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[Alice B]

I hope I am not going to offend anyone when I say that I have been told by many shop owners that all water contains ich and it is caused by cold water. Quarantine was foreign to those shops, and except for one that failed to tip me off, I didn't buy any fish from them.

 

[Rocky998]

I hope I am not going to offend anyone when I say that I have been told by many shop owners that all water contains ich and it is caused by cold water. Quarantine was foreign to those shops, and except for one that failed to tip me off, I didn't buy any fish from them.

I do believe it is in lots of water... When the fish gets stressed it can cause diseases to infect them like ich. I believe ich is like the common cold, if your really healthy and your immune system is in check you can easily avoid being infected but if you aren't then you can easily get it

 

[Alice B]

I kept aquariums for about 10 years before I ended up with an aquarium service quite by accident. I still service one aquarium but ponds take up much of my time. I started keeping fish in May of 1984, if anyone is counting. Aquarium service started in 1997...

And while ich may be present in lake water, I have yet to have a properly quarantined fish infected in an aquarium that was filled with dechlorinated city water. Note: properly quarantined. Main source of ich seems to be fish wholesalers, leaving shop owners to deal with it. Some shop owners medicate, some do not. Some quarantine, many do not. Best treatment varies but UV and those horrific saltwater dips (everybody cringe then read "The Complete Fishkeeper" by Joseph Levine) before I put shop fish in my clean uninfected tanks once worked pretty well.

The salt dips don't work on the strain I encountered in January 2020, and I ended up accidentally infecting one of my tanks, which when I moved clean fish into it then infected those fish, and the body count around here between ich and neon tetra disease (that affects way more than neon tetras) was bad enough that I quit buying fish and tore down most of my tanks and bleached everything.

of the 2 groups of infected fish, one went on to take out my 20 gallons and every fish therein, the other I almost killed treating with a pond dose of Quinine Sulfate, after 5 hours they looked bad and I did a water change and took the rest out with carbon, but they did live. Only to die of neon tetra disease that had gotten in the gravel of that tank. such is life. Everything Dies eventually.

 

[GaryE]

One of my favourite fish pics was taken underwater by friend who was in the Amazon region. It's a lovely tetra with one spot of Ich. He said he saw that often, but because the fish weren't trapped together in tanks, it was one and off. The parasite had to swim a lot to find a new host when the cysts burst.

It's an animal with a finite lifespan. I once went 10 years without it in my tanks. I had the meds ready in case, but never used them. When it did appear, I killed it, and that got me a few more years. It's a crowding parasite, usually from fish farms. What better place to be a parasite than on a crowded farm?

 

[itiwhetu]

Ich is everywhere, it is a stress related thing. If you don't stress your fish, you will never see it in your tanks.

 

[Colin_T]

Time to disagree with lots of people. White Spot (Ichthyophthirius) gets into your tank from contaminated tanks. It doesn't live in chlorinated tap water. It doesn't live in drinking water reservoirs or wells because there are no host fish in those waterbodies for the parasites to live on.

I have had it in my tanks about 3 or 4 times over a 40 year period and every time it came from a shop or wholesaler. They had it in their tanks and I bought fish and it got into my tanks.

I have had tanks that were heavily overstocked and got big daily water changes using dechlorinated tap water and they never got white spot.

I have caught heaps of fresh and salt water fishes for aquariums and never seen white spot on any of them. It is incredibly rare in the wild. However, it is very common in captivity.

I have never had white spot linger in tanks after treatment. I have never had white spot recur in a tank that has had it.

I have had it in the shop tanks and the tank/s were marked NFS (not for sale) and were treated for a week or so. Customers who bought those fish after treatment did not get white spot in their tanks. The white spot we got in the shop tanks came from the wholesalers who sent us fish that were infected.

The most common source of white spot in home aquariums is from a pet shop that hasn't treated the fish properly, or at all, or for long enough. The parasites are still in the tank and fish get sold and the customer notices white spot in their tank a week or two later.

You can have really badly stressed out fish and they won't get white spot unless it's in the tank already, and then they will get it anyway regardless of it they are stressed or not.

 

[itiwhetu]

Time to disagree with lots of people. White Spot (Ichthyophthirius) gets into your tank from contaminated tanks. It doesn't live in chlorinated tap water. It doesn't live in drinking water reservoirs or wells because there are no host fish in those waterbodies for the parasites to live on.

I have had it in my tanks about 3 or 4 times over a 40 year period and every time it came from a shop or wholesaler. They had it in their tanks and I bought fish and it got into my tanks.

I have had tanks that were heavily overstocked and got big daily water changes using dechlorinated tap water and they never got white spot.

