MoonstruckMuse
Fish Fanatic
All of this is hypothetical mumbo jumbo made up stuff. I'm curious, though. Is it possible to remove ich from a fish without medicating/treating the tank at all? From my understanding, ich are only on the fish for a little while, before leaving to form cysts/eggs. Because of this... with milder infections of ich, is it possible to do the following?
"Treatment" 1
Let's say you have a solitary fish in a tank, which works best for this scenario, haha. You've discovered a few spots. Turn up the heat as you would normally do to treat it.
The spots, I've noticed, eventually drop off because the protazoan needs to lay cyst egg things/has finished its life cycle. At this point, when a few have dropped off, move the fish to a new tank, which theoretically has no ich and is adequately filtered, and all that jazz. You can leave behind the other tank as is... without a fish host body, they cannot complete the cycle and eventually die. Could anyone tell me how long that is?
Repeat this cycle.
Keep moving the fish each time some spots leave. Some original tank water can come with the fish for each tank switch, preferably from near the top of the tank, since the eggs haven't had enough time to hatch yet, and in some of the older tanks, the freeswimmers would have died already. Eventually, all spots will have gone, and you can just net the fish and move him (without any of the water) back to his original tank, where the ich has all died.
"Treatment" 2
All animals are part of the food web. Being tiny, I'm sure tons of stuff predate upon protozoan. Is there anything that might take care of an ich infestation? Perhaps we could take out the fish temporarily, let the tiny other creatures eat them (would brine shrimp, for instance?), and then put the fish back in and let them have a feast. Repeat over the next couple days - you'll have fat and well fed fish, and a disease free tank! Would that be feasible?
"Treatment" 3
I know there's superfine filters called diatom filters or something, and on the label... it says it can even remove ich, its such a fine filter. I also know they get clogged easily and can't run for long, but in a bare tank that has been hoovered just previously, perhaps they would be of great help in giving your fish a better shot. How do these guys work? Will they remove the freeswimming ones or the cysts or even both?
"Treatment" 4
I've heard that ich is buried really deeply in the fish's skin. However, would it be possible to physically pull it off via tweezers or something, without siginificant damage to the fish? This could possibly be used in conjunction with the first hypothetical treatment thingy, and perhaps something like melafix to help the wounds heal.
I know there's others I've randomly thought up, so perhaps more will be added later. I myself use the usual treatment with malachite green. These are just for thought, at least for now.
"Treatment" 1
Let's say you have a solitary fish in a tank, which works best for this scenario, haha. You've discovered a few spots. Turn up the heat as you would normally do to treat it.
The spots, I've noticed, eventually drop off because the protazoan needs to lay cyst egg things/has finished its life cycle. At this point, when a few have dropped off, move the fish to a new tank, which theoretically has no ich and is adequately filtered, and all that jazz. You can leave behind the other tank as is... without a fish host body, they cannot complete the cycle and eventually die. Could anyone tell me how long that is?
Repeat this cycle.
Keep moving the fish each time some spots leave. Some original tank water can come with the fish for each tank switch, preferably from near the top of the tank, since the eggs haven't had enough time to hatch yet, and in some of the older tanks, the freeswimmers would have died already. Eventually, all spots will have gone, and you can just net the fish and move him (without any of the water) back to his original tank, where the ich has all died.
"Treatment" 2
All animals are part of the food web. Being tiny, I'm sure tons of stuff predate upon protozoan. Is there anything that might take care of an ich infestation? Perhaps we could take out the fish temporarily, let the tiny other creatures eat them (would brine shrimp, for instance?), and then put the fish back in and let them have a feast. Repeat over the next couple days - you'll have fat and well fed fish, and a disease free tank! Would that be feasible?
"Treatment" 3
I know there's superfine filters called diatom filters or something, and on the label... it says it can even remove ich, its such a fine filter. I also know they get clogged easily and can't run for long, but in a bare tank that has been hoovered just previously, perhaps they would be of great help in giving your fish a better shot. How do these guys work? Will they remove the freeswimming ones or the cysts or even both?
"Treatment" 4
I've heard that ich is buried really deeply in the fish's skin. However, would it be possible to physically pull it off via tweezers or something, without siginificant damage to the fish? This could possibly be used in conjunction with the first hypothetical treatment thingy, and perhaps something like melafix to help the wounds heal.
I know there's others I've randomly thought up, so perhaps more will be added later. I myself use the usual treatment with malachite green. These are just for thought, at least for now.
/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml
