Living with ich... The right thing to do?

[Hondatek]

So unfortunately as the title states I am currently living with ich in my tank for about the past month or so. I have dealt with ich about 8 years ago and went the qt with hypo route , but this time I have decided to live with it and see if they can survive the 11 or so months for it to burn out. My issue is I have days where I feel like it might not be the way to go and I become conflicted.

Its a 180 fowlr tank with a pair of volitans , a magnificent foxface ,and a moorish idol. The idol and foxface have had two extremely minimal outbreaks where it is literally just 5 spots. The lions on the other hand seem to be taking the brunt of it and tend to break out a lot more but still not a terrible case from pictures I have seen. I am going to assume the ich has had at least 3 life cycles at this point. All the fish are fat and eat normally and I have yet to see any flashing or redness around the gills. So to me it seems like things are not getting really bad at this point.

So I know I am not really posing a question here. I am hoping to hear from others who have went this route with living with it and hear some first hand experiences on how it went. Also if I am being an idiot for not treating please chime in with your opinions as well. Thanks

 

[HotRocks]

I don't think you are being an idiot. But I can tell you it won't "burn out".

You can employ some additional management techniques. Things like oxydator, UV, diatom filter if you so choose that route.

If it's a FOWLR and you never plan to have corals you could just dose copper in the DT, while it may not be recommended by most, it's an option.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.188775/

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You’re in the middle of a bloom. It’ll last a few more weeks most likely

Try some of the kick Ich and reefsafe methods. It’ll kill off the free swimmers and provide some relief to the fish.

Fwiw, I’ve never had an ick explosion like that. It would indicate a stressor or systemic health problem to me.

 

[brandon429]

am asking this to make sure I refer to Humblefish's threads correctly:

isn't the ideal action to house the fish elsewhere/pay a lfs to house them/use a dedicated new hosp tank to house n treat them, but the DT goes fallow 76 days and the rules for prevention of cross vectoring new diseases apply afterwards (nothing goes back in that didn't complete a fallow phase or direct medicated kill of crypto) and this cures the ich the complete way?

If removing fish aren't in play then I could see treating in tank, but isn't removing fish/ treating them in another tank to kill ich + re fallow the only true way to fix it

 

[HotRocks]

am asking this to make sure I refer to Humblefish's threads correctly:

isn't the ideal action to house the fish elsewhere/pay a lfs to house them/use a dedicated new hosp tank to house n treat them, but the DT goes fallow 76 days and the rules for prevention of cross vectoring new diseases apply afterwards (nothing goes back in that didn't complete a fallow phase or direct medicated kill of crypto) and this cures the ich the complete way?

If removing fish aren't in play then I could see treating in tank, but isn't removing fish/ treating them in another tank to kill ich + re fallow the only true way to fix it

Correct, erradication would require treating the fish separately and allowing the tank to fallow.

If there is nothing in the tank that copper is harmful to, you could also treat the fish in the tank with copper. Again with rock absorbing copper and then possible to leave it out later, it isn't the best option. But it could also erradicate it from the system/fish.

 

[Hondatek]

I must have been mistaken but I was under the impression without adding any new ich it would eventually burn out in that time frame. And thanks for the post you linked I read it a few weeks ago. As far as buying reef safe cures I will not waste money on them. My return pump did fail a few weeks ago so I was without a sump for 24 hours so that could have caused some stress. The only other stress I could think of is the idol taking over the tank. Definitely no plans for a reef in this tank but isn't copper a bit harsh for the idol?

 

[brandon429]

no the crypto/ alternating generation phases will house in the sandbed and all the live rock and be avail for rework as soon as a new stressor makes the fish able to receive it, Ive read that part for sure. doing it that way is where treating the whole tank is possible with fish, but will never be a true safe action like separate fallow would be. So glad my freshwater tank doesn't have to work this way.

 

[HotRocks]

I must have been mistaken but I was under the impression without adding any new ich it would eventually burn out in that time frame. And thanks for the post you linked I read it a few weeks ago. As far as buying reef safe cures I will not waste money on them. My return pump did fail a few weeks ago so I was without a sump for 24 hours so that could have caused some stress. The only other stress I could think of is the idol taking over the tank. Definitely no plans for a reef in this tank but isn't copper a bit harsh for the idol?

No actually the longer it manifests in a tank the more it multiplies as long as free swimmers are attaching to fish and completing the cycle.

My idol did just fine in copper for 30 days. Also went through antibiotics due to a bacterial infection.

 

[Hondatek]

Ok well dosing the dt is the last thing I want to do. I would much rather just run hypo in it if it gets to that point which I am not at yet. I have a big uv sterilizer somewhere I just need a pump for it so I will stick that on there to help things for the time being.

 

[4FordFamily]

If your lion fish have spots more than you can count at any point — you’ve already lost the battle. The next life cycle will be a couple orders of magnitude worse and this will continue until your fish have had enough and the parasites have literally sucked the life out of your fish.

I’m sorry but you’re playing with fire,

 

[Hondatek]

The lions have the worst of it in my tank yes but they are very far from even a moderate outbreak at this point. I will try to get some pictures tomorrow that show what I am dealing with. I do agree that next time has more of a chance to get worse than better. How much trouble would hypo in the display be ? All the rock in my tank started as dry rock 9 years ago so there are no bristle worms and things of that nature to cause a spike from die off. I can always find a spare tank if need be but I would prefer not to have to move the idol. It has been doing so well and gaining lots of weight recently and I would like to keep it as easy on it as possible.

 

[HotRocks]

The lions have the worst of it in my tank yes but they are very far from even a moderate outbreak at this point. I will try to get some pictures tomorrow that show what I am dealing with. I do agree that next time has more of a chance to get worse than better. How much trouble would hypo in the display be ? All the rock in my tank started as dry rock 9 years ago so there are no bristle worms and things of that nature to cause a spike from die off. I can always find a spare tank if need be but I would prefer not to have to move the idol. It has been doing so well and gaining lots of weight recently and I would like to keep it as easy on it as possible.

IMO you have a much better chance of success with the idol by treating him. I would chance allowing ich to overtake such a sensitive fish to begin with.

 

[Hondatek]

I decided yesterday to just bite the bullet and hypo the display. Took it down to 1.013 yesterday and going to finish taking it down the rest of the way tonight. Just need a quick refresher . I plan to do a full 8 week treatment. Is it 8 weeks after the last spot is seen or 8 weeks once the tank is in hypo ?