ich options

[iplumbsome]

I have read a lot about ich and the ways to rid the tank of it, but I can't decide which route I want to go.

I had an outbreak and lost about 3 fish to it. The vast majority survived and show no signs of it now for the last couple of weeks.

Treating the DT isn't an option. I finally got my QT tank set up and my original plan was to get the fish out and treat with copper than after waiting the number of days to exceed the life cycle reintroduce my fish. This of course has it's challenges because I really don't want to pull all my rock. I bought a fish trap and was hoping to get them with that.

My other option would be to go with the notion that all tanks have ich and to keep your fish healthy and they'll fight it off. My problem with this is I am about done with "starter" fish and was going to start spending what I consider a lot for a fish ($100+), but I of course don't want to have a fish die after what I am assuming will be another outbreak.

My other option would be to QT all incoming fish. This seems kinda silly if we go by the notion that all tanks have ich. What's the point of quarantining if they are just going to end up with it from my tank anyways.

What says you guys?

 

[Crabs McJones]

I say to take all fish out and treat and let the tank run fallow for 76 days. You dont want to risk the more advance expensive fish getting sick in the future. Itll cost you less money and heartache to do it correctly now then to loose fish later on.

 

[iplumbsome]

I say to take all fish out and treat and let the tank run fallow for 76 days. You dont want to risk the more advance expensive fish getting sick in the future. Itll cost you less money and heartache to do it correctly now then to loose fish later on.

That is what I was leaning towards. Any idea if you can keep a diamond watchman goby in a bare bottom tank. I didn't want to mess with sand if I was going to run copper.

 

[Crabs McJones]

That is what I was leaning towards. Any idea if you can keep a diamond watchman goby in a bare bottom tank. I didn't want to mess with sand if I was going to run copper.

Should be fine. I didnt have an issues with mine

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

my advice... BUY A HANNAH COPPER METER!!!

the cheap kits are a joke.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

did you positively id it as crypto? not all fish can handle copper so be careful and research it.

 

[theMeat]

There is no definitive answer. Have been in hobby a long time and can tell you some qt everything and take every precaution and still have problems. Some do nothing and have none. My conclusion is it’s not luck. If you have a tank that’s not too crowded, low stress, feed a well balanced diet that includes some fresh non frozen food, and do some pest limiting practices like a 100 micron sock and or uv you should be fine. Key words there is should be.
I haven’t run a sock or qt in years now, and have to say my success is better. I do run a uv, mostly for water clarity since I don’t do carbon neither. The last time a tore apart my tank to catch all the fish, set up qt. Did treatment, then non treatment observation period. All while my tank sat fallow for 90 days. Only to watch ich come back once reintroduced. That’s when I said no more qt and haven’t looked back. Tried tank transfer, hypo, copper. No more for me. When I buy a fish it gets freshwater dip, most of the time. It only gets qt if it has obvious signs of disease and I feel like s lil time alone will be good.
Good luck with whatever path you take

 

[Punchanello]

I feel your pain. I QT'ed and still got ich but I still believe that if you get it right you all but eliminate the risk and it's what's best for your livestock. In my case, I messed up somewhere along the way with QT and exposed my tank to ich. Probably cross contamination. I'm doing 76 days fallow and it's a PITA, but I didn't see any other viable option.

 

[theMeat]

I feel your pain. I QT'ed and still got ich but I still believe that if you get it right you all but eliminate the risk and it's what's best for your livestock. In my case, I messed up somewhere along the way with QT and exposed my tank to ich. Probably cross contamination. I'm doing 76 days fallow and it's a PITA, but I didn't see any other viable option.

Yup, heard it all. Ich can jump up to 3 yards so have tanks far apart. Ich can live in sand for years so don’t mix sandbed. Blah blah blah. With tank transfer I can see cross contamination happening. With hypo and evap I can see problems too. The last time I did coppermine it wasn’t the first time and did it on a separate level of the house. With separate nets, testers, food source and everything. There was absolutely no chance of cross contamination and yet it returned. After 6 weeks of observation with no signs. It took a few months to return. I had no new additions. No fish, coral, rocks, nothing.

 

[ca1ore]

Depending upon the size and complexity of your system, the wisest course would be to fallow the tank and treat all fish ..... and then quarantine all new additions. Ich management is possible, but it depends on some things you can control and on others you cannot. I do practice management, but I appear to be fortunate in that the particular strain that inhabits my tank is not particularly potent. There are certain tangs that I cannot keep, but otherwise an oversized UV and thick slime coats from good water quality and heavy feeding keeps it at bay. Unfortunately there’s no way to gauge the potency of your strain short of just seeing how it goes. Not terribly helpful.

BTW, even with a system containing ich there are many good reasons to quarantine. Ich is hardly the worst parasite in the fish supply chain, and you don’t want to add genetic diversity to the strain you have. I have read that an un fortified ich strain will die out over time - 5 years and still waiting in my case.

I have over 120 fish in my system, the vast majority of which were added after I knew it had ich. I’ve only lost one that I suspect was ich, and that an aforementioned tang that had been with me for 4 years.

 

[Jet915]

I do ich management, i didn't have a quarantine tank when i started up. I lost a couple of fish to ich. Instead of breaking down my tank, i got an oversized UV i run 24/7, supplement my food with selcon, feed nori daily. Havent seen signs of ich for the last 5 months. Im sure luck has something to do with it and im done getting new fish but its worked for me so far...

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

well for what itnis worth, my story is like many above. i have a 300 gallon tank with lots of tangs. Qtd all of them, somehow ich got in the tank. i blamed some coral on cultured rock.

my lfs store said just stay the course, but those i trust here said go fallow. so i tore the whole tank apart to get all thr fish out. those nine anthias...my god it was a PIA!!! i finally said.. you are coming out of this rock or you are going to die!

flash forward 70 days and 100's of gallona of water changes, the fish are bearing each other up in QT and i was just done with it (and my hippo tang started getting MHLEE) pulled them out and put them back in.

i was soo proud of myself for "doing the right thing" 3 months later... its back. That was 2 weeks ago. the ich hasnt been that bad and i do feed them well. i built a 180 gallon qt tank out of plywood and pond liner but i honestly cant decide if i am going to try to pull them out again.

ich through the air?? what the heck?!! sigh...