Ich from food

[dustin Combs]

Has anyone experienced Ich from feeding fish Mysis or Brine Shrimp?

[Serra]

Live shrimpies?

[sadsak]

I have never had a problem

[dustin Combs]

I have done quite a bit of reading and there are cases of Saltwater mysis and brine being a carrier of Parrisites. So we are done with the frozen satwater mysis and we will be moving to the Freshwater mysis. PE to be exact.

[SeanF]

All the reputible frozen food suppliers sterilize the foods prior to freezing so the chances of getting a parasite from frozen foods is non exsistant.

[dustin Combs]

Sean,
From some of the reading we have done on this it seems like there is a posibility. Once again the only thing we have done is open a new pack of mysis and we had explosions in two separate tanks

[scott0615]

All frozen mysis sold in our industry are freshwater - Hikari, PE, San Fran Bay Brand

[SeanF]

Have you bought any new invertebrates or gotten any new corals from anyone within the last couple of weeks? Used any item in both tanks? There is probably an explaination other than the food.

[TulsaReefer]

I've had a pretty bad case of ich show up in my tank after adding a couple frags, and nothing else was added to the tank in at least 6 months. No other parameter changes, or any stress factors, only a couple new frags, so I'm guessing it was the frags. But considering how many places/people keep fish, sometimes not so healthy fish, in with corals in their frag/display tanks, it's not that surprising that a frag, coral, rock, or just about anything with a hard surface might not bring in a few tomonts with it if they came from a tank that was infested. Now I QT everything, frags, rocks, fish, snails. I'm sitting on a couple frags right now that I've had in QT for a couple weeks now. I usually QT frags at least 2 weeks, but would prefer to go to 4 if they look like they are doing well in QT, though it's hard sometimes to not want to put them into the tank and get them growing.

[dustin Combs]

Bingo! Trochus have been added to they tanks. I forgot about the snails I added.

[SeanF]

Yeah unfortunately most places keep fish and inverts together, well that and most stores don't have there inverts for 30 days before they sell anyway. Well at least they hope they don't. There is a tank maintainence guy up here that hasn't had an ich outbreak in any of his tanks in a couple of years at least because he started quarantining all of his inverts for 30 days and keeps his fish in a lightly coppered tank for at least 2 weeks. Unfortunately the wholesalers in LA are a breeding ground for ich and other parasites. Fish come in healthy and leave harboring parasite that may not become visable for more than a week. It is really coming down to having good quarantine procedures as a hobbyist because most of the people that touch the animals before that are just looking to turn them as quickly as possible.

[TulsaReefer]

Agreed, that's why it's really hard to add anything without taking some level of risk. As I'm unwilling to take that risk in my main tank, I've set up a 29G QT tank, with filtration and lighting that can handle holding frags or other inverts for 2 to 4 weeks. It's not something I really like to have to do, and I'll admit that the chances of getting something from inverts or rocks is probably pretty low. But to me it's really a roll of the dice every time you drop something new in your tank. You may do it dozens of times without problems, but it only takes once before you regret it.

It's easy to blame the dealers and LFS, but in the end I really don't blame them at all, we the consumer drive this situation. People will bargain shop, and more often than not are not willing to pay a few bucks more to allow the LFS to set up the systems and QT the way they would often like to. Having fully separate systems for inverts, fish, etc. is costly. And if the bulk of the buyers aren't interested in paying for that cost in higher prices (even if only slightly higher) then a dealer can't really afford to do it, unless they want to be out of business soon. And there are a few places I trust enough that I will cut the QT short. But it's not just ich I worry about, it's nudis, red bugs, flatworms, and the host of other nasties you can get that once lose in the main tank can really be a mess. So, for me, it's QT everything, and observe during that time as much as possible for any signs of anything bad. Still not fool proof, but I have been able to stop red flatworms once, and I don't doubt other things like ich that I didn't know about.