I have caught heaps of fresh and salt water fishes for aquariums and never seen white spot on any of them. It is incredibly rare in the wild. However, it is very common in captivity.

I have never had white spot linger in tanks after treatment. I have never had white spot recur in a tank that has had it.

I have had it in the shop tanks and the tank/s were marked NFS (not for sale) and were treated for a week or so. Customers who bought those fish after treatment did not get white spot in their tanks. The white spot we got in the shop tanks came from the wholesalers who sent us fish that were infected.

The most common source of white spot in home aquariums is from a pet shop that hasn't treated the fish properly, or at all, or for long enough. The parasites are still in the tank and fish get sold and the customer notices white spot in their tank a week or two later.

You can have really badly stressed out fish and they won't get white spot unless it's in the tank already, and then they will get it anyway regardless of it they are stressed or not.

So, you don't believe it is in our tanks waiting to attack

 

[Colin_T]

So, you don't believe it is in our tanks waiting to attack

nope

If anyone wants to test this, have a tank of healthy happy fish that aren't stressed out. Then get 2 litres of water from a fish tank that has white spot. Add that water to your tank and see what happens over the next few weeks.

 

[itiwhetu]

nope

In that case, my tank with five Discus and the Black Phantoms and whiptails and not introducing any fish for around 6 months. You are saying I will never get white spot in my tank.

 

[Colin_T]

In that case, my tank with five Discus and the Black Phantoms and whiptails and not introducing any fish for around 6 months. You are saying I will never get white spot in my tank.

You shouldn't and if you do I would be very surprised and try to find out where it came from.

 

[itiwhetu]

You shouldn't and if you do I would be very surprised and try to find out where it came from.

Where could it come from?

 

[Colin_T]

Where could it come from?

live plants or live aquatic foods from contaminated tanks.

 

[itiwhetu]

live plants or live aquatic foods from contaminated tanks.

So, I don't have any of those things. I will start to do 75% water changes on my Discus tank daily and my temperatures won't match because that is a hassle, you will guarantee my Discus won't get white spot. Because white spot can't be in my tank!

 

[anewbie]

Ich is everywhere, it is a stress related thing. If you don't stress your fish, you will never see it in your tanks.

I don't believe this is true; I do believe it is more likely for stress fished to get it. I recently had an outbreak in 3 tanks after a purchased (the new fishes never got ick but immediately after adding them the tanks broke out with ick and then it spread to another tank). However I was able to treat with salt and in 8 days it cleared 100%. Not in love with salt treatment as I have to remove it very slowly but it was effective. As to whether salt it less or more harsh than ick medication i'm not sure. However i was greatful that the fishes cleared up fairly quickly since a couple of them that caught it were some very young L397.

 

[kiko]

I think the 'trouble' is that an author can suffer from tunnel vision and many of the myths have become common knowledge often defended by many. I was once told by a hobbyist that s/he simply had to believe (a myth) because s/he heard it from 'an experienced fishkeeper' on the internet. Well with the possible exception of 'The Crazy Russian', the internet is just full of experts (or people you don't know) that talk (er write) like they know it all. The world is full of wannabe gurus.
And lets face it...to a point we're all set in our ways and once we believe something to be true, it can be a real challenge to change that belief.

But then again, what do I know?!?! lol

heaters!!!! I don't care what anyone says..unless your house is very cold or very hot.....heaters?!?!?!?!?
most people in hot countries only have heaters for winter no AC...so in the summer when temps reach 45C around 35-40 inside the house..nobody would have fish in these countries
I have no idea where all these must have heaters idea started but I've never owned one and my fish always did fine...even back home at 45C outside..and no..I didn't have AC back then too

and then water chasers...I have a russian friend that wanted a tank...I told him..grab a 20gal..you can find them at 20 bucks...and start with freshwater...if you can manage that for 1 year
then grab whatever you want after...(he wanted a reef)
did he listen? hell no...dude went and bought a 400gal round tank!! spent almost 10k with some company to install everything...then started complaining about maintenance saying that iet became a family job on the weekends to scrub things down...then his fish started dying...he started dosing the tank with suggestions from said company...other fish started dying...eventually he sold everything at half the price he paid and never cared again about the hobby...
many times people don't listen and only take in what they think they want..and when things don't go their way they give up...
it's the same principle with kids and dogs....
a kid wants a dog...sure..you're gonna take care of it? yes yes yes!!!
so you wake him up at 6:30 every day and give him a leash....go take the leash for a 20min walk...and do this every day for a month...if he really wants that dog he'll do it!
but if he wants to sleep a little more and let the "leash" crap all over the house forget the dog xD