Can Ick Survive On Decorations?

[FishSticks]

I want to move all of my decorations from my 10 gallon aquarium and move them to my 55 gallon aquarium so it can cycle a bit faster hopefully with all that good bacteria on my decorations.

Well anyways...I kinda don't want to to do this because the fish that are currently in the 10 gallon have Ick. Can Ick survive on gravel, plants..etc.? I wouldn't want any of the fish that are going to go into the 55 gallon aquarium to get Ick. I really don't know if I should do this, should I spend money on completely new plants & decorations?

PS/ Can someone understand what I'm trying to do, cuz I can't seem to word it out very well.

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

Ick is always in the water, it just thrives on the fish when they are stressed and lose their slime coat enough for the ich to attach,

if your worried take out the decorations and rinse them in as hot of water as your hands can take and give them a good rub down

 

[BobK]

Hi Fishsticks, I have a friend that lived in Roundlake. Anyway, after washing in hot water you might want to let the stuff dry out completly for a couple of days just to be on the safe side.

 

[FishSticks]

Tee hee, I have friends that live in Round Lake too, anyways... Do I wash and dry my Aponogeton crispus and Lucky Bamboo too? lol j/k... Seriously what do I do with my live plants?

 

[BobK]

Run them under the tap? Anyone know if chlorine effects plants? I would think rinsing it in tap water before transferring and adding some dechlorinator would help although it's no guarantee. I don't know if I'd move the plants. Sounds a bit risky to me.

 

[Def]

Chlorine won't affect plants. I rinse new plants under the tap to get rid of any muck and snails.

Ich is present in all fish. Once you've got rid of it (and it hasn't reappeared for 2 weeks), then this ich episode is over. Don't bother cleaning ornaments etc, just forget about it.

 

[FishSticks]

Oh God now you guys made me paranoid, itt's everywhere!? I think i'll just take all the gravel and boil it, a lot! That ough to kill the little buggers...Mwa Ha Ha Ha Ha Thanxs everyone for the help

 

[gale]

If you scrub all the ornaments doesn't that kind of kill the reason you were going to switch them in the first place (to transfer the good bacteria)??

 

[FishSticks]

Yeah I know But everyone is making it sound like there's no way to get rid of the Ick without kiling the good bacteria

 

[Leslie]

You can scrub the paint off the decorations and the Ich will still be present as it's always present in your water.

 

[Def]

No, no, no. What everyone (ok, me) is trying to tell you is that you CANNOT get rid of ich by cleaning gravel, plants and ornaments because ALL FISH harbour the ich organism.

Maybe this will explain it better. Go and buy a brand new tank. Put nothing in it except water. Put new fish in that have never shown whitespot. Do something to stress them out. Ich will appear.

Cleaning the substrate and ornaments will simply get rid of any dormant cysts (how ich reproduces). If your fish are healthy and the water conditions are good (ie: the fish aren't stressed), these cysts are NOT A THREAT TO YOUR FISH.

As you've noticed, scrubbing the ornaments and cleaning the substrate will kill off some bacteria - you'll do more harm than good, and if you still have fish in the tank you'll probably stress them out again doing all that.

If you treat ich and don't see any whitespot for 2 weeks, DO NOTHING.

 

[astroboy]

Ich is present in all fish.

No, no, no. What everyone (ok, me) is trying to tell you is that you CANNOT get rid of ich by cleaning gravel, plants and ornaments because ALL FISH harbour the ich organism.

Sorry dude, thats absolutely incorrect.
Many believe ick is ever present in aquaria, but you guys are spreading myth.
Once you get rid of ick its gone for good.

Give this article a read
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

 

[FishSticks]

Astroboy you are a genius. That is the most helpfull link anyone has ever given to me on any forum! ALL my questions have been answered...Thank you...Thank you...Thank you...

 

[BobK]

I agree. Maybe someone could write a summary of the article in a new thread and the mods could pin it. There is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much information out there on the web and sometimes it is very hard to tell what is true and what isn't. Hats off to astroboy!!!

 

[Def]

A quote from the article:

Particularly resistant fishes can remain asymptomatic through several cycles of infestation and can act as "carriers" of Ich. What happens is, the free-swimming tomites attach most easily to the gills. The rest of the fishes' skin is protected by a sturdier mucus coating that's constantly renewed, sloughing off all kinds of minute organisms that might settle out. Trophonts that are newly-attached to the epidermis are invisibly small. So a "carrier" fish is simply one that is invisibly carrying Ich, perhaps on its gills. There is no "dormant" independent, long-term encysted life stage separate from a host fish for Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. This is useful to know. You will often hear to the contrary. Dr. Peter Burgess, who took Ichthyophthirius multifiliis as his Ph.D. subject at Plymouth University, mentioned among Ich "old wives' tales" that "It's present in all aquariums." "What utter rubbish" noted Dr. Burgess (in the Nov 2001 Practical Fishkeeping). Brits don't mince words.

Read the first sentance. Asymptomatic fish can be carriers. Read the one in the middle, "a carrier fish is simply one that is invisibly carrying ich". Granted the last sentances say that ich is not present in all aquariums, but that is a contradiction in terms.

If asymptomatic fish can carry the organism, and you have had ich in your tank, cleaning the substrate/ornaments/plants etc WILL NOT remove it. Thus, I stand by what I said. I've had fish develop ich after being stressed when the tank has never had any signs of ich previously. So I go by my own experience.

Madly cleaning the gravel and ornaments is going to stress your fish for no good reason.