Ich?

[reefrunner69]

It has been my experience that the main cause of ick (generic for two different parasites) is stress. Healthy stressfree fish do not get ick. If a fish get's ick and the stressor is removed (ie...low temp, aggressive tank mate etc...) the ick goes away. I do not agree that elevating the temp above 80 will get rid of ick, unless that is what is stressing the fish. Higher temps will accelerate the life cycle of the parasite, but more than likely it was the low temp that was causing the prob anyway. Ick is in the oceans our fish come from and lives it's life cycle in the same reef temps that our fish do (82-84), therefore it is unlikely that higher temps actually kill the ick, so much as unstress the animal and allows it's immune system to handle the job. If there is other stress in the tank, it is just as likley to have an ick outbreak at 82 as it is at 78.

 

[michealprater]

I have now raised my tank to 82 degrees and have been feeding my fish frozen brine and mysis shrimp soaked in garlic(made specially for marine aquariums). Now all I have to do is add a couple of skunk cleaner shrimps and I think I will have the courage to buy that powder blue tang Ive been eyeballing at the LFS.

 

[skip_16157]

My LFS has told me that if you have ich in your tank and your fish are stressed then they will get it. If they are comfortable and eat well then they will have a very good chance of not getting it. Garlic and temperature increases are just preventative measures according to him. He told me to just do water chages to limit the amount of ich in the tank.
The idea that if a fish is unstressed and they won't get it seemed opposite for me, IE my yellow tang was very nervous and would hid all the time and it got ich but my percula was very hardy and didn't seem stressed at all (I couldn't ask them how they felt, but they seemed that way ) and it got ich. I think it is about doing the right things but mostly LUCK!

I will see the results when I can put my fish back into my main tank.

 

[michealprater]

I was told that ick can be caused by a drop in tempature. So if your tank gets cooler at night, this is not a good thing. That is why Ive been running my halides a very limited time a day. I havent built my new canopy with good cooling fans yet, and the halides warm up the water some and when it cools off this isnt a good thing.