ich

[Salmon King]

I may have stumbled on a new cure for ich.I just bought a m/f Watanabe angels.The ended up cover in ich from head to tail.A local pet store manager came over and looked.We planed to dismantle the 135 reef to remove the fish and copper them.I went out and a fuse blew .I figured the tank had no power for 6 to 8hrs.Some of the corral looked abit on the bad side.I flicked the fuse to power everything up.The next day there wasnt any ich on the fish.I could not believe it.Even the pet store guy was shocked.Cant explain it except ich isnt as hardy as the fish or corral.I am not saying to do this yet but could be a good exsperiment for somebody.I did lose acouple corral out of 100

[mark]

Cure or just the parasite dropped off?

[fkshiu]

I highly doubt that did anything. If you examined the fish under a microscope you'd probably find parasites.

More likely, what happened his that the parasites simply went into a different part of their life cycle by dropping off the fish into the substrate during darkness. From Steven Pro's article:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

"Mature trophonts leave the host and tomites exit the theront/cyst in the dark (Yoshinaga & Dickerson, 1994). Imagine if you will, a fish that randomly acquires a single Ich parasite. After a couple of days when the trophont is well fed, it prepares to drop off its host but waits for the environmental trigger of darkness. Meanwhile, the fish prepares to "bed down" in its favorite hiding spot in the aquarium; the same fish occupy the same spot practically every night. Now, the trophont leaves the fish, encysts, and begins to multiply. Several days to weeks go by and that same fish returns to its same spot at night, only this time there are hundreds of infectious theronts seeking out a host/victim in the same area. I am sure some of you are thinking that this is absolutely diabolical. Others can appreciate the simple beauty of this plan. To me, it is just another reminder of how remarkable evolution and adaptation is."

If ich were this easy to kill natural selection would have wiped it out eons ago.

[justinl]

that was an interesting quote franklin and i have to say i agree with you. in fact, from what Ive seen, parasites are usually tougher to kill from water quality than the hosts. Ive done some work with sea lice on salmon and i have to say... It's kind of freaky watching them scuttle about happily... in 10% buffered formalin.

[BC564]

I have a cleaner wrasse in my tank that seems to kick the crap out of ick. A the fish take there turn and visit him for routine check ups.....its quite strange to watch.....the wrasse is almost always in the front right corner..and they come to him just like we would go to a doctor.....

[Salmon King]

I have a 255 gal fish only tank besides the 2 reef.I have delt with ich since the beggining in this hobby for 14 years.There is no ich on these angels at all in the reef tank for 4 days after the power outage. These fish were loaded with it as my local fish store manager wittnessed. When You have ich it does not dissapear one day and show up the next.It is on the fish always.I new it was going to be a battle to save them and a hassle to rip apart a 135 with a hundred corral in it.As I said this could be a good exsperiment for some one mybe me

[Aquattro]

Rob, you may want to try garlic. Works great for me.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Salmon King

next time I cook spagetti I will try it

You won't be sorry, I had that for dinner. You also won't have any ich. I'm surprised that after so many years of doing this you haven't caught on to the garlic thing. I'll show you how to do it next time I'm over.
It's also good in butter on toasted bread.

[SeaShell]

I feed garlic when my fish have ich.... Is there another trick?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by SeaShell

I feed garlic when my fish have ich.... Is there another trick?

Just different ways of feeding it. I mush it into mostly oil and soak it all up with some nori. Works for me, although I've only had ich twice.

And mostly I'm bugging Rob, 'cause he thinks we're all crazy