster the parasite goes through all its stages.

People used to believe that Ich stays dormant in the tank and flares up when fish are stressed, but apparently that has been proven not to be true. You only get Ich by introducing infected fish, or water that contains the parasites.

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Masha]

Oh sorry and to add, Ich can be present in your tank even if the fish have no spots, because there is a invisible stage where the parasite is either swimming in the water, or hatching in the gravel

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Masha]

Best article I've found
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

That is a good article. I will have to try out the temperature remedy to get this taken care of.

It's interesting how poor water conditions bring this sort of thing to light.

 

[Mebbid]

The nasty thing about ich is that it infects the gills before anything else. The only way to detect it at this point is a gill scraping which... isnt the best idea for most people.

Ich does rely on a poor immune system to increase infectivity. This is most commonly seen in salt water but it happens in fresh too. My reef tank had ich for the better part of a year which only reared its ugly face when my nitrates creeped up. Fresh water tanks are usually packed with fish making them more susceptible to massive outbreaks.

 

[Just Another Fish Guy]

That is good info to know. I do plan on adding to my stock list in the future...but before I do, I'd really like to go the route of a QT tank to prevent these sorts of things.

But even then...I could QT new fish for 4 weeks and they not show any signs of Ich...and then add them to the main tank and they get a break out.

 

[Masha]

It's possible, I suppose, but unlikely. In a cold water tank, maybe, where the parasite life cycle is so slow. Most people seem to quarantine their fish for 2 or 3 weeks. I've been quarantining mine for 3 weeks, and every time ich showed up (only twice, luckily) it happened within bang on exactly one week after I bought the fish.

And of course, ich is not the only thing that you quarantine for! I guess you do what you can.

 

[PerfectDepth]

The nasty thing about ich is that it infects the gills before anything else. The only way to detect it at this point is a gill scraping which... isnt the best idea for most people.

Flared gills can be a sign, especially noticeable on small fish.

I think this is where the myth that ich lies dormant comes from. It can't survive the parasite stage without a host, and should die off rather quickly. The fish may have been a host for a while without ich being noticeable since it was only affecting the easiest target- the gills.

In my experience, I've only encountered ich after buying new fish.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice