Marine ich and the TRUTH.

Bluespace

Bluespace

Reefing newb
As many of you know I'm in the process of battling ich. Here's where I'm at.
DT has been fallow for 3 weeks and plan on keeping it that way for 8 total weeks.
The two fish I do have are in QT and have been treated with Prazipro then a hypo salinity treatment. The fish will remain in the QT during the entire 8 week process.

Once the 8 week period is over the fish will then be returned to the DT.

I have done way to much research on marine ich then I care to share. I picked the brains of every person I could think of including many here on LR. After taking all the info gathered I've come to realize there is no clear cut answer to this parasite.

I spent the last hour talking with a guy at my LFS about his issues with ich. He did what I'm doing now 4 months ago. He actually got most of his advice from the forums on reefcentral.

He had one PBT in QT during this time and amazingly to my surprise he told me the fish had ich again within 48hrs of returning it to the DT. You could see the disappointment in his eye's when telling his story. I could tell it's been a battle and he must of lost one to many fish.

I don't know how this could happen. Ich has a life cycle, you can read about it all day online. :frustrat:

Is there really no way to have an ich free tank? I've heard and read all the steps to take to insure this but I'm thinking this is a pipe dream. I find conflicting info on how long trophonts can live in the gills of fish. From what I found there is no treatment that is effective at this stage of the ich parasites life cycle.

I think I'm more confused at this point then when I started. I will probably get out the 12 gauge if I put my fish back in and they get ich again. :frustrat: :mrgreen:

If anyone has any input please do so I'm all ears.
 
This is why I don't bother trying to quarantine and treat ich. In 10 years, I've never lost a fish to it. I subscribe to the belief that if you keep your water quality high, feed a high quality variety of foods, and pick compatible fish for your size tank, you won't have problems with it. The only times my fish have ever shown signs of it have been when I have added new additions to the tank. And it has always gone away within a few days. I have had all but 3 (the 3 fish I just got last week) of my fish for 5+ years, and some of them I've had for 10 years now.
 
I'm starting to lean in the same direction Sarah. But I feel I did everything right the first time and I got it and it killed all my fish. I don't know maybe I'm missing something. Maybe something in my take is stressful? I don't have a clue.
 
I think if you get high quality fish and as Biff said, keep your water quality good, then regardless of ich, your fish will fight it off. In fact, because of my battles & stresses w/ parasites, I've been doing a lot of reading on different diseases, and for the most part, if the fish is relatively healthy, fights off the disease, it will only make them stronger.

One of the articles I read (I don't know if someone here posted a link, or maybe I found it through wetwebmedia) said that in a test they conducted with fish that had parasites, the fish that successfully fended off the parasite w/o intervention was able to fight off the parasite better the next time.

When they put that fish in an infected tank, it managed to keep the parasites from overwhelming the other fish by taking them in itself, fending them off, giving the other fish a fighting chance at fighting them, and eventualy, the parasites run out of suitable hosts and their numbers dropped. I tried to find the article, but I don't know where i found it last time.
 
That's interesting wonton. If you happen to come across the link please post it.

I forgot to mention. The guy at the LFS I was speaking to has since installed a UV sterilizer and hasn't had a problem since. He bought it after the PBT had ich.

I know the thoughts from some of you on UV's but any others? The only con I can find is the UV killing EVERYTHING in the water column. Is that really a con? Is there that much good stuff suspended in the water?

Some talk about pods being killed as well. But if I'm not mistaken they lay their eggs in the sand and rock. I'm still in research mode on this one..:mrgreen:
 
 
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Those are the three best articles that I have found on ick. I think Steven Pro hits it on the head with those articles.
 
Melosu58 said:
Those are the three best articles that I have found on ick. I think Steven Pro hits it on the head with those articles.
Click to expand...
Agreed good articles. Read them several times over the last few weeks.

Whom ever comes up with a formula that's reef safe and actually works is gonna make a fortune..
 
I'm with Sarah on this. I don't and never have QT'd anything.............ever. I also try and feed a healthy diet to my livestock.

The UV sterilizer will help to kill off the ich bacteria. I have not noticed any decrease in pods in my system either.

If it was me, I'd run the UV. You can pick up a nice little HOB for that tank. When I had my 55 I had one, never had issues with ich. I now run a 50 watt UV under my 120 and still have not had issues.

Running a UV is not a nessesity, however in my opinion, anything I can add that does not hinder my tank or it's inhabitants, and adds one more measure of caution is a plus for me.
 
I noticed ich on my new sailfin tang last night. Which doesn't surprise me in the least, that fish has been very stressed. It was all over it -- completely covered. I babied him and made sure he got plenty to eat last night, and this morning the spots were gone. That's pretty par for the course though, it seems. It seemingly can come and go within a 24 hour period. We'll see how the fish looks tonight! I'm confident that he will be okay and none of my other fish will be impacted.
 
The fish looks fine tonight. Still no spots. That's good. It's also swimming around a lot more. I got some pictures of it with my new camera! But I'll have to upload them and see how they look.
 
Sarah, did your sailfin's ich come back?

I got some new coral and a flasher wrasse this weekend and then my sailfin showed up with some ich spots last night. I am hoping to test out the healthy tank theory. But I also may go buy a UV sterilizer. I really love this sailfin. Its a fat little pig with a lot of personality. I could tell it was irratated last night because it was acting grumpy with its friends.
 
No sign of the ich until I did a water change on Sunday. The next day, both the powder brown and sailfin were showing spots. They were covered -- even their eyes. Poor things! So I have been feeding very heavily (I switched to twice a day instead of every other day) and making sure they get their vitamins and garlic. It has been getting better since Sunday, so I'm not worried.
 
i qt every fish in copper for at least 3 weeks and i have never had ich in my tank. copper is the only way to go in my opinion.
 

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