Is Ich Contagious???

[nmhs2]

Say you purchase a new little critter for your tank and end up finding it has ich and you never bothered to quarantee. Can ich spread to your other healthy fish? and if so what is the possibility it can spread?

[Shooter7]

About 100%

Ich is a parasite.

[Sk8r]

extremely.
Ich is not a disease, but a parasite: some of the pustules will erupt, the parasite will head for the sandbed, and go through a life cycle stage there before swimming up and infecting another fish, to then drop off, etc.

Fish usually die from general weakness, or ich infesting the blood-rich gills and robbing the fish of oxygen. A fish with flaring gills is sick...and may show no bumps on body.

The two treatments are hyposalinity in qt [your tank can't take this] of 1.009, which kills microorganisms before it kills your fish; and copper, via medication, which kills microorganisms before it kills your fish.

Treat all fish that were exposed, and keep them in qt after treatment, while tank goes fishless for 6-8 weeks...the parasite will starve to death and not be able to reproduce. Sorta like a bad flea infestation, though there IS no safe treatment for your tank itself: just starvation.

From one fish it can go through a tank like fire through dry grass---killing just about every fish in there. Particularly susceptible, tangs, angels, clowns, and rabbitfish.

[nmhs2]

Great info just thought id bring this up because i was unclear of the power it has to spread thanks guys!

[Shooter7]

Go to the Fish Disease Treatment forum here on RC and read the stickied threads about Ich. Learn about your foe.

[stingythingy45]

"A fish with flaring gills is sick...and may show no bumps on body."

What happens if you have the opposite.
Say you've had fish in a hospital tank for almost 4 weeks.
Now knowing the cycle of the Ich parasite,it decides to hatch while in a Hypo tank at 1.009 SG(refractor).From what I understand,this is why you have them in hypo,to catch the parasite dropping to encyst.This has happened to me.Only one fish seems to have a slight infection(male clown).All other fish in the tank show no signs.So suddenly what began as a 4-6 week thing is now a 8-10 week ordeal.I am sure of one thing,the display will be void of the parasite by the time I put these fish back in.
I can tell you nmhs2,hypo is a long slowwwwww process.
Just disappointed I guess.......

[Norward]

I'm a week into QT Coppersafe treatment of a firefish that was exposed to another fish in QT that had Ich and died. How long do I QT the firefish before it is safe to move to the DT?

[stingythingy45]

I'm not sure how quick coppersafe works to kill ich.
Did the firefish show any signs of this dreaded pest?
But even if the fish didn't come in contact with ich it would be at least 2-4 weeks.

[ahullsb]

I can't answer the copper question because I don't use it. Hyposalinity IS a long process, and requires an enormous amount of patience for people new to the hobby. Everyone just wants fish in their tank as soon as possible. When I ran hypo, I did it for 8 weeks to be safe. I would never do it for any less than 6. After a month and a half, what's two more weeks? Way to stick with it stingythingy45. You will be happy you did it in the long run!

[spike78]

I didn't have luck with Hypo with my Powder Brown tang. After 8 weeks in Hypo, 1.009 - 1.008, the ich was no better, and maybe even worse. At this point I went with a combination Hypo and RidIch (Formaline and Malchite Green) and this finally did the trick. (I wanted to use copper only as a last resort) 4 more weeks and the fish went in to the display.

The moral of the story is, some people have great luck with Hypo only, and some need a little more...

[stingythingy45]

Originally posted by spike78
I didn't have luck with Hypo with my Powder Brown tang. After 8 weeks in Hypo, 1.009 - 1.008, the ich was no better, and maybe even worse. At this point I went with a combination Hypo and RidIch (Formaline and Malchite Green) and this finally did the trick. (I wanted to use copper only as a last resort) 4 more weeks and the fish went in to the display.

The moral of the story is, some people have great luck with Hypo only, and some need a little more...

