Ich eradication vs. Ich management

[Lowell Lemon]

@alin2
You might be interested to know the world's leading authority on sea snakes and poisioness fishes was an M.D. who was hired by the U.S. Navy to study the toxins and may have resulted in treatment protocols. Dr. Bruce Halstead...classmate of my father in Medical School. His interest in fish almost bounced him out of medical school. He was also known as the father of Bio-toxicology. However, let's not talk about his efforts with Laetrile and other less than successful Cancer treatments. He did contribute a lot to the study of fish though.

 

[Paul B]

My working theory is that you have super models soaking in the tank once a month. Or maybe they just have to be in the same room to be effective. hmmm

Merideth, you have Supermodel status so you should never have any problems with your tank. Homely guys like me have to work harder (or have Supermodels on stand by) because fish don't like to look at me. Except for angler fish and puffers because they feel I am kin. When I go on vacation and leave the Supermodel fish sitter, they always look better and are spawning. Then they look at me and get cramps.

 

[APLATN13]

Say if u have ich in your tank and the fish that is currently in the tank is immune. Will the ich die on its own after awhile (6 months to a year)? Your will be forever in the tank?

 

[Humblefish]

Say if u have ich in your tank and the fish that is currently in the tank is immune. Will the ich die on its own after awhile (6 months to a year)? Your will be forever in the tank?

Not forever, but so long as fish are present, ich continues its life cycle for almost 4 years (on average). If another fish is introduced with ich, the new strain restarts the 4 year clock.

 

[APLATN13]

Not forever, but so long as fish are present, ich continues its life cycle for almost 4 years (on average). If another fish is introduced with ich, the new strain restarts the 4 year clock.

Guess, I have to pull out my fox face, diamond gobies, lawnmower blenny and rhom wrasse.

 

[melypr1985]

Guess, I have to pull out my fox face, diamond gobies, lawnmower blenny and rhom wrasse.

It sucks but it's well worth it in the end

 

[Paul B]

Ich is in my tank and the fish are fine. I wish the ich was larger so I can keep them right along with the fish, they could be fiends and play together. Ich are probably interesting looking things if we could se them.
Sort of like aardvarks, only different

 

[merlberg]

Can anyone suggest a good UV sterilzer for my 120 DT and a sump that is 55 please? Also would i be able to leave the UV sterilizer in the Sump or does it have to be where the fish are?

 

[kevindo123]

I just got a Emperor Aquatics smartUV high output 50W and it works great. Its oversize for my tank (rated at 300+ gallons) but has a lower height compared to the standard UV units and can fit under my tank. You can get a the manual online and can read up on the recommended placement and setup. For me, I just connect to one of the return outlet of my manifold and the output of the UV back into the sump further away from the overflow output.

 

[1stNoel]

Ich is in my tank and the fish are fine. I wish the ich was larger so I can keep them right along with the fish, they could be fiends and play together. Ich are probably interesting looking things if we could se them.
Sort of like aardvarks, only different

Paul,

I've migrated to your view. I tried doing 15 days of copper treatment and 30 days a separate quarantine tank, but stuffing all my fish from a 300g into smaller tanks is just not feasible. Although they weren't fighting, all of the tangs kept congragating on one end of the quarantine tank (55g) and unintentionally beating each other up. After about 5 days, and feeling like I was doing more damage than good, I placed them back in the display tank.

Everyone is happy again. And although I may see an occasional few spots of ich on the same 2 fish, their behavior does not indicate they are unhappy or laboring.

That said, I am using Selcon & Garlic along with vitamins to build up their immunity. I also keep nori in the tank to make sure everyone is well nourished.

Speaking to the LFSs, the consensus opinion is that ALL their tanks have ich. It's about ich management.

 

[Paul B]

1stNoel, IMO I would forget the Selcon and Garlic and start feeding foods every day that have live bacteria in them. Like worms and clams if you can get them. Fish need live bacteria in their gut at every meal. That is the only way fish can become immune from all these silly disease so many tanks are plagued from.
Just my opinion of course.

 

[Sully]

Paul, would buying live clams and oysters, shucking them, and then freezing in cubes work the same way? Or is the bacteria gone once you freeze the clams/oysters? I've been using this combo for a couple months now along with vita chem.

 

[mcarroll]

Freezing leaves more of the live bacteria still "viable" then any other preservation method. Keep in mind that only your DIY foods are probably good this way. I would bet that any commercial frozen preparation has been irradiated or otherwise preserved, ruining the bacterial content.

 

[mcarroll]

Ich are probably interesting looking things if we could se them.

Nope...blobs.

Parasitic (and other) copepods, on the other hand...

 

[Sully]

I buy fresh and clean, prepare and freeze it myself.

 

[kevindo123]

I have ich in my tank. All residents including new yellow scopas tang seems to have build up an immunity except for my old timer Harlequin Tusk.

It seems to be sensitive to ich and would get ill by it easily the following day in DT. For two weeks, the poor guy was suffering too much that had to take him out for copper treatment. Ich has been cleared up now in QT.

How best to build up his immunity? I will take the advice to feed him some live clams after copper treatment. I was also thinking of treating him with Herbtana and Artemiss by Microbe-lift in QT. Anyone tried this before to build up fish immunity for ich?

 

[Paul B]

Fresh, live clams are a very good food, probably the best food IMO and I don't think the freezing will affect most of the bacteria. We are not keeping them in the freezer as long as commercially prepared foods and our freezers are also probably not as cold as commercial units. Clams, oysters and mussels are filter feeders so they collect everything from the water and store it in their tissues, They are also loaded with calcium which our fish are missing because they are used to eating fresh, live "whole" fish with the bones intact. Did you ever see a fish spit out the bones of a meal?
I freeze them and shave off paper thin slices but most of my fish are small. I cut larger chunks for bigger fish and some corals.
Many people can't get clams, I would advise them to move, or, less expensive use something like LRS foods.

 

[mcarroll]

I'd love to see the reef2reef video crew do a piece on you processing a frozen clam for a feeding session.

When you have land lubbers like me out here that are so green to seafood they can't even get the frozen clam open…

But seriously…

@reefwiser ?

 

[Paul B]

I normally eat them myself before I let my fish have any. Those and oysters are among my favorite foods. I can walk along the shore and pick them up and eat them just like M&Ms. Kind of.

One for me, one for the fish, two for me, one for the fish etc.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

We have a weird sort of bromance, Paul.

I just fell of my chair.