Blue Hippo Tang keeps getting ich.

[straightrazorguy]

I don't ever get involved in this kind of nonsense, but I feel like I have to! None of the local stores quarantine fish. So, they all have the potential to be sick or carry something. I ALWAYS quarantine all my fish, whether I get them from the store or trusted friends. I've had fish die in quarantine , but I've had zero outbreaks in all my years of fishkeeping...

Quarantine your fish, people!

[rsisvixen]

Would like to point out that no one said lfs stores didn't treat the tanks, just that they don't quarantine. Two completely separate issues.

To answer your other question the QT period should be 4 weeks but thats adjustable based on a lot of factors.

And really, insulting and "yelling" your point at everyone is not the way to have a discussion.

[kien]

[kyl]

Wow this thread sure blew up!

I've gotten all three major problems on livestock bought locally over the last two years, two on something purchased last week if you want an example (ich / flukes). No LFS around here is going to run them through a full gamut of quarantine for ich, velvet and flukes (not to mention brooklynella, bacterial infections, internal parasites, a myriad of others), for the proper duration and utilizing contamination controls that would also be required (room separated tanks, sanitizing all equipment, etc). At least, not at the prices most people will pay, which is why it doesn't happen.

The OP is having a problem with ich, on whom a tang with a thinner slime coat is more susceptible to gaining larger scale infections. Only fish infected with ich have ich, if quarantined properly, they will not have ich until placed in an environment infected with ich. As for casual observation, you can't even see the ich parasite on a fish, or in any life cycle stage with the naked eye. Only the results of the damage done, the white specs, are visible. As well, most of the parasites will host in the fish's gills rather than on the body, leaving no visual traces.

It took like 2 weeks to learn that from casually reading academic studies, mostly revolving around the wholesale aquaculture (not hobbyist) industry. It's not made up, those business can't afford to make things up when they have millions in food stock potentially at risk of loss from an outbreak. The life cycle, treatment, prevention and ineffective control methods are all well studded and cited in dozens of published journals at this point, probably more well known than any other marine fish disease we'll see in our tanks.