Healthy non stressed fish do not get ich.
I said fish in breeding condition "rarely" get ich, I stand by that. Fish in the sea do have paracites but not many because they are not enclosed with the paracites.
Paul there is a big difference between saying a fish in breeding condition can rarely get ich or not get ich at all. Like I said healthy fish can and do get ich, they maybe better at fighting it off but they do and can get it. To take a chance and place a fish that may have ich, or even something worst, straight into a tank because you feel that your fish are healthy is taking a big risk, which usually lets to a lot of deaths.
As for fish in the ocean, a lot of them are loaded with parasite, probably a lot more than you'll ever see in your tank. In some case where the cleaning station fish or inverts have either moved on or died, fish are so infested with parasites that they die. Yes some parasite, like ich, usually are a lot worst in a closed in home aquarium than in the ocean, where the ich spores can fall off and not reinfect the fish again.
Ich is a very easy disease to cure with copper in a couple of days if it is kept at the correct therapudic level.
Sorry it wasn't one day but a couple of days. This is very misleading when people see it, especially newbies. There already is to much of doing things to fast in this hobby as it is.
I did not say that quinicrine will cure anything by itself, I said I use it in conjunction with copper which I also discussed with Terry. (again many years ago). It too will eliminate "visable" paracites in a day but the fish has to stay medicated for ten days.
If anyone is interested, ich can be cured in about a day if you use copper and quinicrine hydrocloride together. Quinicrine is a malaria medication, malaria is a paracite like ich. I invented this treatment in the seventees.
You see that's not what you said in your first post. Once again it very confusing to people, especially newbies. Duke, who stated this thread, was very confused by what you posted.
For the newbees I stated in capital letters that all items you put into a tank need to be quarantined and I also said to never put a fish with ich in there either. I am trying to stress to newbees to keep fish in good condition, not just alive but in breeding condition will go a long way to eliviate all diseases. They know that that will not eliminate all disease but in my experience very healthy fish "rarely" get sick. If that is an incorrect statement I am sorry. Keeping fish in a good state of health means having no "bully" fish and by feeding a variety of foods, not just flakes. It also means having adaquate swimming room and water conditions suitable for the animals you intend to keep.
Yes you did post that people should QT there fish but you also posted that you don't and have never had a problem in many many years. People see this, and know you have a lot of experience, and then go and place fish right in their tanks.
Except for very small fish most people don't have large enough tanks to keep fish in breeding condition, as they would get in the ocean. Because of tank size it also leaves very little possible of reach breeding condition in any of the larger fish that some of us may keep. I guess when you posted your definition of breeding condition it didn't come across correctly and was very vague.
Yes it is very important to feed a wide variety of foods, keep the water quality as good as possible and try and setup a tank with tank mates don't cause stress problems, which is very hard to do as even the most docile fish can get aggressive in a small tank, and most people over stock their tanks. Keeping you fish as healthy as possible goes a long way into keep them for a long time and leads to a very successful tank.
You see Paul every time some one posts that they don't QT their fish, or has a better quicker way of curing a diseases, it just lead people to take short cuts, which results in just more fish dying. No matter how many times people here stress to QT all your fish, or people see other people lose fish because they didn't QT them and then introduced ich into their tanks, they just keep on not QT there fish.
I know I may sounded like I'm coming down hard on you but there are a lot of newbies, or people with a couple of years experience, and a lot do take advise from what's posted, especially from people with a lot of experience. And yes there are many way of doing things, specially when it comes to ich, as there are in all of the other areas of this hobby.
