Ich help
- Thread starter demifelix
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Pray....unfortunately, I am not kidding.
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Ich is no big deal, feed smaller amounts more often, cut the lights for a few days, add immune boosters to your food ie.garlic & amino acids. As long as they are eating you should have no issues. I do find that ich is often times just a sign of something more severe though.
My regal tang got it as soon as I got it home.. I dimmed the lights, added cleaner shrimp and started feeding heavily with metro and focus and the spots went away the very next day. Could be coincidence.. I dunno but seemed to work for me. Also I am running a UV, and am continuing with the metro and focus for a couple weeks to be sure..
Cleaner shrimp and cleaner gobies may eat the parasites from the fish, but they do not eradicate them from the system. It's like a person who likes mushrooms turned loose in the forest... to think the mushrooms would be all gone from the woods is wishful thinking.
The only way to get rid of it in the system is remove and treat all fish, and leave the tank fallow long enough to break the life cycle of the parasite. With no host, they will eventually die off. I can't speak for the effectiveness of UV, but I believe if it is a strong enough sterilizer it can help a lot.
What usually ends up happening IMO is that the system has ich in it forever, but healthy (and eating) fish are able to ward off outbreaks. I do believe that garlic supplements can prompt a fish to eat when it doesn't feel well, and if they don't eat they will die no matter what the root cause.
For example, one of the first fish I ever put in my tank "popped" a little bit of ich. It went away shortly. There have been no visible parasites on any fish since (nearly a year) in my tank, but I promise you they are there.
The only way to get rid of it in the system is remove and treat all fish, and leave the tank fallow long enough to break the life cycle of the parasite. With no host, they will eventually die off. I can't speak for the effectiveness of UV, but I believe if it is a strong enough sterilizer it can help a lot.
What usually ends up happening IMO is that the system has ich in it forever, but healthy (and eating) fish are able to ward off outbreaks. I do believe that garlic supplements can prompt a fish to eat when it doesn't feel well, and if they don't eat they will die no matter what the root cause.
For example, one of the first fish I ever put in my tank "popped" a little bit of ich. It went away shortly. There have been no visible parasites on any fish since (nearly a year) in my tank, but I promise you they are there.
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I picked up a Powder Brown with Ich on the condition that if I cured him, I could have him. Well he looked like he had been flopping around in a bowl of salt when I got him, but a few days of good water and good food, and he looked GREAT! Then Tuesday morning he was dead on the bottom of the tank...
Do you think the tank is ready for the fish again? March 26 was the date of the last fish died and there's only 1 blue damsel in that tank since then. Should I wait a little longer for all the cysts to hatch and die. Should I run UV to kill them all?
If there is a fish in there then ich is too. The damsel is just tougher and is fighting it off better. Then again you can't see in it's gills. If you get anything else the best advice I can give is to set up a 20g QT tank with rock and a piece or 2 of established LR to keep the new ones in and get them feeding well. That is their best defense as stated once ich is introduced.
Yep, exactly. Unless the tank is fishless for over 6 weeks (a little longer than the life cycle of ich) you will have it in the tank, guaranteed.
There is some argument that even if you leave it empty long enough to break the life cycle, it can still survive... almost like it can enter a dormant stage or something. I think it was Jenn who told of a tank left fallow for a couple of months and it returned... a thorough search could find that thread (though there are hundreds of threads here about ich).
There is some argument that even if you leave it empty long enough to break the life cycle, it can still survive... almost like it can enter a dormant stage or something. I think it was Jenn who told of a tank left fallow for a couple of months and it returned... a thorough search could find that thread (though there are hundreds of threads here about ich).
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