Ich

[victor626nj]

i got it i tried not to get it but i did i got some chromis from a store yesterday not going to say were because its one of our sponcers ...but the fish are ok and they are eating ....i fresh water dipped them 2ice for 30 min ....they looked healthy before i stuck them in the tank then i looked close guess what i saw yup ich .im letting everyone know that it can happen even if you dip fish so you would know that it is best to qt the fish ..i dont mind becaus ei have to do alot of aquascaping and will take the fish out and qt them but from now on will no longer just do a fresh water dippthey are going to a 2 month qt from now on ..i hope if you read this and dont believe me read brandons artical on it ....happy reefing

 

[sj miller guy]

Two things you can do that really help me out....

1) Get a scarlet cleaner shrimp. Mine is so invaluable at ridding ich and other pests from my fish. The fish automatically go to it and know what is going on.

2) Get some garlic guard or some garlic additive to put on the fish food. This will entice the fish to eat more and get the nutrition that will also help get rid of it.

 

[FutureInterest]

I do recommend the QT procedures although 2 months of QT is over doing it...
Anyways, do everything you can to not have ich in your tank. Unfortunately, even with best efforts it'll prolly still get in there. That's the reality of it unfortunately.

 

[mvm]

SJ Miller Guy;75663 wrote: Two things you can do that really help me out....

1) Get a scarlet cleaner shrimp. Mine is so invaluable at ridding ich and other pests from my fish. The fish automatically go to it and know what is going on.

2) Get some garlic guard or some garlic additive to put on the fish food. This will entice the fish to eat more and get the nutrition that will also help get rid of it.

Not to be a jerk, but useless IMO. QT everything. Cleaners can not rid ich nor can garlic.

 

[sj miller guy]

flinster;75675 wrote: Not to be a jerk, but useless IMO. QT everything. Cleaners can not rid ich nor can garlic.

Really? So then what gets rid of mine....time? Just curious.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

the good part about having little voices in my head is they tell me good things from time to time... Like to stay out of this conversation after the last one on the subject. I think I will follow their advice this time.

 

[FutureInterest]

Your ich isn't really gone... It's still in your tank, but like in most tanks its not lethal. Ich is a very good parasite, what I mean by that is that it will survive and reproduce and generally not kill its hosts.

We're still not sure why some few people have catastrophic losses to ich and others don't. Most people don't have any losses from ich. Some people do, I still think its a function of having a "dirty" tank but that's pure speculation. Perhaps the "dirty" tanks allow for more secondary infections and thus it appears the losses are due to ich? That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

 

[ouling]

There are plenty of threads that already address this issue, long with countless articles on the internet. I think you'll get more detailed and precise answer if you spend a bit of time reading up on this condition.

Best of luck!

 

[FutureInterest]

Well you're not alone in swearing by the UV as a solution. I use a 50 watt uv myself. That being said, most of the UV sterilizers on the market are just plain useless when it comes to battling ich.

If its not strong enough to give you cancer immediately... then its too weak to kill Ich .

 

[jmaneyapanda]

The thing most people dont understand about UV is that it is not like another filter that you can just throw on your tank, and it will work to a crtain degree. It has to be very calculated for what application you want.

Organisms must receieve a certain exposure to the germicidal UV wavelength in order to be useful. For things like ick and some other protozoans, the xposure is VERY high. To get this exposure, you'll either need a very big UV or very slow flow through. Both have their drawbacks. Large UVs will add a lot of heat to the water. Slow flow makes no gurarantee of exposure. By this, I mean that only the things that go through the uV are killed. If a "bug" is sitting on the bottom of your tank, the biggest UV in the world wont get it unless that water passes through the UV. If you have water just trickling through to get the desired exposure, the likelihood of getting good water coverage and sterilization is reduced. Without getting approriate exposure (like 350,00 microwatts or cm2, if my memory work), you'll only be killing free floating algae and some bacteria.

I do subscribe to quarantine. But, how you handle quarantine is what matters. I happen to run a 25 watt UV on my 29 gallon Qt. This allows for good exposure with a reasonable flow, which helps to ensure good turnover. Since it is quarantine, there is little light wattage, so the water temp doesnt usually get above 81.

 

[megadeth]

I subscribe to the thought that it's always there, that's why countless tanks have gone years without additions, fish tress from some outside factor, and boom there's ich on the fish.

cleaner shrimp may not remove all of them, but they are too neat not to have

 

[paul692]

i use a uv sterilizer also . i had no luck with garlic guard ick was still there.sterilizer will only kill the free floating ick cells not the ones still infected in the fish. i found a well balanced diet with good tank husbandry worked better.to control it but never did eliminate from the tank alltogether

 

[FutureInterest]

Yep. You're not going to eliminate it, but its not going to be much of a problem either... in most tanks.