Detecting Dormant Ich, Possible? If So, How?

[Hugh Mann]

So I currently have a dormant ich infestation in two tanks, my 55 display and a 20 gallon with a couple converted mollies. Mollies I will add, that have never shown any spots. In fact, of all my fish, only my Hippo Tang has, and they've been gone for a little while now. Long enough I will hesitantly say it's dormant in both tanks. I know it's in the 20 gallon because the mollies used to be in the display, and I cycled it with used filter media.

Anyways. I'm going to try hyposalinity on the 20 gallon with mollies as a bit of an experiment to see if I can successfully pull it off. However, I currently don't know how I can tell if I successfully eradicate it from the tank or not, as I apparently bought the only mollies resistant to marine ich.

Is there any way besides throwing more mollies in there to see if it's gone? Only other thing I can think of is water samples under a microscope, but that seems like a Longshot.

I would really, really hate to go through the effort of hypo or TTM and fallowing the display only to have it reinfected if I botched something.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

@EMeyer may have some thoughts on this...

(I hope I tagged the right person there)

 

[ThRoewer]

Ok, you got the mollie idea.

Ick may actually die out within a year if you don't feed it with new fish that have no immunity or introduce new strains. Best also not to add any corals or inverts. I got rid of it tat way.

 

[Hugh Mann]

Yeah, I got these mollies to verify I cured my eel of velvet. Decided to keep them around. Very strangely this group hasn't shown any ich spots.

 

[ThRoewer]

Didn't read your post initially (on the phone without glasses reading is a bit strenuous).
If you have the patience, just let it starve out as I described in my edited post. It works and is also backed by research findings.

 

[ThRoewer]

Yeah, I got these mollies to verify I cured my eel of velvet. Decided to keep them around. Very strangely this group hasn't shown any ich spots.

You know that you can only use them once, right? If you want to do another test you have to get new, virgin mollies.

 

[Hugh Mann]

I believe I read in Humblefish's post about using mollies said if they weren't infected, they'd be fine to reuse until infected. They didn't get infected by anything that time.

Interesting about starving out without new additions. First I have heard of that, I was always led to believe it would just sort of live in the background, reproducing very slowly. I would love to try it as an experiment, but in a years time, my eel and Hippo will be awfully cramped.

 

[ThRoewer]

I believe I read in Humblefish's post about using mollies said if they weren't infected, they'd be fine to reuse until infected. They didn't get infected by anything that time.

Interesting about starving out without new additions. First I have heard of that, I was always led to believe it would just sort of live in the background, reproducing very slowly. I would love to try it as an experiment, but in a years time, my eel and Hippo will be awfully cramped.

No, without defenseless fish to regain strength and without the introduction of new strains of its kind the parasite will die out. Immune or even partially immune fish kill or weaken those parasites trying to feed on them and by that continuously reduce the number of free infectious stages. That way alone you may get to a point where the last ick parasite gets killed without being able to produce "offspring".
And then there is the the observation that ick parasites have to "mate" (more to merge and split) from time to time to exchange genetic material and remain viable.
So by keeping your fish fit and not adding any new you may starve the parasite into extinction (in your system at least).

 

[Hugh Mann]

That is absolutely fascinating, and makes perfect sense. Lots of dedication though, hardest part would be not buying more fish, especially when I have a 230 gallon to stock. Still, very neat.

 

[Jdubyo]

Interesting about starving out without new additions. First I have heard of that, I was always led to believe it would just sort of live in the background, reproducing very slowly.

This is what I have always been told as well. I’m a little skeptical about “starving“ them out. From my understand they will still be able to feed off the fish but the fish will be healthy enough to fight off the ich. Can anyone verify this?

 

[ThRoewer]

Some reading material...

 

[Jdubyo]

Some reading material...

I really appreciate this and trust me, I will take the time to read this at some point. It’s all looking a little dense for me at the moment though, not gonna lie!

So from what you are saying, the tank I have that has not had anything new introduced in 2 years, should be ich free? There is no dormancy stage for ich?

 

[ThRoewer]

I really appreciate this and trust me, I will take the time to read this at some point. It’s all looking a little dense for me at the moment though, not gonna lie!

So from what you are saying, the tank I have that has not had anything new introduced in 2 years, should be ich free? There is no dormancy stage for ich?

There are dormancy stages of ick but if your fish have immunity, you didn't add anything, and haven't seen any symptoms for months on end you can be fairly confident that it's gone.

 

[Saaqib_Ansari]

Odd you say that in your OP that the mollies were never infected because I had the same issue went fallow for 90 days added mollies to the DT and the hospital tank and none of them had white spots so I assumed no ich and added my fish into the DT 2 weeks later my blue tang had a few spots 1 month later the tangs all had some spots and few other fish yet the mollies were swimming about happy as day with no spots

 

[Hugh Mann]

Yeah, no spots and they still don't. Not one of them. It's very weird.

In a different post someone mentioned sometimes mollies are bred in brackish tanks and so may be exposed to marine ich. So it has to be either that, or some mollies just have rediculous immune systems. In the past I've had mollies present with velvet spots, but that is an entirely different parasite.

 

[ThRoewer]

Odd you say that in your OP that the mollies were never infected because I had the same issue went fallow for 90 days added mollies to the DT and the hospital tank and none of them had white spots so I assumed no ich and added my fish into the DT 2 weeks later my blue tang had a few spots 1 month later the tangs all had some spots and few other fish yet the mollies were swimming about happy as day with no spots

Are you sure your other fish were clean? And are you sure the mollies you got had never before been exposed to Cryptocaryon or ever before been in saltwater? Mollies that have never before been exposed to Cryptocaryon should catch it and clearly show it.
Best would always be to breed your own "test mollies" to know for sure that they had never any contact with Cryptocaryon, Amyloodinium, and the like. For that I would be making sure that also the parents were cleaned up reliably with with a combination of TTM, hyposalinity, and copper - just to be sure nothing could have slipped through...

 

[Saaqib_Ansari]

Are you sure your other fish were clean? And are you sure the mollies you got had never before been exposed to Cryptocaryon or ever before been in saltwater? Mollies that have never before been exposed to Cryptocaryon should catch it and clearly show it.
Best would always be to breed your own "test mollies" to know for sure that they had never any contact with Cryptocaryon, Amyloodinium, and the like. For that I would be making sure that also the parents were cleaned up reliably with with a combination of TTM, hyposalinity, and copper - just to be sure nothing could have slipped through...

Literally bought them from the LFS in the freshwater section I highly doubt they’ve been exposed to ich but who knows - but still odd how they manage not to get it but my fish who have had several outbreaks of it STILL show signs