Free fish please save

[agent007]

You need to act now!! The sooner you start trying to cure the fish, the better.

- Lower salinity in quarantine tank
- Make sure water parameters in quarantine are stable.
- Put fish in quarantine tank and treat them with copper (Mardel coppersafe seems to work well)
- If you have nothing else in the display tank - no other critters, then I suggest 50% water change. Otherwise 25%
- Lower salinity in display tank
- Run display for 6 -8 weeks without fish
- Continue regular water changes
- Keep you fingers crossed

 

[skene]

Are you saying if you keep your tank at 83 degrees ich will go away for good? If so, that's not true at all.

I'm also having a hard time understanding why moving fish out of a stressful environment and putting them in one much more healthy is more stressful on the fish?

No. Ich is always present in water. You never get rid of ich. When a fish gets stressed it allows for parasites to more easily attach and present itself.

Raising temperatures speeds up the life cycle of Ich which will bring it from the cyst form that you see on fish to go into it's floating stage. What this will allow for is to remove the parasite off the fish and while still present within the water column it will go back into a dormant state.

Fish injur themselves trying to remove the parasites from its body and when scratching itself against rocks trying to remove it, it injures itself for further parasites and disease which end up killing the fish.

Ich is like herpes.. Once you contract it, it will always be around even if it doesn't show up in a visible form you know you've got it.

 

[ming]

No. Ich is always present in water. You never get rid of ich. When a fish gets stressed it allows for parasites to more easily attach and present itself.

Raising temperatures speeds up the life cycle of Ich which will bring it from the cyst form that you see on fish to go into it's floating stage. What this will allow for is to remove the parasite off the fish and while still present within the water column it will go back into a dormant state.

Fish injur themselves trying to remove the parasites from its body and when scratching itself against rocks trying to remove it, it injures itself for further parasites and disease which end up killing the fish.

Ich is like herpes.. Once you contract it, it will always be around even if it doesn't show up in a visible form you know you've got it.

If he keeps his tank fish free, how does the parasite (which NEEDS a host to survive by the definition of a parasite) stay alive? Keep in mind, there is NO such thing as a dormant stage for Marine Ich. Saying ich is always present in the tank is like saying once you get leeches on your skin, it doesn't matter if you pull them all off, you will always have leech. It makes no sense. Its a parasite which needs a host to suvive.

Also, there has been no proof that increasing the temperature of water speeds the lifecycle of Marine Ich. It is true of freshwater Ich, but has not been proven in Marine Ich.

 

[ming]

The parasitic stage (trophonts) is the one that results in the appearance of white spots all over the fish. The trophonts burrow under the skin where they feed on body fluids and tissue debris. When the trophonts first infect the fish they are small but grow as they feed and so the white spots are initially small but get larger as they mature. Once mature, they drop off the fish and sink/swim down to the substrate where they encyst and begin to reproduce. In this stage they are called tomonts. After a number of days in which the tomonts divide, the cyst ruptures, releasing the tomites. Tomites may differentiate into theronts, the infective stage, which actively seek a host to reinfect.

None of the 4 stages are "dormant"

 

[marrone]

No. Ich is always present in water. You never get rid of ich. When a fish gets stressed it allows for parasites to more easily attach and present itself.

Actually this isn't true, as you can eliminate Ich from your tank. Ich is a parasite that needs a host, no fish, no ich. It can and will attach itself to sick and stressed fish as well as healthy non-stressed fish, so a stressed fish doesn't make it any more easier to have ich attach itself than a non-stressed out fish. Now a healthy non-stressed out fish probably will be better able to fight off and survive the ich.

Raising temperatures speeds up the life cycle of Ich which will bring it from the cyst form that you see on fish to go into it's floating stage. What this will allow for is to remove the parasite off the fish and while still present within the water column it will go back into a dormant state.

The problem with this is that the ich you see on the body is the last stage, before it falls off and starts over again. There still is plenty of ich in the fish that you don't see. If anything by raising the temp the ich will now hatch faster, and you'll have more in the water column to attack the fish.

Fish injur themselves trying to remove the parasites from its body and when scratching itself against rocks trying to remove it, it injures itself for further parasites and disease which end up killing the fish.

Well, scratching can and does cause wounds, which can lead to an secondary infection, which is usually worst than ich, but even without the wounds from scratching the ich can kill a fish, especially the damage it does on the inside of the fish.

Ich is like herpes.. Once you contract it, it will always be around even if it doesn't show up in a visible form you know you've got it.

I think herpes is a virus where ich is a parasite. Either way, if there is Ich in your system it does show up, which you can see.