Tangs ?

[JediReefer]

Originally Posted by nemo79

Ich is present in your tank always.

No its not.

[geekdafied]

Ich is only present when it has a host to FEED on. No host, no food for it. No more ich.

[hitman35]

I had a major ich problem with my 2 blue unfortunatley they didnt make it.I tried doing a reef safe treatment in my tank worked fine but I was stupid enough to turn my skimmer on during the process which pretty much put me back at square one.Every other fish in the tank was fine except my tangs.So after my tang perished I waited about a month or 2 still treating and I just put a tang in my tank about a week ago so far so good.Also my clown seems to be doing just fine he has some kind of backteria on it but not ich from what I have been told it that bacteria is pretty much like a cold sore for a fish and will come and go from time to time.I dnt have a hospital tank to treat in case of another break out but I would suggest looking at your live stock closely before purchasing

[geekdafied]

anything can be used as a QT/hospital tank. You can buy 20quart plastic tubs just about anywhere for less then $5.

[hitman35]

Yes true but the extra hardware is what I unfortunatley dont have the funds for.Another filtration system. Basically settin up a small tank and all its requirements

[geekdafied]

all you need is a air pump and a heater and a tub. Thats all it takes.

[Tangster]

So I assume all of you guys who quarantine all of your animals and rocks and sand never allow any water from another system to enter your system . And you never have had an ich issue with the tanks ? Thats fine but if you did ever have an ich problem how would you deal with it ?

I know for myself I have had tanks to run several yrs over 4 to 5 and never a problem then at some point it broke out nothing new or added in several yrs either stuff just taken out to sell. where did it come from airborne spores maybe ? That was a theory yrs and yrs ago as it seems to show up in the early spring and fall most often.

[JediReefer]

If I did ever have an ich problem I would then remove all the fish for 6-8weeks and treat them in a QT tank with hypo, maybe copper if it was a subborn case.

[geekdafied]

Generally by the time you notice it on your fish, the cyst is about ready to drop. Scaleless fish are less likely to be affected by ich however they can still host it. If your fish are light colored, you are less likely to see it.

If you're not the kinda of person to sit in front of your tank a few days a week to look at them, more then likely you will never notice it there. Then one day you will have a bad outbreak and wonder how you got it. Strong filtration and very frequent water changes will help to keep it at bay. Which is probaly why you have never had a problem with it that much, Tangster. As long as it has a host in the tank, it will always be there. Using a net on different tanks can transfer ich from tank to tank. Thats why dipping your net before switching to another tank is always recommended. So there is no cross contamination.

Say you have 10+ tanks in your quarantine area, all have fish. One tank has ich, but it goes unnoticed. While going to place your fish in the sell tanks, you never dip your net between tanks, while the first couple of tanks may not have a problem, but say tank #4 does, well the rest of the tanks you use the net on after that one, could potentially have a problem. So then all of the remaining fish now have been contaminated so in a week or so you could potentially have caused a major outbreak assuming you sold most of the fish. So then not only do you have it in your systems, a lot of your customers do as well.

[geekdafied]

The LFS I use to work at had a retired marine biologist who came in once a week and looked over EVERY fish in the store. He did find fish on display to be sold with problems, and we used UV sterilizers on the QT so that just goes to show that UV sterilizers do not always work either. We quarantined all saltwater fish for 2 weeks, freshwater for 1 week.