The Return of the ICH!
- Thread starter GoBigGuy
- Start date
well Jason it is very difficult and no way to test for it in your system just because u don't see it on the skin of the fish doesn't mean its not on the gills keep this in mind
just because u qt some may get by into your display tank parasites evolve and build a immunity to certain treatments as well as the fish and again there is now way to test unless you want to pull all the fish out and take gill samples and use a microscope kind of impractical for the average hobbyist
just because u qt some may get by into your display tank parasites evolve and build a immunity to certain treatments as well as the fish and again there is now way to test unless you want to pull all the fish out and take gill samples and use a microscope kind of impractical for the average hobbyist
No, I don't. At least on paper sure you could do it but, in this world, a world I like to call Reality, I don't think it's possible.
There are some fish that will not make it through a medicated or hyposalinity QT. Commonly some wrasses and mandarins for example.
You'd have to have a separate Coral QT from your fish QT and you would need to keep your coral in there for the period that it takes ich to die. This means you could only add coral once every 6-8 weeks...I don't know ANY reefer than can withstand that. The minute you add another coral, 6-8 week clock starts over.
So technically, assuming you have the time and resource to do it this way, sure it's possible. But I have yet to meet a reefer that does this. Most QT fish and forget that water and cysts go into their tank with other livestock like coral and clams, etc. Although it's improbable that ich would be introduced this way, it's not impossible. I would expect that professional aquariums would have the staff and resources but most of us couldn't/wouldn't.
There are some fish that will not make it through a medicated or hyposalinity QT. Commonly some wrasses and mandarins for example.
You'd have to have a separate Coral QT from your fish QT and you would need to keep your coral in there for the period that it takes ich to die. This means you could only add coral once every 6-8 weeks...I don't know ANY reefer than can withstand that. The minute you add another coral, 6-8 week clock starts over.
So technically, assuming you have the time and resource to do it this way, sure it's possible. But I have yet to meet a reefer that does this. Most QT fish and forget that water and cysts go into their tank with other livestock like coral and clams, etc. Although it's improbable that ich would be introduced this way, it's not impossible. I would expect that professional aquariums would have the staff and resources but most of us couldn't/wouldn't.
So what your saying is that it is not impossible to have an ich free system its just that most of us do not have the time, patience, or capability to qt/medicate fish the duration required. I am 100% positive that I rid my display of ich. I removed all of my fish and ran the tank fallow for 14 weeks. I put all of my fish in a 120 and did two different treatments, a 9 day treatment of chloroquine phosphate and then a month later a 14 day treatment of cupramine at the required level. At this point forward if I do not have the capability to properly qt/medicate any coral, fish, or invert it is not going in my DT after what I just went through.
