Re: [RML] Ich and other diseases

HH (Harro.Hieronimus at t-online.de)
Mon, 27 Jul 1998 13:43:14 +0200

tayers at bridge.com schrieb:
> Hi,
>
> 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.
>

This a very old remedy which was used when no other fishrelated medicaments were
used. It works, but it is better to raise the temperature to about 32°C/90°F,
that should kill the ciliates.

> 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?
>

Normal fish will have no problems with most ciliates. However, if stressed, it
may break out. As many other aquarium fish diseases it is present in most
aquaria, you may get an infection after a water change although you didn't
introduce any fish or plant in the past half year.

> 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.
>

No, you won't kill the ciliates totally with that but stress the fish and make
it more sensitive against illness. The only think you can do is feed a medical
food against Ick for three weeks.

> 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.
>

After three weeks the tank will be free of ciliates, but a few will survive in
the skin of your fish and ....

> 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

Best regards

Harro Hieronimus, Solingen, Germany
harro.hieronimus at t-online.de

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No fish - no fun
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