Ich

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The only thing I'm aware of that is relatively safe in your DT while still being potentially effective for a treatment is H2O2 dosing. Your zoas will be upset and any shrimp are likely to die, but everything else seems to do OK. Cleared velvet out of my system despite not being able to go fallow (similar reason to you, couldn't catch my firefish). Results are not consistent for ich unfortunately.

There are low dose H2O2 test strips available that allow you to test for low amounts of peroxide. Then, you can modulate the dose to hopefully keep from killing shrimp and other inverts. I won’t dose peroxide without using them….the reactive level of oxidants is so dependent on organic levels in the tank, and those change with time as it is dosed.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Yes Jay this is a problem and I can't help that. Clams and worms are one part. But it's the same problem if people quarantine and add another fish in the middle of the quarantine process, or don't use the proper amount of copper for the correct amount of time. Any method has problems if it isn't followed correctly which is why so many fish in this hobby are dying for stupid reasons.

If people are lazy they are going to fail no matter what they do. These are living animals and any flaw in their treatment will cause them to die and they will blame the current methods they are using even if they do it wrong.

I get that all the time, what you just said. "So all I have to do is feed clams and worms and I don't have to quarantine?". I never said or implied that.

People write me all the time and tell me their fish died after following my instructions, then they say they fed quality pellets and quarantined only for a month or dosed with copper. And put the fish in a bare tank with PVC elbows. Something you may do in a quarantined system.

I post almost every day, answer numerous questions on many forums, write dozens of articles,I spoke at quite a few aquarium societies and will do it again twice in the next few months and wrote a book. What else can I do?

I invite people all the time to my home and even tell them they can bring a sick fish to throw in my tank. It is not my job to force people how to take care of their fish. Thats up to them and I say it all the time, this hobby is very easy, but we make it hard. I am an electrician with no training in aquaculture and I never lose a fish to a communicable disease. How hard can it be?

As I said, I think you should reinforce that people cannot just pick and choose from your ideas, especially about food. I subscribe to the Latin phrase “Primum non nocere,” or “First, do no harm.”

Jay

 

[Paul B]

Jay, I don't know how else to say it. It is in my book and in most of my articles and posts. I just 5 minutes ago posted it on another forum. "You need to do the entire system. not just parts of it". Just like quarantinng. If you do it wrong, you are screwed.

I only speak English but if I could I would post it in Latin, Hieroglyphics, and Whatever the Aztecs spoke.

If people only read the first sentence I really have no control over that but remember, many fish are also lost to quarantine because they do it wrong

 

[Paul B]

Jay I posted this thread a while ago. It shows how stress, including quarantine or medication among other things shortens the lifespan of fish.
I got this in a neurologist conference.

Fish lifespans and what we can do to lengthen it.

I just sat through a 6 hour lecture on this and I needed to get it out of my head Why do fish, and us have a lifespan? Why can't we live forever like Moses who was supposed to live 900 years. (I doubt he lived a day over 600) There is actually a reason we have a life span and none of us ever...

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