Do you have an ich-less aquarium?

[Royce White]

Never had it in saltwater aquarium but have a couple of times in my planted aquarium, was easy to get rid of by raising temp to 83 degrees.

 

[Paul B]

I am not sure that Achilles tang would make it from Carmel Indiana.

But if you think it would survive the trip, I will take it. If it was quarantined, it may not live in my tank because my fish, and me frown on that.

I have never gotten any livestock on line.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

I am not sure that Achilles tang would make it from Carmel Indiana.

But if you think it would survive the trip, I will take it. If it was quarantined, it may not live in my tank because my fish, and me frown on that.

I have never gotten any livestock on line.

If you want to make sure you get one with parasites, ordering one online from live aquaria (non divers den) would be a good bet! ;Woot

 

[tastyfish]

Yes (Visually and logically, but not confirmed with a skin or gill section under microscope).

I run ALL fish through a prophylactic QT and observation routine that includes a FW/Acriflavine/Formaldehyde dip, Chloroquine treatment and two Prazi baths with observation periods between.

I still freak out when a wrasse flicks up the super fine sand I thought it would be a great idea to have and makes every fish look like they've come down with cryptocaryon.

But all fish are in reality super healthy and parasite free. I aim to keep it that way.

 

[AcroNem]

Never had it in saltwater aquarium but have a couple of times in my planted aquarium, was easy to get rid of by raising temp to 83 degrees.

This is not the same with Cryptocaryon (what everyone is calling Ich)
Ichthyopthirius multifiliis is the freshwater parasite with a drastically different life cycle.
Cryptocaryon irritans is the marine parasite.

 

[hankacrank]

I have only ever run nano tanks, and the regimen I have found to be successful in avoiding introducing ich is the following:

1. Never ever transfer any amount of outside water to your tank. This means scooping fish and coral out of the bag into a quarantine of your own water. Ich are mostly in the water, if they are not visually in the fish (with white or dark specs), depending on what stage of the life cycle they are. This is the most important step, even if you don't want to do the following steps.

2. Quarantine fish for a minimum of 3 days if you can. And observe for development of any lesions.

The advice I've received is to never prophylactically treat fish with prazi or copper-based treatments unless they are truly infected, as this causes a high amount of stress on them and increases the likelihood they will die/get sick of something else. However, like I said, I've only been doing nano tanks. If I had a $5000 system, I'd be much more risk averse and taking extra steps.

 

[tastyfish]

I have only ever run nano tanks, and the regimen I have found to be successful in avoiding introducing ich is the following:

1. Never ever transfer any amount of outside water to your tank. This means scooping fish and coral out of the bag into a quarantine of your own water. Ich are mostly in the water, if they are not visually in the fish (with white or dark specs), depending on what stage of the life cycle they are. This is the most important step, even if you don't want to do the following steps.

2. Quarantine fish for a minimum of 3 days if you can. And observe for development of any lesions.

The advice I've received is to never prophylactically treat fish with prazi or copper-based treatments unless they are truly infected, as this causes a high amount of stress on them and increases the likelihood they will die/get sick of something else. However, like I said, I've only been doing nano tanks. If I had a $5000 system, I'd be much more risk averse and taking extra steps.

Whilst you are absolutely right about not transferring water, it's also on the fish. You can also not see the parasite, only the fish's response to it. Most infections are actually on the gills only. It's best practice not to introduce new water for lots of other bio-security reasons, but don't think because you are excluding the water, you are removing most of the risk. Far from it.

I'd say that the advice you were given was not factually correct and could give you a false sense of security, whilst providing very little protection. For a start, 3 days is no where near long enough to observe a fish. Even the most virulent ciliate infections such as Amyloodinium occelatum (Marine Velvet) can remain undetected on fish for some weeks (I've had velvet pop up in a longer than usual observation period in my sterile QT for a fish that was in the LFS for 1 week and in QT for 2 weeks).

If observation is a route you wish to go down, then 6 weeks would be a recommended period. (I would still treat with prazi for worms and freshwater dip for flukes however)

Secondly, whilst copper is a poison, there is zero evidence to support it stressing fish out at theraputic levels for 21-30 days or causing issues in fish going forward (excluding species that are particularly sensitive). The impact of ciliate parasitic infections is clear, well documented and numerous. Personally I prefer chloroquine to copper due to efficacy against all ciliates and relative gentleness (except anthias and wrasse). However the current COVID19 situation is making me look at alternatives.

