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Is ich like the chicken pox? Where if you get it once you're immune for the rest of your life?

I never thought that it would be, but wondered if there was any truth to the idea.


^_^

well, ive never actualy had my fish catch ich twice, so maybe.

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___-=+|This user would love to have a 150+ gal tank! Tell me if you have one for fee |+=-___

Tell that to my old CLs until I found and stopped the cause they had it more than once. I also had it twice in my 45lt with Cardinal Tetras import. In both cases very healthy at first but developed within a few days from a perfect Ich free tank.

Keith

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Shouldn't imagine so. It is a parasite so immunity in the traditional sense wouldn't work.

That being said, it is rare for a healthy fish in non-stressful conditions to become infested, so there has to be something that stops the parasite from attaching. I suppose that could be classed as resistance, but not relly immunity.

Interesting thought though, where'd it come from?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

That's what I figured


Calla not sure I'd like to say big brother is watching .


Knowing how ich forms and happens I didn't think it was possible to be immune to it. Luckily adam was able to bring home some ich meds ($40) that are loach safe, and a test kit ($60). Getting confirmation of numbers where they should be and ich treated quickly...priceless.

From now on we're adding fish and acclimating and quarantining my way. I know it takes longer and is a bit of trouble, but I don't like illness and death and would rather go through the trouble before hand then the stress afterwards.





^_^

Hi,
The whole idea of the quarantine is to give the fish time
to acclimate to a new environment. During that time any
disease the fish may have or parasites the fish may house
can become evident and be treated. The tanks are generally
smaller than the main tank, and less crowded with just the
newcomers being housed.

I believe the key factor is Stress and the stress level of
the fish determines how susceptible it is to disease,
infection, and parasites. The first line of defense a fish
has in that fight is its mucus coating. In a healthy fish
it is thick enough and produced fast enough that a parasite
such as Ich cannot get a foothold on the fish. In a fish
under stress the coating is much thinner to non-existent
and the parasite can easily attach itself to the fish.

Yes, fish can be attacked by Ich time and time again until
one breaks the cycle. Removing a fish from a tank to
a separate tank, simply brings the Ich parasite along with
the fish, leaving the main tank infested with it. Treating
the hospital/quarantine tank "cleans" that tank and the
fish, but then you put it back into the main tank where the
infection started and the Ich cycle is still in progress.
The healthy fish in the main tank will be able to ward off
the parasite, and the weakened, stressed fish may easily
become reinfected.

The stress comes from water chemistry, temperature
variations, diet considerations, and other factors.
Generally temperature and water chemistry are the main
factors. Those two factors cause the fish's metabolism
to be in turmoil as the fish tries to adjust to fluctuations
in water chemistry (pH, GH, KH, ammonia, and nitrite and
needless additions of salt. As the temperature varies
the fish has to compensate with the whole metabolism engine
accelerating with a temperature increase, or decreasing
with various organs shutting down.

One of the best articles on stress is this:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa005

Once one reads the article and understands the
the interrelationship of the various causes, you will be
well on your way to eliminating Ich outbreaks in your
tanks.

Just the act of netting and transferring the fish from
one tank to another separate water system can stress the
fish and even remove some of the mucus coating from the
fish leaving it open to infection, disease, or parasites.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

it's really?
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Frank

Maybe you can either throw some light on this or clear this point up.

When you have a fish/s with Ich it has always be strongly advisable to treat the tank by raising the temp and using the correct medications etc for 2-3 weeks and some say 3-4 weeks after you cannot see any more Ich infected fish.

Now comes the question/s
By doing this it is supposed to completely remove all traces of the Ich, so that the tank is perfectly safe and 100% Ich free.

If this is the case why do some say that there is Ich in the tank all the time if it has been completely removed.

I know this can change if it is imported into the tank one way or another.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

I hadn't heard about treating a tank after the ich is gone.


I had heard about raising the temp, mainly to speed the life cycle along and is something I recommend to people only when combined with proper ich medications.

I've only dealt with ich twice before in my various tanks, this time I actually really wasn't certain it was ich, the 'grain of salt' seemed a little too small. But I could tell a few fish were under stress. With all the moving of houses the fish have been through I'm not surprised. While it's all the same main water system (once we were off of tank (untreated rain) water anyway) it may have had a different chemical makeup. We are always careful with dechlor but don't usually test for ph. It's possible that the newly bought fish were in a different ph/kh/gh from our current water even though they were in the same city. I do suspect the swords were in a brackish as adam did mention he saw the effect of salt mixing in our tank when he dumped the bag in.

Of course now that the tank is done being treated for ich, and I'm no longer seeing spots on the swords we do have a minicycle going on which is always 'fun' to deal with.


^_^