3 Questions about Ich.

1) Can ich just develop on a fish from being stressed or does it have to be brought in?

2) Does copper kill ich in all 3 stages of its life or just free swimming?

3) how long does it take for copper to cure ich in a quarantine tank?

Thanks

 

1) Being stressed reduces immunity and also thins their slime coat making them more susceptible to the parasite on both accounts. If they had a low grade case of Ich or a new specimen brings in Ich, it can become a full blown problem if the fish are stressed and less able to fight it off.

2) No just the swimming stage.

3) How ever long it takes the cycle of the Ich to reach the free swimming stage. There are always some that make it through one pass and are traditionally killed on the second.

 

Adding/clarifying:

1) Ich has to be present, but stress can make it worse by making the fish more susceptible. If you QT every fish and kill every bit of ich before it gets into your DT, you can't have an outbreak of ich in the DT, period. That assumes you never mix even a drop of water from another tank that has had even the most mild case into your tank, you always QT every coral and invert you get, and don't use any equipment or tools from the QT in the DT.

2) I was fairly sure it affected the cyst-on-the-sand stage as well, albiet at a much lower efficacy rate.

3) Agreed; Ich can take anywhere from a few days to months to complete a full cycle, but 2 months is considered the maximum outside of a very unusually long cycle.

 

QT does not get rid of Ich. It can still get into your system unless you treat with something like copper or hypo first. It's a "hope-it-shows-up-in-QT" kind of situation. It isn't guaranteed to be in places or in numbers where we can see it. Those seemingly Ich free fish get placed in the DT.... Ich in tow.

No, this is not correct. If you read it somewhere it was from a forum or a hobbyists write up. Go find the source of that info. You won't find it tied to a researched based journal.

 

Nope, I didn't. Just thought I read it on one of the sites that had a bit more info on ich than average, as it had the stages + the only 3 treatments.

I'd also do hypo for nearly any fish in QT, as fish tend to be a bit less sensitive to hypo - as in, nearly none care too much as long as you go down slowly.

 

Thanks guys. I have usually assumed the worst (especially with tangs) and start copper treatment one week into qt. Is this ok? what do you treat coral with as far as medication and qt?

 

Well, especially for tangs, using copper isn't really the best thing to do without reason. It can damage their gills and kidneys. It hurts tangs more than most other fish because they're very sensitive to oxygen levels in the tank.

Instead, for fish, you can do hyposalinity, taking down the salinity by .001-.002 per day until you get to ~0.014. That will kill ich too, and stress the fish less than copper.

 

I can't get hypo to work for me for one fish. I hypo alot of fish..... but something is up. It looked like Ich under a scope. Clinically, it definitely looked like Ich and yet I can't get rid of it.

 

What were you going down to? I've heard numbers as low as 1.011 mentioned for hypo.

 

1.008.... 3 months. That way it never goes above 1.009, which is suppose to be the magic number. Never hit 1.010 once.