 

[tastyfish]

This is not the same with Cryptocaryon (what everyone is calling Ich)
Ichthyopthirius multifiliis is the freshwater parasite with a drastically different life cycle.
Cryptocaryon irritans is the marine parasite.

Yes, don't confuse Freshwater Whitespot (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (hope I've spelled that right)) or "Ich", with Marine whitespot (Cryptocaryon irritans).

For this reason, I dislike the nickname (mainly from the US) of calling marine whitespot, "Ich". Crypto would be a better short name.

Raising the temperature in a marine tank with any ciliate parasite would potentially worsen the situation by stressing the fish and reducing immuno-response and accelerating the lifecycle of the parasite, including infection rates.

 

[AcroNem]

Yes, don't confuse Freshwater Whitespot (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (hope I've spelled that right)) or "Ich", with Marine whitespot (Cryptocaryon irritans).

For this reason, I dislike the nickname (mainly from the US) of calling marine whitespot, "Ich". Crypto would be a better short name.

Raising the temperature in a marine tank with any ciliate parasite would potentially worsen the situation by stressing the fish and reducing immuno-response and accelerating the lifecycle of the parasite, including infection rates.

Yes! Another person who agrees with me. I agree with what you've just said as well. While raising temperature and bringing salinity to 1ppt (IF the fish can take it) in a freshwater system can help quite a bit for Ichthyopthirius, simply raising temperature in a marine system just makes metabolism and parasite life cycle faster.

 

[Paul B]

At the beginning of this hobby (I was there) in the 60s White spots of any type were (By Robert Straughn, "The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping") called it "Coral Fish Disease"
Then we called it "White Spot Disease". Then we called it OOdinium, then ich or Crypto as we didn't realize then that we were dealing with different parasites.

I personally don't care what I call it because my fish don't get any of them and IMO copper kills all of them. Copper/formalin and quinicrine hydrocloride in combination kills all of them in a day .

But 10 days is recommended. Shoot me.

 

[atoll]

Back in the day before I do what I do now, I would mix water from my tank with the bag the fish was it. I would then discard the bag water and using my hands ( I still use my hands to put my fish into the DT) put the fish into my DT. However, the fish would still break out in white spot. The spot would ribably already be in the gills of the fish and there would be no spots on the body until some hours later. I don't put the fish with the water in the bag not because of the fear of a white spot outbreak but because there is probably copper in the water which could be more of an issue of any disease I might be adding.

 

[Paul B]

"At" old friend, do you still pick up Lionfish, rabbitfish, firecoral, Portugese Man O War, and moray eels by hand?

 

[atoll]

"At" old friend, do you still pick up Lionfish, rabbitfish, firecoral, Portugese Man O War, and moray eels by hand?

Nooo of course not Paul, only blue ring octopus, stonefish and cone shells. The ones you mention I think maybe poisonous.

 

[Paul B]

I am curious about quarantined tanks. Do all your fish"only" die of old age or jumping out?
We don't know the age limits of many fish but clowns should live about 30 years and tangs, angels etc. should live at "least" 10 years in a tank although I think their lifespan is closer to 15 or 20 years. (I don't normally get more than 10-12 years out of them)

Pipefish and Bangai cardinals are very short lived, like 4 or 5 years.
I "only" consider success if fish never die of disease although they could be bullied. New fish don't count because we don't know how long they were in transit of if they ate in a month so it is quite normal to lose a fish within a week or two of getting it. But only for environmental things and not disease unless we purposefully and knowingly get sick fish for free or very cheap just to see if it will make it or if we want to experiment like I sometimes do.

Many times I will take a fish that I know is infected with some sort of parasites because it won't affect my current fishand I get a lot of fish for free like that.

Also what is the oldest, healthy, quarantined tank? I know Ford must have one. This hobby has been in the US since 1971.
What happened to all those tanks?

If you can only keep a tank 5 or 10 years, which is less than even the life span of a hermit crab, you can't know if most of the fish are dying of old age because most of them live longer than that.

I kept this pair of hermit crabs about 12 years. The female is the sexy one with the blue eye stalks and above the knee shell. I also saw them spawn a few times but I try not to look.