Ich ick season?

#1
Have many friends with ich
i started a similar thread on a different forum about a year ago seems like many people were having ich the same time a year ago as well

Yes i know people get it all year long but im thinking this is from the wild mass breakout infecting anyone thats buying fish now

How many people currently have ich

What do you do to treat and avoid ich


Quarantine?
Feed well? (treat it like a cold)
Buy from a store that....

Cleaner wrasse
Neon goby
Cleaner shrimp

Garlic?
Selcon?
Copper?
Hypo salinity?
Melafix?
Ich attack?

Hope & Pray?
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
I do nothing to treat anything. I do not quarantine, but I do isolate fish until they are unstressed, happy to see me and are eating very well with pelleted food. I will never QT inverts or take other steps to ensure that I am pathogen free forever, so I do not kid myself by thinking that my tanks are pathogen free (the ocean is not and fish can fight it off). I just keep a high quality reef environment and make sure that any new fish are well adapted before they enter a display tank.
 

Fourthwind

Anthias
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
I see a lot of issue's with folks tanks this time of year. We all battle for tank stability as that is what keeps coral and fish healthy. There are lots of little things that in my opinion add up even though any one of them could trigger issues. With houses being closed up for winter, many battle CO2 build ups which can cause greater fluctuations of PH and other parameters as well. Having macro algae running at night can help this but it doesn't cure it. Temperature fluctuations for obvious reasons. Controllers help with this but if you have a drafty house or have tanks near windows it can be problematic. Water source is another problem. Most cities change water sources and or additives during the fall and spring. So unless you have a really good RODI system running anion and cation, you end up with changes in your source water. Even with zero TDS there are things left over that you will not see unless you have ICP tests done. (lesson learned)

I have found feeding high quality foods like LRS and Rods has kept my fish healthier than just running mysis and pellets. Garlic has not proven to be effective against ick, and has been shown to cause internal problems after long periods. I have found it effective to get sick fish to eat. Vitamins like Selcon and others can easily be over done and cause toxicity issues, so needs to be used with caution. Again ,you dont have to worry about this with high quality foods.

Personally I like keeping cleaner shrimp in the tank, not sure it does any good or not, but hey. Love those critters

Ick in salt water is a huge controversy. After doing an internship under a marine biologist out in Cali, I have my doubts about a lot of the theories out there that you can have an ick free tank. I think you can have a healthy tank that has low spore counts. NO one has been able to prove that all spores are gone. The reality is a healthy fish will not contract ick because their natural defenses ward off the parasites. Ick starts by having a fish get stressed and drops its defenses and then the parasites attach. This can be a rapid shift in chemistry, temperature, or tank aggression. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen folks say, I added a fish, and it gave all my fish ick. No you added a fish, and either got a spike in your bioload, or there was a spike in tank aggression because territories just got invaded. There is ALWAYS a cause. The stress of these causes then let ick attach.

Personally I always QT my fish from any store and keep a QT running in case I need to pull a fish. I first treat with Prazipro and lower salinity. Not hypo, but like 1.020. Then I watch for any issues. If any come up, I prefer copper. Have never had good luck with melefix. Good food, stable conditions, and stress free is the key in my opinion.
 
#4
I see a lot of issue's with folks tanks this time of year. We all battle for tank stability as that is what keeps coral and fish healthy. There are lots of little things that in my opinion add up even though any one of them could trigger issues. With houses being closed up for winter, many battle CO2 build ups which can cause greater fluctuations of PH and other parameters as well. Having macro algae running at night can help this but it doesn't cure it. Temperature fluctuations for obvious reasons. Controllers help with this but if you have a drafty house or have tanks near windows it can be problematic. Water source is another problem. Most cities change water sources and or additives during the fall and spring. So unless you have a really good RODI system running anion and cation, you end up with changes in your source water. Even with zero TDS there are things left over that you will not see unless you have ICP tests done. (lesson learned)

I have found feeding high quality foods like LRS and Rods has kept my fish healthier than just running mysis and pellets. Garlic has not proven to be effective against ick, and has been shown to cause internal problems after long periods. I have found it effective to get sick fish to eat. Vitamins like Selcon and others can easily be over done and cause toxicity issues, so needs to be used with caution. Again ,you dont have to worry about this with high quality foods.

Personally I like keeping cleaner shrimp in the tank, not sure it does any good or not, but hey. Love those critters

Ick in salt water is a huge controversy. After doing an internship under a marine biologist out in Cali, I have my doubts about a lot of the theories out there that you can have an ick free tank. I think you can have a healthy tank that has low spore counts. NO one has been able to prove that all spores are gone. The reality is a healthy fish will not contract ick because their natural defenses ward off the parasites. Ick starts by having a fish get stressed and drops its defenses and then the parasites attach. This can be a rapid shift in chemistry, temperature, or tank aggression. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen folks say, I added a fish, and it gave all my fish ick. No you added a fish, and either got a spike in your bioload, or there was a spike in tank aggression because territories just got invaded. There is ALWAYS a cause. The stress of these causes then let ick attach.

Personally I always QT my fish from any store and keep a QT running in case I need to pull a fish. I first treat with Prazipro and lower salinity. Not hypo, but like 1.020. Then I watch for any issues. If any come up, I prefer copper. Have never had good luck with melefix. Good food, stable conditions, and stress free is the key in my opinion.
Wow
we think alike on so many levels
You also brought up like co2 , temperature fluctuations and water source change that i did not think of and make allot of sense

I treat it as the common cold feed well fatten them up

I never had luck with copper or hypo, i treat melafix for secondary infections because its my theory that the parasite doesn’t kill the fish it’s the scratching that gets a bacteria infection going

Personally i see shrimp as predators so they get carried away
 

Fourthwind

Anthias
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
When I worked for the biologist we used kanamycin for possible secondary infection's. Gentle on the tanks bacteria. Last thing you want is for the tanks bio chemistry to get hammered if you can avoid it.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using MASC mobile app
 
#6
When I worked for the biologist we used kanamycin for possible secondary infection's. Gentle on the tanks bacteria. Last thing you want is for the tanks bio chemistry to get hammered if you can avoid it.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using MASC mobile app
I need to look into that (probably not available to the average person rx?)

Melafix is herbal and in my personal experience it helps with fish and in coral regrowth

not sure what it does to bacteria though (need to test that)
 

Fourthwind

Anthias
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
Also sold as kmycin readily available as a fish med. Have seen issues with organ failure in fresh water species using melefix. Specifically with Betta's, so I crossed it off my list of treatments.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using MASC mobile app
 
#8
Also sold as kmycin readily available as a fish med. Have seen issues with organ failure in fresh water species using melefix. Specifically with Betta's, so I crossed it off my list of treatments.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using MASC mobile app
Interesting thanks ill do some research on that
Melafix is more natural so i probably would still go with that if i had too

I never tested melafix on fresh but in salt it works well
 
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