How can this be? Scratching my head/very worried! Please not ICH again :( !!

[mandyplo]

A fish I failed to quarantine had ich and I lost about 5 fish. Just finished 7 weeks of my display tank being empty (no fish no inverts not even crabs or snails, only corals !! Ok and 2 clams)

I treated my fish in quarantine with copper for 4 weeks. Yesterday marked my 7th week fallow DT day so I introduced my fish back into my display (a huge maroon clown, yellow watchmen goby and blue chromis). Chromis and goby are fine. Clown has two white spots on his dorsal fin. Could this seriously be ICH still living in my tank? Would I see the trophont stage that fast on one of my fish? Less than 24 hours after introduction to the tank that previously had no fish for 7 weeks!!?

I'm so worried and discouraged I thought I was doing everything I could to rid the parasite how could this be?? Could those 2 larger white spots be something other than ICH? They aren't as small as the white spots were when my tang had ICH initially and died. These are 2 bigger spots and there are only 2 of them. After about an hour the spots were still there but not as solid white - they were faint and almost looked like they were fading or being smudged off like paint?...

Help please I can try to take a pic but the clown keeps hiding in the rocks only comes out to eat.

[mandyplo]

Bump, help please anyone?

[kien]

Originally Posted by mandyplo

Bump, help please anyone?

Are the spots still there? Yes, they definitely could be something other than ich. Could be fungus on the fins or some other parasite. Do you have a picture? How are the finish behaving ? Are they acting normal, swimming, eating, etc? or are they acting odd? Not eating, scratching themselves on rock constantly? Gulping air at the surface? General lethargy?

[sphelps]

In the end if it is ich do whatever you're comfortable with and what keeps your sleeping at night but I'd guess at least 90% of hobbyists live with ich in their tanks. It's not really much of a threat and deaths that result likely stem from other stresses, often from inexperience or poor water conditions. If you're that worried about it get yourself a good UV sterilizer and run it intermittently when ich spots first appear, it won't illuminate the ich but it will prevent large outbreaks which is the main concern.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Kafudafish

But ich shouldn't be much of a worry if the fish are eating.theyll get over it. I have an Achilles that had ich for 8 months but he always ate like crazy, eventually got over it.

I would agree with this as well. There are essentially two camps when it comes to ich. There are those who believe that fish can live with ich in the tank just fine so long as the fish are healthy. They may occasionally get ich spots on them but can fight it off if they are healthy, active and eating. It's sort of like getting a cold in this regard. Then there are those believe that ich is the root of all evil and needs to be eradicated at all cost. There is really only anecdotal evidence for either case, nothing truly scientific. You just simply have to decide for yourself which camp you want to belong to. In other words, there is no right or wrong answer, unfortunately.

In my own experience, I have never tried to eradicate ich from my tank through any means. I have four tangs, two of which get ich constantly (blue tang and powder blue tang). I have had my blue tang for over 4 years and my Powder Blue tang for 3 years. In fact, my Powder Blue tang is currently stressed again because I just added a new fish so he has ich again. However, I know that the ich will be fought off and he will remain clear of visible ich infections shortly because he is still very healthy, active and eating, despite having spots of ich on him.

[Simons]

I would agree that this is somewhat of a 'cold like symptom' story. I do believe that in 90% of the cases of ICH, you really can not completely eradicate a tank of the parasite unless you use measures that would likely kill most of your fish in the process.


I have been keeping fish for over a decade and I have not had a "visible" case of ICH in the past 5 years however; I have seen my fish flashing on occasion and it makes me wonder if this is some form of the parasite before the visible stage.

Fish are similar to humans in many regards, stress will cause them to get sick, and sick by a parasite seems illogical; if they were not sick by it before why would they get sick now if this parasite has 'always' been in the tank??

All I do know is when you have very active, colorful healthy looking fish that are not obviously stressed, they get sick less. So I guess the scientist in my believes there may still be spores of the parasite in the tank after ICH but it's my fishes stress level that dictates whether they will actually become more susceptible to the parasite or not.

[globaldesigns]

I agree with all the above, and myself don't stress about treatment prior or during an ICH episode or other (this means I also don't quarantine). I find that creating a healthy environment with proper water params, hiding areas and proper diets a much better solution.

In my case I just bought a sailfin and a powder brown... Well I have seen ich spots on most of my tangs since their introduction. I have a hippo, yellow, blonde naso, along with the new ones. Both new fish are about 3 weeks or so in my tank, all fish are fine, visible ich symptoms are almost gone (I know that I may see more), all fish are eating and exhibiting healthy characteristics.

Look at it this way: If you were to be harassed, put in a smaller living area, forced treatment that you didn't know what was happening, how would you feel? For me, the capture from wild, transport to the LFS is stress, then the rebag is again stress... You want to quarantine... more stress... recapture again more stress, move to another environment... more stress... get harassed by other fish during territorial disputes, more stress!!! I myself try to limit the number of stress situations to the animal.

Just my 2 cents.

[maron6977]

I agree with everything being said . I choose not to do anything too extreme . Moving the fish to another tank to treat I find usually stress out the fish more .
I just try & keep the fish eating well & good water conditions . My blue tang has ick right now probably because of my new tank & kept adding new tank mates but I have had him for 5 years & pretty confident he'll get over it on his own.
Good luck & keep the stress to a minimum , for you & the fish !

[scubadawg]

I received a transshipment of fsh Dec 20, 2312
Put them in a New QT, 3 days later ich, from he ocean, Cupramined the tank for 3 weeks, then reduced the Cupramine, by carbon, a week a later ich again, Cupramine for another 2 weeks, then did a transfer to Display tank.

3 weeks later in Display, saw ich on a pair of fish, raised the temp to 80 for a couple of days, I always feed Garlic guard, a few days later reduced temp back to 78, and ich was gone in a few days, so like everyone said, it's like a common cold, as long as they are active and feeding, they should be able to fight it.

I still do a QT, I received 6 tangs, 1 week later saw ich on my Powder brown tang, I Cupermine for a couple of weeks, then transferred to the display tank.

[kien]

Originally Posted by scubadawg

I received a transshipment of fsh Dec 20, 2312

Time travel?! Nice!