That's funny,because I did a 30 minute dip on the clownfish with Rid ich(same stuff you used).Today he might have had just a couple speckes on him.Maybe they just dropped of naturally or the dip helped or both.
When I first set up a hospital tank it was a 10 gallon and treated with Rid Ich for like 5 days before moving them into the 20L.
The fish have been in the 20 so long I went through a cycle.lol
Staved off the ammonia with Amquel and water changes.

"Way to stick with it stingythingy45"

Thanks alot for this ahullsb.

[spike78]

Yeah, I don't thing the RidIch is really for dipping. I just went with the recommended doses in the QT, kept my salinity at 1.009, and scrubbed and vacuumed the bottom of the tank every other day to get rid of as many cysts as possible.

I think the combination of different techniques worked for me in this case. I'm not actively recommending this same treatment plan to others due to the fact that this was the first time I dealt with Ich so others may have different experiences.

[Fmxmatt]

My Blue Tang is an Ich magnet. All my other fish, including my yellow tang, seem to be immune.

I find the best way to keep it under control is by keeping constant temp/sal and keeping the tang fat with food. I also soak nori in seachem garlicguard every now and again.

When I first got the bout of Ich tho, I used Ruby's Reef Kick-Ich in the main display. No ill effects on the fish or the coral

[stingythingy45]

No,it doesn't mention dipping.
But,formalin and malachite green have been used for dipping in the past.I figured it would be ok if I used some tank water to treat with.I went a little stronger than they recommend for the treatment.And I'm not condoning my treatment either.lol
I just didn't have anything else and figured I would give it a shot.
I monitored the whole time.

[ahullsb]

Originally posted by spike78
I didn't have luck with Hypo with my Powder Brown tang. After 8 weeks in Hypo, 1.009 - 1.008, the ich was no better, and maybe even worse. At this point I went with a combination Hypo and RidIch (Formaline and Malchite Green) and this finally did the trick. (I wanted to use copper only as a last resort) 4 more weeks and the fish went in to the display.

The moral of the story is, some people have great luck with Hypo only, and some need a little more...

Really it didn't work? And you were using a refractometer? I've only heard of that happening once before, and it was in the third person.

[iwishtofish]

I have been pondering hypo for my flame angel, who has shown signs of ich in the past and I wish to rid both the fish and the DT of the pest.

I am glad, however, that I have not done the hypo yet, because I calibrated my refractometer tonight with Pinpoint 53ms solution instead of the usual RO/DI water. Turns out my refractometer was reading .003 high. I probably would have lowered my salinity too much, as I have heard that 1.009 is recommended for hypo, and is about as low as one can safely go.

[tmz]

Really it didn't work? And you were using a refractometer? I've only heard of that happening once before, and it was in the third person

Switched to hypo on the last quarantine cycle . A kole tang I purchased showed mild ich so instead of 14 days of copper sulfate(unchelated), I decided to try hypo. After six weeks at 1.009 the tang and it's tank mate a long nosed butterfly were clean. I raised the salinity slowly over the course of a week to ready them for placement in the display.
When I hit 1.021 both fish were covered in parasites the next morning. I killed them in the water with copper sulfate and maintained a therapuetic level for 14 days. Then waited another 3 weeks . The fish finally made it into a larger tank and are thriving.
Now you've heard it again.
My thought is that some cysts laid dormant and were stimulated to "hatch" when the salinity raised. Apparently if this is the case the hypo did not effect the encysted stage. If it only kills the free swimmers and some cysts can remain vialble without hatching for as long as 72days it seems you would have to maintain it at least that long. Perhaps a couple of weeks of it to catch all the parasites in the water followed by removal of the fish to another parasite cyst free tank might work, followed by a cleaning of the qt tank to disinfect it of all viable cysts.
For me hyposalinity may take too much time and appears unreliable to some degree. I've heard mixed reports on wether or not it will treat the "other ich" (amyloodinium) for example. Extended stays in a stand alone qt tank for three or four months even if well managed are no match for getting the fish into a helathy reef environment after a shorter quarantine with appropriate treatment as indicated by symptoms, in my opinion.

[ahullsb]

Interesting. Thanks for posting tmz.

[tmz]

You are welcome.