ich epidemic spreading madison and st.claire counties

[Fishkeeper88]

there is currently an ich epidemic spreading through belleville illinois, offallon illinois, and collinsville illinois. i purchase in these areas and i am currently treating over one dozen fish. these stores include various local pet stores in both madison and st.clair counties please be advised. these are usually healthy places to purchase fish. im sure its spreading as people take fish back to other locations. any more info is appriciated if you could spread the word.

 

[Fishkeeper88]

petsmart has been notified and has agree to treat thier entire system. we will see what happens.

 

[Fishkeeper88]

went to petsmart within an our of calling them. they are already treating thier tanks.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

went to petsmart within an our of calling them. they are already treating thier tanks.

Wow that's good I wouldn't expect that from a chain store. When I got ich from my LFS I rung them and they shrugged it off like it was my fault the fish got it.

 

[Matt68005]

lol, dont forget to call all the fish whom your fish have slept with in the past 12 months also!!!

 

[LyndaB]

there is currently an ich epidemic spreading through belleville illinois, offallon illinois, and collinsville illinois.

No offense to you, but this is the craziest thing I've heard in a very long time.

Are these all stores? If so, then they either share a supplier or don't know how to properly acclimate their tanks from hot weather to cool weather, which can cause an ich problem. The same thing happens when summer gets hot and everybody goes from open windows to air conditioners.

 

[ShadoeFox]

Actually, I'm from the area too. Basically unless you drive into st louis city all we've got fresh water wise (to my knowledge) is pet smart and petco, both have had recent ich outbreaks (also in petcos salt section, which I know is a different bug). I wouldn't be shocked if they do share suppliers on some livestock, and in petsmart o'fallon the fish section is right beside the front door. Its not all that unlikely

 

[LyndaB]

So this is only with PetsMart and PetCo?

 

[ShadoeFox]

I would suspect theta the case. Petsmart actually has a location in or right next to all those towns, and did have the more recent outbreak. More I gotta go check the corries I just got again...thank god for qt

 

[BillD]

let's keep one thing in mind here. In order to have ich infect fish, it has to be present in the tank. If you don't have the organism present, you won't have ich regardless of temperature fluctuations, whether you have salt in the water , or if you keep the tanks cool. It has been 20 years since I last saw a case of ich in my tanks.
In this case, it would seem that the stores share a supplier, or if they are on a central system, an infected fish or group of fish was introduced to their tanks. This does, of course, reinforce the need for quarantine.
If a place like Petsmart which uses a central filtration system where all tanks are connected, does treat their system, they shouldn't sell any fish for several weeks. How likely is this?

 

[HAVAMAL]

Regardless thank you for the info!!!!!
I live in the St Charles area and it's good to know these things to pass on to my friends to be careful.

 

[ShadoeFox]

Seeing as I was there last night, and they were asking to get me something... Yeah. Not likely (this was the o'fallon one, too)

 

[LyndaB]

I can only go by my really great lfs guy who told me about the temperature thing. He says at the start of the A/C season, he always goes through this. Of course, he also gets shipments weekly from various sources, so that may have something to do with it.

 

[ShadoeFox]

I would actually buy a temp connection. We get the sniffles,.so why wouldn't fish become susceptible. Granted, ich has to be there, but it may not be presenting til then