Question about ich

[joeyr188]

Hello, so my temp in my tank it 75-78f and I have salt in it not a lot I don’t have ich rn but if I keep my tank warmer will I run into ich again, I’m not trying to avoid it but I was just wondering

 

[Kyanite14]

Most fish have already been exposed to ich at some point, but it’s in times of stress that it typically arises, or if a currently infected fish is introduced. As long as your fish have strong immune systems, aren’t stressed, and you quarantine any newcomers for a few weeks, you typically won’t have to worry too much. I would always keep medicine for it in stock just in case, since it is a fast growing disease.

 

[GaryE]

Ich is not a disease, it's an animal that feeds on fish. It's a parasite. It doesn't matter how healthy your fish are, or if they've been exposed in the past. The only way it attacks is if it travels into your tank, on a new fish, or if you bought a plant from a tank with an active outbreak.

It certainly profits from stress, for example, if a fish is chilled. That gives it a weaker victim that succumbs faster (bad news for a parasite). But it has to be there in the first place.

So if you don't want it, keep it out. If you aren't in a position to have a QT tank, then have a malachite green based med on hand at all times, if you are planning to add any new fish.

Salt doesn't fight it unless it's already on a fish. Depending on the fish you have, adding salt may not be good for them. And 78-79f is warm for a lot of fish species. Going warmer will cost you more, and possibly shorten the life of the fish.

Think of it this way. You won't get bitten by mosquitoes unless they are present to bite you. That's Ich, killer mosquitoes.

 

[Ichthys]

Unstressed fish will not get it. I’ve seen it affect only stressed fish and not affect unstressed fish, in the same tank, more often that not. If all species have it, it means more than likely that the water is the cause of the stress. As Kyanite14 says, keep fish unstressed and they won’t get it, whether it’s there or not.

 

[GaryE]

I've had it go both ways. Entire tanks of healthy, breeding fish have been hit when I haven't QTed new arrivals. I like Microctenopoma African gouramis, which can be tough. But if Ich drives by on the street outside, they all get it. I've noticed rather than going fish by fish, it hits some species more than others. Since we don't know what the OP has...

As well, I think experienced people see it, and attack immediately. The last few visits by Ich here, into my quarantine tanks, have been treated within 5 minutes of my seeing it, and have never spread. the first cysts pop, and the parasites rush out to their deaths. If I left it to feed and spread for a few days, it might be different. That's what gets the fish of newcomers - that wait to decide, and then to get the meds or attempt a treatment. If you haven't seen it before, it feeds on your indecision.

 

[Kyanite14]

Ich is not a disease, it's an animal that feeds on fish. It's a parasite. It doesn't matter how healthy your fish are, or if they've been exposed in the past. The only way it attacks is if it travels into your tank, on a new fish, or if you bought a plant from a tank with an active outbreak.

It certainly profits from stress, for example, if a fish is chilled. That gives it a weaker victim that succumbs faster (bad news for a parasite). But it has to be there in the first place.

So if you don't want it, keep it out. If you aren't in a position to have a QT tank, then have a malachite green based med on hand at all times, if you are planning to add any new fish.

Salt doesn't fight it unless it's already on a fish. Depending on the fish you have, adding salt may not be good for them. And 78-79f is warm for a lot of fish species. Going warmer will cost you more, and possibly shorten the life of the fish.

Think of it this way. You won't get bitten by mosquitoes unless they are present to bite you. That's Ich, killer mosquitoes.

I’ve heard multiple theories about ich, including yours and the one I said about it being in most tanks. I’ve seen tanks where only one fish gets ich, but the others never get the white spots. Maybe ich prioritizes the weaker hosts then? I’m not the myth busters tho, and I’m certainly not going to experiment on my fish

 

[GaryE]

It's a parasite that needs a host. I've had fish for 56 years, and have gone a few 10 year periods with no Ich. When it comes on a new arrival, and I have seen a few recently, I treat it, and it doesn't return.

I've never had a case where I couldn't trace its arrival point. When I was a kid, we were taught not to change water, as old water was seen as almost magical. We constantly battled Ich, as our fish were always stressed due to our bad practices. Fish died of it, we bought more, we brought it back in, fish died, etc.

Since I was convinced to change water back in the 80s, Ich has been an uncommon visitor. I had a sideline thing working with a wholesaler and there, chilled fish boxes left on airport tarmacs gave us skill in curing ich. They never sold fish that were "off" and we treated white spots religiously. It came with the fish and not from the tanks.

It's an interesting creature, and there has been research on it that shows its life cycle.

 

[Ichthys]

In the UK, Waterlife Research created Protozin in the late 60s which is great for Ich (I’ve always called it Whitespot, Ich being the “American name” for it). It kills the free swimming larvae when they’re racing against time to find a fish. We also had a wonderdrug called WS3, a one-dose cure that apparently killed it at all stages of its life cycle, something which is deemed ‘impossible’ now. WS3 was later changed due to new European regulations, and became not so good.

I’ve always considered Ich to be like the fish equivalent of the common cold. I’m not saying it won’t kill if untreated, of course it will, but I’ve known it to be simple to cure, with Protozin.

I’ve often taken pity on fish in shops that were riddled with Ich, brought them home if I had a suitable tank for them, and put them straight into tanks with other fish, knowing the other fish were not stressed and so would not catch it. The most recent was a small Silver Dollar which was literally covered in spots. Since I had a very ‘happy’ group of assorted dollars at the time I bought it and put it straight in with them, and treated with Protozin.
I’ve never had an issue doing this.

Some people, like me, have had this experience, that Ich isn’t much of an issue as long as it’s treated, but others see it as a deadly evil, so I guess we still don’t know the whole story. Different people have different experiences.

