I'm an Idiot

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

yes maybe...are you sure it's ick? have you id it under a microscope?

Might be just some skin irritation/pimples or a skin reaction to something.

What you describe is rare though and not representative of ich infestation.

With ich, it seem that there is different level of infection and it come be quite mild at the beginning only to become plague proportion and kill every fish at some point. Sometime it's just the opposite and it start big and become less infective after a while and only a few bits of it show up here and there.

It is very hard to predict how "virulent" an infestation of ich will turn out. I guess there are a lot of influencing factors playing a role in each situation.

and you're not willing to admit that the the scale of the infestation is determined by whether the fish are stressed or not?

I've put new fish into my tank that get covered in ich, sometimes they live, sometimes they dont. but i've never put in a new fish with ich and have it spread to the existing fish in my tank.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

but i've never put in a new fish with ich and have it spread to the existing fish in my tank.

I have...

[lockrookie]

i have too ich is my nemesis

[Doug]

Looking at Marie,s reef aquarium, her experience, her success with both corals and fish, I will take her at her word.

Here hoping he makes in back to health.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by marie

Not only has this thread become humorous and interesting, not one person has said ........"Wow, are you ever an idiot"

+1 I've had that thought before but didn't want to get in trouble for saying it.

Most fish can fight off ich, I hope he'll pull through and be ok. Usually it's only when they're really stressed that they can't fight it off. The only thing that I can think of, that could be stressing him out, is that he's getting to a size were your tank is a bit to small for him, but he's been healthy for so long it seems likely that he'll pull through.

[Chin_Lee]

I find most fish will show the signs of Ich and will take about 4-8 days before they build up enough of their immune system to fight it off. So don't worry Marie....... DOOFUS CAN DO IT.

[daniella3d]

That surely can have an influence, but I also beleive that ich can have different force or strength with different strain of the parasites. It is said that after about 10 generations the ich exhaust itself and disapear unless some new strain is re-introduced. It might be that some strain of ich are more nasty than others.

It's the same with bacterial infection, some fish might fight it and some might not, but when a very virulent strain of bacteria is on the loose very little can escape because it multiply too fast and get to a plague proportion.

It hapened to me with discus and discus plague. Had to treat all my fish for many days with permaganate potassium to save them but usually fish can fight off bacterias, unless you introduce a strain that is very nasty.

I guess it can be like the flesh eating bacteria. It is a bacteria often found in the environment and usualy does not cause trouble, until a strain of it start to attack people's flesh.

Just a theory

Or just like some strain of flukes have now developed a resistance to prazipro and are nearly impossible to kill whereas some strain of flukes (same specie) are killed easily.

Originally Posted by MarkoD

and you're not willing to admit that the the scale of the infestation is determined by whether the fish are stressed or not?

I've put new fish into my tank that get covered in ich, sometimes they live, sometimes they dont. but i've never put in a new fish with ich and have it spread to the existing fish in my tank.

[doch]

First of all, I'm pretty sure that in my readings I had found that ich is present in every tank, but a healthy fish is able to fight them off. I'm going to have to agree with Marko (except for the gallon of ich in a tank part), but unfortunately I won't be able to back it up.

Second, what about a neon goby and/or cleaner wrase (preferably the goby as the wrasses don't have great track records)? Cleaner shrimp? My regal tang ends up with ich on occassion and when he's got it, he spends a lot of time with me neon goby... and then he's fine. Just a suggestion.

Also, out of curiosity, what kind of fish is Doofus?

[Chin_Lee]

Doofus is an Achilles Tang

[marie]

This is a Doofus, ich is very obvious on him

Ich is present in every tank that has not practiced rigorous quarantining. Everyone is agreed that ich needs fish to survive so if a tank has been fallow (no fish, nothing new added)) for at least 8 weeks then it would stand to reason the ich would die out. Then if every fish has gone through hyposalinity or copper treatment before being added to tank......where exactly could the ich come from? it doesn't manufacture itself from thin air/water
My tank has gone through that and for 5 1/2 yrs Doofus has never had a single white spot on him

Originally Posted by doch

First of all, I'm pretty sure that in my readings I had found that ich is present in every tank, but a healthy fish is able to fight them off. I'm going to have to agree with Marko (except for the gallon of ich in a tank part), but unfortunately I won't be able to back it up.

Second, what about a neon goby and/or cleaner wrase (preferably the goby as the wrasses don't have great track records)? Cleaner shrimp? My regal tang ends up with ich on occassion and when he's got it, he spends a lot of time with me neon goby... and then he's fine. Just a suggestion.

Also, out of curiosity, what kind of fish is Doofus?