Another Ich Thread because of no QTing

[Travis L. Stevens]

Ah, it was all my fault. The fish that brought it in was only going to be in the tank for about a month as it cleaned some excess algae and then returned for partial credit to the LFS. I had eyeballed this fish for a while and no signs showed. I brought him home and had him in QT for a few days to check for aggressiveness, feeding, and other general husbandry. After his extremely short time, *plop* right in the display. He has done a great job and is almost done cleaning up. I was even thinking about taking him back at the end of the week or possibly sooner. But he had to leave me a goodbye present of ich.

I'm only slightly concerned. But I would like any advice or support that you can offer. All of my fish are fat and healthy, and I would suspect that their immune system is good enough to fight this off. My approach is a little more of a natural one. Since I've already introduced it in my tank, it's too late. Im not going to break my tank down or let it go fallow for 6+ weeks. So since my tank already has it, whats the point of putting all the fish in QT? I'm just going to keep feeding them as much vitamin enriched healthy food as I can and vary their diet until they heal. I'm not a big fan of medication anyways.

I guess now it comes down to the main question. Under the circumstances should I just keep my fish healthy? Or should I go ahead and do a freshwater dip and risk damage? All fish are eating VERY well and all are very active. Though they have ich, none are flashing against the rocks. I'm sure it does, but it doesn't seem to bother them.

[Black Mammoth]

You will probably get a better response in the disease forum.

1. If you see the signs of Ich, it might be too late. From what I was told if you see the signs, a lot of times it is too late and all you can do is treat and hope for the best. Whether or not that is really true or not is another story.

2. Why not go ahead an quarantine your fish? Why take the risk? Put them in your QT tank does them with a copper based medicine and hope to kill the Ich.

3. If you are not going to quarantine your fish, mix their food with garlic. From what I've heard and read, that is suppose to help with Ich.

4. Fresh water dips won't help; unfortunately I know this first hand. Actually, it ends up stressing the fish even more allowing Ich to take over.

5. You can try gradually lowering the salinity in your tank. You have to do it gradually so you don't kill everything...like your fish, inverts, corals, etc.

I'm still a noob myself and I'm sure you'll get better advice from others, especially in the other forum. I went through this myself and paid dearly for it.

[shinna]

I recently got rid of ich from my tank - well there isn't any showing on any of my fish. I treat the tank with Kent Marine RX.P & immediately bought some Kent Xtreme Garlic which i now add to the fish food. Garlic will only boost the fishes immune systems it won't get rid of ich. But hopefully with a much stronger immunne system they'll fair better when trying to fight the disease. Lowering salt levels didn't help & from what I've heard from others this won't make much difference. Good luck!

[Travis L. Stevens]

Yup, Ive read the advice given above in many different places. I will try to keep everyone updated. I know it sounds weird, but I really think they will make it through with flying colors.

Black Mammoth,

1) As far as I know it is true
2) I've already got a few fish in QT for the long haul and I don't want to risk them
3) There have been many threads and even an article in an online magazine (Advanced Aquarist?). The use of garlic has no real anectodtal evidence as of yet except on freshwater where the injection actually helped. Though I am a firm believer in "alternative medicine" in humans, I don't think garlic will hurt, so I will be using it. If nothing else, at least their food tastes better :lmao:
4) I've heard mixed stories here. I think the stress of it would lower the immune system and make it difficult to fight, but at least it will kill the outter parasitic cysts. But who knows how much is still left on the inside. Plus, if they go back in the display where there is (Im sure) dormant ich in the substrate, then it will only come back until the fish(es) have developed the immunity against it.
5) Im not even going to try it. Plus I think this is used as more of a preventive approach then an actual method.

[Black Mammoth]

Good points. I hope the best for you and your fish. I know exactly what you are dealing with now and it sucks. However, it sounds like you are better off than I was :)

[Travis L. Stevens]

I have to admit Im very lucky (If having ich is what you call lucky). I've had many different ich oitbreaks in both Fresh and Saltwater. You can start to tell when an "ich"ed fish will or won't make it or is having a difficult time. I think my current stock list will survive. My smallest chromis might not because he is still recovering from many lost scales. I got him after he was beat up, but that has been months. No ich has showed on him and he is happy as can be.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Good news. The introduced fish has less cysts than before. My gramma has a couple, but is flashing against a rock :( The chromis and diamond watchman goby show no signs as of yet.

[Shooter7]

Since I've already introduced it in my tank, it's too late. Im not going to break my tank down or let it go fallow for 6+ weeks. So since my tank already has it, whats the point of putting all the fish in QT?

The point of it is twofold. On the one hand, the fish in QT can be treated by your method of choice. Myself, I used hyposalinity with great success. The other hand of this is that by leaving your display fallow, you are starving the parasites that are in your tank. They have to have a host to continue their reproductive cycle and without the fish in there, no host. Eventually, the parasite will not be able to continue to survive or reproduce and will perish. Following this frame of thought, your tank would no longer "have it". The flashing or flicking of the gramma was not a good omen for my gramma. He died within a couple of days of starting this behavior and I wasn't even able to get him to a hospital tank. Good luck.