Ich management, how do you do it?

[bct15]

I have been seeing a lot of ich threads pop up lately and have gotten a little curious. This I'm interested to see what others think and do as well, here are my questions:

Have you ever had an ich outbreak or infection? What do you think was the cause?

Is ich ever completely cured or is it managed but always present in the fish?

What methods do you find successful in the prevention and management of ich? Do you know it is working?

When your tank has an outbreak of ich, how do you handle it and is this what you consider the best method?

Is there any equipment you feel is necessary for ich prone fish?

I know that most people will respond with quarantining fish is the best method, but there is some people who it is difficult for them to quarantine or occasionally still have the problem at some point. Hopefully this thread will be helpful for them...

 

[joker295]

i use a uv on my tank to keep the ich in check..this is my experience with it.. not to say it cant be something else... before adding the uv i had a bad ich problem but since installing it into my system havent seen a problem yet.. all my fishes are healty and ich free..

 

[pickupman66]

I have been seeing a lot of ich threads pop up lately and have gotten a little curious. This I'm interested to see what others think and do as well, here are my questions:

Have you ever had an ich outbreak or infection? What do you think was the cause?

---Yes. cause was doe to infected fish introduced to the tank without QT or anything

Is ich ever completely cured or is it managed but always present in the fish?

---It can be completely removed from your tank with proper procedures. Copper (non reef safe) and Hypo are the ONLY true cures in my opinion. there are good reefkeeping articles to back this up. If not completely eradicated from the tank it can be kept in check with healthy fish.

What methods do you find successful in the prevention and management of ich? Do you know it is working?

--for prevention in my tank, each new addition gets a freshwater dip per some guidelines I have used in teh past with good success. this kills the parasite on the fish itself and prevents it from entering the tank. my FW dips usually last up to 10 minutes. in addition, I do run UV on my tank. I plan to add a QT tank to this procedure for the next batch of fish.
My dip procedure:
Freshwater Dip for Marine Fishes

When your tank has an outbreak of ich, how do you handle it and is this what you consider the best method?

---We took our entire system down to 1.009 for 4 weeks. I was fortunate that this was a new tank with no inverts or coral at the time.

Is there any equipment you feel is necessary for ich prone fish?

---UV is good to have but is also controversial.

I know that most people will respond with quarantining fish is the best method, but there is some people who it is difficult for them to quarantine or occasionally still have the problem at some point. Hopefully this thread will be helpful for them...

my best advice is to READ READ READ. there are some great Reefkeeping Mag articles on treatment for Crypt. the more one knows about it the better.

 

[Tab28]

I have always been under the thought that ich is like a cold or flu in people. It is always around when a fish gets stressed it has a better chance at getting it. A healthy fish can overcome or resist the Ich parasite to a minor annoyance. If resistance goes down opportunity knocks.

A UV will kill it but only in the free swiming stage and if one works can you say it was the UV or just happy healthy fish is why no outbreak. I know of people who have fish effected by it even though there were no new additions to their tank, so it was not introduced, but a water chemistry or major aquascaping rearranging caused an outbreak on a fish or two.

When I do get a outbreak it usally only effects one fish and if I keep the stress down on it it normally goes away with the help of a few cleaner shrimp.

 

[byronford]

There are medications which are 'reef-safe' but since I've been keeping invertebrates I try to manage protozoan infections by increasing water changes, removing sediment (see Revolutionary sediment management thread) & using slime-coat enhancers to optimize host immune function & have cleared many outbreaks with these steps (well, I suppose they might have resolved themselves concurrently with my efforts)