Quick Question about ICH

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cloudxsoldier

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
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Can someone, or multiple people confirm that these 2 statements are true.

'ICH is something that is introduced to a marine tank. It's NOT something that all fish have and develop further when stressed'

'If there are no fish present in a marine tank that previously had ICH, the desease will die off COMPLETELY within a certain amount of time as there are no fish for it to host'

Thankyou in advance.
 
thanks for the reply.
I have a clown fish and a dottyback that are currently in an infected tank. I lost a second clown fish to it last week.

If I where to cure these two fish completely, will THEY carry a dormant version of it?

thankyou again
 
when there dead there dead I don't believe there will be anything domant parasites as long as you make sure you treat them for 3 to 4 weeks with either hypo or copper.
 
Wither or not other species can carry ich I don't know. I know that foxfaces carry black ich and tangs white ich. As for your fish I would suggest calling your local lfs and having them care for your fish while ich is cycled out of your tank. If you don't have that nice of an lfs than you are going to have to look for treatment options. The most popular is Metroplex and Focus (MOST BE USED TOGETHER!!!) and ich-x. You will have to freshwater dip your fish (if you are going to do a freshwater dip you can post a new form about how to do it or just message me...it is not hard, but dangerous to the fish if done incorrectly).

You need to find the source of your ich. Generally healthy happy fish don't get ich.

You will need to raise the temp slowly and lower your salinity slowly.
 
sorry cloud I neglected to say don't use hypo or copper in your dt only in a qt tank.Especially if you have live rock or inverts.
 
haha yes it is :) Im a ff7 fanatic.

Now, I'm a little confused. You say that tangs carry this disease. Do they carry it in a way that other fish carry it? or do they carry it in a unique way meaning they can never totally be free of it?

So correct this hypothetical statement if it is wrong:

'I had a fish tank with one fish, a tang. The tang had ICH - I took it out of my tank, cured it properly (doing whatever needed to be done) and put it back in my tank that has NO ICH in it. My fishtank will no longer see any more ICH unless It is introduced by another means (whether by another fish, water etc).

This is the big question I've been looking for an answer for for weeks now.

(ICH is an annoying sugject but I dont plan to stop till I know all about it!)

Thankyou once again
 
Ich is dormant on most fish like the chicken pox virus. As long as the fish don't get stressed ya won't get ich. Many people own many tangs in their tanks and have never had an ich outbreak. The only time ich becomes a problem is when it can reproduce, which is only possible when the fishs immune system is down. I have even had a dwarf lionfish breakout in ich as soon as a brought him home and put him into the quarantine tank.
 
Ok.. this is just getting more confusing.. lol

I'm with you so far. But hows this then:

the two top ways to cure ICH both Stress out fish. So whats the point in trying to cure them when you're just putting them back into you're tank when they are stressed out? won't they just start it over again seeing as they're stressed? This subject is so annoying. So many dead ends lol.
 
Many things can stress out fish

1. new home (won't you be scared if you were put in a whole new house?)
2. fish beating each other up (mated pair of clowns can be territorial)
3. water quality (salinity level,pH, nitrates)
4. you need to be doing weekly water changes to keep the water fresh
5. did you properly cycle your tank

once you cure ich you will be fine
 
Let me quickly exaplin my timeline
8 months ago - setup tank and cycled properly.
7months ago - started to add fish (two clowns) and a few other things.
4 months ago - reached my fish peak - two clowns, dottyback and flamehawk
1 month ago - my flamehawk died unexpectadly.
2 weeks ago - this all happened on the same night: 1. female clown hosting in leather coral 2. Male clown started getting aggresive to the female. 3. noticed white spots on the female.
4 days ago - Female died
3 days ago - white spots coming and going on the male fish in a matter of days. sometimes they are there, sometimes they are not.
 
you should remove the remaining fish...either put them into a hospital tank or call your lfs to hold onto them in their hospital tank to be treated

if you can't afford a hospital tank or your lfs can't take them there are many methods of treating your tank and fish...removing your fish is the best method to kill all ich in tank
 
I would like to hear about the freshwater dip. I was told it was thebest way. Don't know that to be true. But what I was told. Thanks in advanced.
 