From my experience, it’s very easy to treat and nothing at all to worry about, BUT, only stressed fish can get it (reduced immune system function?) and you have to remove the stressor for the treatment to work. I’m talking here about over-the-counter remedies. I’ve never used the heat method, or salt, so they might be different.

It seems to me that healthy unstressed fish have their own immunity, which disappears when their immune system is compromised (in what way?) by any kind of stress - water, aggression, etc. While I was in the trade for 20 years it was very common for one species to get Ich while other species in the same tank didn’t.

The scientific research for me has never been conclusive. All of it doesn’t agree. For example I do not believe in “resistant strains” - at least I have never encountered one in 51 years. I believe this idea comes from the fact(?) that the cause of the stress needs to be removed for any treatment to work well.

 

[GaryE]

I think there is more than one creature at work here. I've seen the one species with, one barely affected tanks. I had white cysts on a T heteromorpha group for close to a year, with no tankmates affected. It looked like Ich, but it clearly wasn't, whatever it was. Meds did nothing, but it did nothing either.

I 've also seen heavy death rates in well run tanks. It's a parasite that exacts a price if it isn't promptly dealt with. You deal with it effectively.

In my own set up, I see ich as annoying. I don't expect deaths , and am very surprised if I can't clear it up with the regular meds on the first cycle. I don't play around using heat, because there, there are credible reports of a form that tolerates the old 85f quite well. To me, I whack it with a med, and it dies while the fish thrive. But like you, I've been at this for a while and have developed skills. People who need to post for help tend to have new set ups and those add to the stress. I would not advise them to let it run.

I think that as it runs wild in a tank, repeated attacks affect even the healthiest fish. Again, we'll hammer it when it pops up. But if aquarists get into herbal treatments, heat alone, salt or even garlic to fight it, it has a pretty good time getting its meals in. That's not to say some of those treatments won't kill it, but they aren't the quickest. I prefer to wallop it fast, and move on to better things.

I wouldn't equate it with a cold. It's more serious if neglected. It doesn't go away on its own, and it wears healthy fish down if it does gain purchase. I find it doesn't usually do terrible harm to large fish, but it can wreck small ones. It obliterates fry tanks. Cyst size to fish size probably explains that.

A support for your view is that here, in Canada, it's a winter parasite. I don't think I have ever had an outbreak in fish bought in warm weather. But if fish get chilled in transit (a solid stress) they are very open to attack. Around here, winter is when people stay home and get fish for their tanks.

That said, I am now mainly a killifish keeper. In 30 years of keeping Aphyosemion, Epiplatys and Fundulopanchax, I have never seen one one cyst on any of them. That tells me either the parasite can't get to them as a group, or they have defences if it does tryo to latch on.

 

[Kyanite14]

I think there is more than one creature at work here. I've seen the one species with, one barely affected tanks. I had white cysts on a T heteromorpha group for close to a year, with no tankmates affected. It looked like Ich, but it clearly wasn't, whatever it was. Meds did nothing, but it did nothing either.

I 've also seen heavy death rates in well run tanks. It's a parasite that exacts a price if it isn't promptly dealt with. You deal with it effectively.

In my own set up, I see ich as annoying. I don't expect deaths , and am very surprised if I can't clear it up with the regular meds on the first cycle. I don't play around using heat, because there, there are credible reports of a form that tolerates the old 85f quite well. To me, I whack it with a med, and it dies while the fish thrive. But like you, I've been at this for a while and have developed skills. People who need to post for help tend to have new set ups and those add to the stress. I would not advise them to let it run.

I think that as it runs wild in a tank, repeated attacks affect even the healthiest fish. Again, we'll hammer it when it pops up. But if aquarists get into herbal treatments, heat alone, salt or even garlic to fight it, it has a pretty good time getting its meals in. That's not to say some of those treatments won't kill it, but they aren't the quickest. I prefer to wallop it fast, and move on to better things.

I wouldn't equate it with a cold. It's more serious if neglected. It doesn't go away on its own, and it wears healthy fish down if it does gain purchase. I find it doesn't usually do terrible harm to large fish, but it can wreck small ones. It obliterates fry tanks. Cyst size to fish size probably explains that.

A support for your view is that here, in Canada, it's a winter parasite. I don't think I have ever had an outbreak in fish bought in warm weather. But if fish get chilled in transit (a solid stress) they are very open to attack. Around here, winter is when people stay home and get fish for their tanks.

That said, I am now mainly a killifish keeper. In 30 years of keeping Aphyosemion, Epiplatys and Fundulopanchax, I have never seen one one cyst on any of them. That tells me either the parasite can't get to them as a group, or they have defences if it does tryo to latch on.

You keep killifish? I actually have a few questions about that. I wanted to keep some but they would always die in my tank. In fact, on the first day the stores get them they look great, but after a few days they look droopy and pale, and die. The nothobranchius seem very sensitive, but they’re the ones I want to keep. Any advice on how to acclimate them better?

 

[Colin_T]

Hello, so my temp in my tank it 75-78f and I have salt in it not a lot I don’t have ich rn but if I keep my tank warmer will I run into ich again, I’m not trying to avoid it but I was just wondering

What sort of fish do you have?

You don't want to add salt to an aquarium unless the fish has a disease that can be treated with salt, or if the fish are from the ocean or brackish water. Having salt in an aquarium, even at low doses, can cause kidney damage and failure to fishes that don't normally get exposed to salt. And salt does nothing to treat white spot.

White spot has to be introduced into an aquarium.

Post 1 and 16 of the following link tell you about white spot.

What is ICH?

This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it? The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot. It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and...

www.fishforums.net

 

[gilpi]

Wonder why you have salt in your tank? Ich will come from newly acquired fish.