Auquanut
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My Tank Thread
There have been a lot of threads lately about disease/parasite management VS prevention. This isn't one of those.
I KNOW I've had ich in the DT. When the tank was young, my hippo tang would get spots from time to time. Particularly after a water change. Seems like each outbreak may have been a stress response. I literally haven't seen any physical manifestation of ich in at least a couple of years. Also, I haven't added anything, corals, inverts or fish in over a year.
Two weeks ago, I started a fluconazol treatment for bryopsis. After about a week, my hippo got 3 spots. The spots looked too big to be ich, and only lasted about a couple of days. Didn't seem to bother her at all. I had kind of assumed that without any noticeable cysts for so long (I look long and hard at the tank daily), that the tank may have ridded itself of ich. Probably being naïve. I've started to doubt that theory. The spots could have been a manifestation of ich due to stress caused by the Reef Flux treatment, even though I've seen no ill effects to any other inhabitants and my parameters haven't fluctuated drastically.
So my question is: With long term ich management, if the fish are able to resist cysts from forming for an extended period of time, is it possible to break the life cycle of ich? I haven't been able to find any compelling information (factual or anecdotal) on the subject.
I realize that conventional wisdom will be to quarantine the fish and let the tank run fallow for 72 days to rid the tank of ich. That's not the purpose of this post. Just wanting people's thoughts on the possibility (as unlikely as it may be) of the elimination of ich through long term management.
I KNOW I've had ich in the DT. When the tank was young, my hippo tang would get spots from time to time. Particularly after a water change. Seems like each outbreak may have been a stress response. I literally haven't seen any physical manifestation of ich in at least a couple of years. Also, I haven't added anything, corals, inverts or fish in over a year.
Two weeks ago, I started a fluconazol treatment for bryopsis. After about a week, my hippo got 3 spots. The spots looked too big to be ich, and only lasted about a couple of days. Didn't seem to bother her at all. I had kind of assumed that without any noticeable cysts for so long (I look long and hard at the tank daily), that the tank may have ridded itself of ich. Probably being naïve. I've started to doubt that theory. The spots could have been a manifestation of ich due to stress caused by the Reef Flux treatment, even though I've seen no ill effects to any other inhabitants and my parameters haven't fluctuated drastically.
So my question is: With long term ich management, if the fish are able to resist cysts from forming for an extended period of time, is it possible to break the life cycle of ich? I haven't been able to find any compelling information (factual or anecdotal) on the subject.
I realize that conventional wisdom will be to quarantine the fish and let the tank run fallow for 72 days to rid the tank of ich. That's not the purpose of this post. Just wanting people's thoughts on the possibility (as unlikely as it may be) of the elimination of ich through long term management.
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