This isn't directly rainbow related. It's a newbie fishkeeper
question. But you folks are the smartest, most helpful group of fish
people I know.
First off, I don't need this right away, but I've decided I should get
prepared; Can you recommend a good fish disease book? Something that
helps with diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
Secondly, I have some questions about Ich. This past February I had an
outbreak of Ich in one of my tanks after I introduced some new fish
without quarantining them. I treated it for three days with Malachite
Green. But after talking with a local experienced fishkeeper, switched
to his recommended treatment of raising the tank temp to 83F/28C and
doing daily LARGE water changes. This seemed to work as no fish have
shown Ich symptoms since then.
But just recently I transferred 3 fish from this "Ich tank" to a new
tank that I have been setting up. Promptly the other inhabitants of
the new tank got Ich. I then read in Baensch #1 that survivors of Ich
"acquire an immunity but may remain dangerous since they may be
carriers without showing signs of the disease." Arg! So now I assume
all fish in my "Ich tank" are Ich carriers. Is there a way to cleanse
them of the disease so that I don't have to worry about transferring
these fish somewhere?
This acquired immunity to me implies that I can't trust any
fish. Quarantining a fish alone may not tell me anything as far as Ich
goes. To be completely safe it seems I would either have to
prophylactically treat any new fish or quarantine them with some known
Ich-free fish to see if the "guinea pigs" get Ich.
At the moment I have removed all the fish from the tank to which I
just unwittingly introduced Ich so that it will become Ich-free. The
fish are in hospital tanks and being treated with Malachite Green. I
intend to treat them for 20 days, which Baensch says is the maximum
life-cycle for Ich parasites.
Thanks in advance for your help and
Hope you have a very nice day, :-)
Tim Ayers tayers at bridge.com
St. Paul, Minnesota
Bridge, Inc. www.bridge.com