Help my fish keep dying from ick

[marrone]

Ich is in almost every tank, reef and fish only alike. I am sure the seasoned aquarist will agree. So this being a fact why don't all fish die in all systems with ich? I tell you why, its because healthy (Non stressed) fish can deal with it and don't allow the ich cycle to get out of control.

If the case was that healthy (Non stressed) fish can deal with Ich then you would never lose a healthy (Non stressed) fish, but we know that isn't the case. We see it all the time, a new fish is introduced, has Ich, and then all the fish in the tank come down with it. You then lose fish that were perfectly perfectly healthy, and a lot of times you winded up losing the fish pretty fast too, which shouldn't be the case as you would think a healthy (Non Stressed) fish could fight the Ich off, but that's not usually the case. Being healthy and (Non stressed) may make it better for the fish to be able to fight off the Ich but most of the time if left untreated, the fish usually dies.

I think you're also off on saying that almost every tank has Ich, I don't think that is true. If every tank had Ich, once a fish became stressed or wasn't totally healthy, it should then come down with Ich, which doesn't happen. And remember, our tanks are closed systems, so Ich can multiple unchecked.

As for breaking the cycle, that has nothing to do with a fish being healthy or stress free. The only way to break the cycle is for the fish to not be reinfected again, Ich needs to find a host or it will die. Now the Ich may dies within the fish body, as it can't get out, or it may get eaten or removed by things in the tank, like I posted above. The fish may also become immune, where the Ich doesn't attack the fish, this does happen. It also seems that some strains of Ich aren't as deadly after a number of generations, which maybe a reason why tanks can all of a sudden have a large case of Ich after introducing a new fish, new blood resulting in a new strain. Then again there are strains of Ich which kill very fast. I think you'll find a lot of fish do die of Ich, more than you know of too, as people tend not to talk about it. And in the end a fish that is healthy, and keeps getting attacked, as it will in a closed system, will more than not die from Ich if nothing is done.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Taking aggressive and not so aggressive action depends on scenarios and each is so different that reefers having this issue should be really careful. DO NOT JUMP to aggressive treatments immediately when you see ich. Evaluate your situation first. Note: I mentioned the word AGGRESSIVE by which I mean medicate, and or hospitalize several fish without already prepared a hospital(that means you do not have a tank already running that can handle the bioload of the fish). I see many fish die during the treatment due to the poor water conditions in the hospital. A lot of them die from ammonia instead of the parasite in the hospital. Treatment is fish is a very dangerous process for those who are new to it due to the attention required during the treatment and sometimes even to experienced guys because of panic. Whichever treatment method you use when operating a hospital tank, you must make sure you have a way to deal with the ammonia build up.

Now if you have no fish at all in the tank, the issue is simpler, stay fallow of fish for 10 weeks should mostly be good. During this time, study how to set up a QT(not hospital) tank and QT your fish before putting them in your system. I understand most of us, including me sometimes, will be lazy of doing this but if you already burned by your old habit of not Qt and loosing fish so many times, why not try the QT route.

 

[ivandrago]

will a UV sterilizer help rid of Ick

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

will a UV sterilizer help rid of Ick

It will only help partially but cannot rid the tank completely of it. It helps by removing the free swimming parasites in the water but the ones that never get to the UV tube will not be killed and those can still infect your fish. When executed probably, it does alleviate the outbreak severity somewhat. Use is as a control measure rather than treatment.