Your thoughts on "Ich-Free" tanks - IS IT POSSIBLE?

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

no, ich is not in every tank. Ich is in every tank that do not go to the process of quarantine yes.

I don't have any ich in my main tank but I do a strict quarantine on eveything. Ich is a parasite, and it does not come out of thin air. It does not have to be there at all.

Healthy fish still have it wether you see it or not, and still suffer from it wether you see it or not. At the fist sign if weakness it will be an outbreak and fish death. It is best to quarantine and dip all new fish.

Look at the quarantine process of the www.liveaquaria.com Diver's den:

I don't go to that extend but I guess a formaline dip should be the first step on all fish.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/g...al_pagesid=425

I dip my fish in Seachem Paraguard for 1 hour if they can stand it, but at least 30 minutes. Then I treat with Praziquantal for a week and that is a reef safe med that take care of flukes and internal parasites.

I had ich in my quarantine on a blue hippo tang and a kole tang and treated both well with hyposalinity.

In that time I was not doing the dip but now I do it and often that's enough to kill everything right from the start. I also have real formaline 37% but I find Paraguard safer.

Dont worry Daniella i'm not gonna argue with you. Your right about everything. Your know it all rants just get too annoying to deal with. Almost time to for me to start using the ignore user button like most others have.

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Dont worry Daniella i'm not gonna argue with you. Your right about everything. Your know it all rants just get too annoying to deal with. Almost time to for me to start using the ignore user button like most others have.

dont do it. it'll take all the fun out of it

[marie]

I am pretty sure that at this time my main tank does not have ich.

I have the ultimate ich magnet, an achilles tang. Even after removing all the rock, stirring the sand bed up in the process and placing all the rock back in a different position (high stress) my tang has never had a single white spot on him.
All my fish were quarantined for 8 weeks and treated with cupramine for 2 of those weeks before being added to the display. I have an achilles tang (6 yrs), a regal angel(6yrs), 2 potters angels(2 yrs) and a copperband butterfly (3 yrs) all hard to keep fish with never any signs of ich.....

[Reef Pilot]

I'm no fan of Daniella either due to a past encounter about my Copperbands. However, have to agree with her this time, as I learned my lesson last year with not quarantining new fish.

Now I put all new fish through the hypo-salinity treatment. I just completed an 8 week treatment process a few months ago, and no problems this time when I put them into the display tank. I knew the new fish had ich, because a couple days after bringing them home from the lfs, they were scratching and flashing. The extra time in quarantine also allowed me to get them feeding well, and they were good and healthy by the time they were moved to the display tank.

I think a mistake some people make, too, is not having them in quarantine long enough.

I know there is a big debate about this subject, but I for one, will always be quarantining with hypo-salinity going forward. I do not want to risk introducing ich again into my display tank.

[MarkoD]

I've been on both sides. And I have lost more fish my 25 gallon quarantine than when I add fish directly to my 180 gallon display

[Coralgurl]

I lost my coral beauty in my dt to ich just over a month ago. Other fish started showing signs so I set up a qt and moved them over. Started treating with copper, within 2 hours, clowns died. I did not overdose, I was extremely careful with dosing. Then I lost 3 more fish. They were eating well, looked ok and one by one died. Daily 30% water changes, I have 2 left. I will be placing the cardinal back in dt this weekend, chromis has developed something under it's fin so going to try treating him. I will not qt another fish. I think the stress of catching them to move caused more harm than good. I feed with selcon and garlic daily.

[Lampshade]

I agree with most on here aboutt he QT. The stress of being in QT is worse in many cases than the stress of a new tank. why do it twice? A BIG reason to do it is in an agressive system with fresh caught fish. They are not healthy enough to be in the DT yet because of the travel time, and will not last.

Easy solution, buy healthy fish :P

I also believe that ich is in every tank, If you put together an entire ecosystem of single celled creatures up to full size fish and managed to filter out one single celled creature in the mean time, you deserve a Nobel Prize.

[marie]

Originally Posted by Lampshade

I also believe that ich is in every tank, If you put together an entire ecosystem of single celled creatures up to full size fish and managed to filter out one single celled creature in the mean time, you deserve a Nobel Prize.

Except that particular creature can't survive for an extended period of time without a host (fish) so if everything wet that goes into your tank is kept for a minimum of 6 weeks in a fishless system, then Voila.......no ich

[MKLKT]

Originally Posted by Lampshade

I agree with most on here aboutt he QT. The stress of being in QT is worse in many cases than the stress of a new tank. why do it twice? A BIG reason to do it is in an agressive system with fresh caught fish. They are not healthy enough to be in the DT yet because of the travel time, and will not last.

Easy solution, buy healthy fish :P

I also believe that ich is in every tank, If you put together an entire ecosystem of single celled creatures up to full size fish and managed to filter out one single celled creature in the mean time, you deserve a Nobel Prize.

This is more or less my view as well, and I share Marko's too.

I personally just believe in having a robust balance of all classes of animal in my tank from the bacterial level up to fish and coral. Keeping healthy levels of necessary nutrients in the water, low stress environment with ample area to have territory and taking care to understand what environment the fish came from previously.

It's kinda like how certain corals really don't need acclimation at all; temperature at the most. Certain animals lack the necessary ability to shift salt levels from between their skin and the outside water and require a prolonged acclimation for that reason. Blanket methods are just a waste of time and likely give a false sense of security. The same is true of quarantine and using a lot of additives.

Be responsible in your purchases, use a LFS that follows proper methods of receiving livestock. If anything THAT should be your quarantine, no? Put the fish on hold/put money down and pick it up after sufficient time.

I'd imagine a quarantine tank is the most stressful environment that the fish will experience on its trip to your tank. Your heart is in the right place but I'm not a believer.