FW dips are a quick relief for an infested fish ,one that is completely covered in spots will appreciate a dip and help it...It is not a cure
Ick can most definitely be eliminated from your DT..The cycle in your DT must be broken and every fish,invert ,LR ect must be QTed...period..If its wet, QT it..
Ick can be burrowed in or attached to anything ..
Hypo is my personal choice of treatment
 
Fresh Water Dip Items Needed...
1. Prime (smells like rotten eggs but it works)
2. Air stone
3. Buckets (you can mix the prime in one container, but must dip fish in separate buckets)
4. Heater
5. Powerhead
6. Clock
7. Thermometer

Steps For a Freshwater Dip

DO NOT FEED YOUR FISH THE DAY YOU DIP BEFORE OR AFTER! Get a large bucket of water and fill with tap water (not RO water). The reason being is that tap water has higher pH than RO. You should add Prime to the water in the morning and let it mix using your power head until evening. This will give Prime the time to remove all the stuff it needs to remove from the water. Before you start your dips you need to heat the temp of the water to the same temp as your tank. Separate your water into multiple buckets and make sure each bucket has an air stone (or if you only have one air stone than only dip one fish at a time...in separate buckets). The reason for separate buckets and an air stone is that most fish will poop while taking a dip. You want to make sure they have clean water and lots of oxygen. The dip MOST BE NO LONGER!!! than 5 mins. If you dip longer than 5mins you risk hurting your fish. Hence why you need a clock to insure you DON'T go over the 5min mark. For first time dips you might want to aim for 3-4min dip. Even a short dip will help. The next day give them their food.
 
Dips will not cure ich. Most of the parasites are below the skin of the fish so there not affected some will die but some will still be attached to the fish. hypo and copper are the only sure cures. as stated in the past don't use either method in your dt.
 
It seems like there are as many ways to cure Ich as there are fish that have it. Yes stressing fish out by moving to a QT tank just to cure it and then stress it out by moving back seems counter productive. The reason the fish got Ich in the first place is becase it was stressed/sick in some way. The goal of the QT tank is to get rid of the Ich and nurse the fish back to full health. If the fish is healthy the move back to the DT will not be enough stress to cause the Ich to come back. The reason people see Ich on multiple fish is from a systemic tank problem causing all the fish to stress out.

Ich can enter the tank from muliple routes, new rock, new fish, inverts, etc. Keeping your tank healthy is the first step, keeping the fish healthy is the second. This isn't to say you wont see it but a healthy fish will be able to slough it off a lot quicker than a sick one.

I had a recent bout with Ich and all I did was raise the temp a bit, varied the food I was feeding to include food with garlic, did more frequent water changes and reduced the amount of time the lights were on. None of this seems drastic, because it isn't.

You can do the hyposalinity thing as long as you are not running a reef tank and as long as you have no LR or sensative inverts, the LR will die off and cause other problems in the tank. You can try copper or some other chemical treatment but again this depends on what you have in the tank. I would rather not put any chemicals in my tank if I can avoid it. Ultimately the choice is yours when it comes to fixing the problem. You just need to decide on the cure and act on it before all your fish get it and die.
 
first off there are only two cures for ich and they are copper or hypo. there are not hundreds of cures. second stress does not cause ich, ich has to be present for a fish to get it and healthy fish can also get it. Third it doesn't matter if you have a reef tank or not because you should't be treating any dt with either hypo or copper.fourth I don't know what your fish had but I don't know how raising the temp and turning off the lights cured your fish. Also garlic will not cure ich either it just helps with there immune. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/11/mini#section-3 read this
 
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