ICH help

#1
So i bought some fish from my lfs on monday and all seemed fine. Today i bought like $300 worth of fish at a different store for my new tank and then tonight when i was looking at the fish i purchased at the first store...... ICH and bad. is there any cahnce that my new fish arent infected after only being in there a day, and that my tank as a whole isnt infected, and that just removing the badly infected fish will do the trick? So i immagine the answer is no and that i need to set up a qt.......... im not very happy with elite right now....... Final question is what is teh usual survival rate of fish that get ich?
 

Wicked Color

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
IMO it is not Elites fault. Not quarantining the fish, and purchasing so many tank mates all at once, that was asking for a problem, most tanks have ich (or at least the potential), the issue is not the presence of the parasite so much as the stress placed on the fish.
A healthy, well fed fish will not have issues.
A stressed fish is usually not very healthy, will likely not eat properly, and will be susceptible to parasites and disease.
Survival rate is good if the problem is dealt with quickly, or if only one fish was purchased. I never QT, but never added more than 1 fish in a month either.
 

djkms

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
Ich survival rate is dependent on your knowledge and husbandry skills and luck. If your system is new or not well maintained then your rate of survival gets worse. You have 2 options. Get them into quarantine further stressing them and treating or let them fight it in the display. If you go this route you better have a stable, mature, maintained system.

Ich's lifecycle is 4-6 weeks. Elite quarantines their fish for 1 week before selling. There is no way that they can catch every disease out there before placing their fish on the sales floor. they would have to quarantine for at least a month if not more. I do know Elite does the best they can and are one of the top notch stores in the metro area. They would not knowingly sell you a sick fish. I know ich sucks and I know it is frustrating but it ultimately is up to us, the hobbyists to make sure what we put in our systems long term will not introduce problems. The only way to insure this is to quarantine ourselves and if you are not doing it then you are just as much at fault is the store if not more, because you are responsible for your system, not the store. Not trying to get on a high horse here and I dont quarantine everything either but getting mad at the fish store is not going to solve anything. Lesson learned, if you want to avoid things like this from happening then quarantine everything. Good luck and if you have any questions dont hesitate to ask.
 
#4
Yeah I know it is ultimately my fault. I should have posted first shame on me and then maybe second shame in them. Ive been in the hobby a long time and Know better. Ive been lucky until today Regardless at this point I'm stuck trying to treat it and need advice. The fish I put in today have had little exposure and I can get a hospital tank up tomorrow. When I treated before I used a air pump that pumped air through foam to both oxygenate and provide a surface for bacteria in my hospital tank. Does this actually work? Can the bacteria that break down ammonia live in a copper rich environment? Also all of the water going into the bare bottom hospital tank will be freshly mixed tomorrow, will that be ok or does the water need time before adding fish? I'm sooooooooo frustrated. In all honesty I went years w/o fish after the last ich outbreak I had. I'm hoping I can save what I bought today...... 1 last thing I've heard mixed things about fresh water dips. Some claim they work others claim they just kill fish. What do you think?
 
#5
Quick update. I was able to catch both badly infected fish tonight. Tried fresh water dip and both died. No biggie. As for the rest of my new fish..... Here is the situation. Today was the first day that I noticed the ich on the badly infected fish. It must not have been bad until today. I am assuming that some of the protozoans were released into the water, but I think I did myself a favor by getting the badly infected fish out. I have ultimately decided that a hospital tank isn't an option because IMO most fish will die as I'm not well prepared. I am going to try a different method however. I have spent the last few hours reading up on cures for ich. We all know copper and hyposalinity. These just aren't going to work for me. So here are the options as I see it. 1 uv sterilizer, a must.2 Garlic, seems promising but I don't see anything that concretely leads me to believe that it has any effect. 3 Metronidazole. This is an interesting and intuitive option and I'm going to test it out in conjunction with the other 2. Fellow reefers seem to have mixed opinions on it's effectiveness but many seem I'll informed on the process by which it works. There seem to be alot of opinions and explanations based on ignorance of the drug itself. The common belief is that it only treats internal protozoans such as giardiasis. However, I believe along with many others, that it will be effective in treating an ectoparasite as well. I will keep this thread updated over the next few weeks to share my experience.
 
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