Having trouble with Ich

[Zerc]

Thanks I bought them as small as I could find, but I did not want to miss the sale when i found them. (LFS had a really big sale and these fish were only like 2.5 inches long)

 

[leebca]

Sounds like things are moving forward well enough. Reliable equipment makers and even top name-brand ones suffer handling and storage issues which throw them off. "New" doesn't always mean "calibrated." What you're doing is good enough for this work. The best calibration is with distilled (dbl distilled actually) and two sea water standards. But, we don't go this kind of distance for the hobby.

Curious where you read,

From what I read, low salinity/SG prevents the breeding phase of the lifecycle

I'd like to read that.

Stick to what you find here in this Forum. It is the truth as far as such things as 'leaving fallow' etc. Good luck!

 

[Zerc]

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f184/hyposalinity-a-cure-for-ich-126949.html

[URL="http://www.chucksaddiction.com/ich.html"]http://www.chucksaddiction.com/ich.html

[URL="http://www.reefphilippines.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6595&sid=bb3c075627732e76304e4f93366585ec"]http://www.reefphilippines.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6595&sid=bb3c075627732e76304e4f93366585ec

Ho[/URL]p[/URL]efully the information is correct, I have not (and do not plan to) move any fish until at sept 3rd. Every forum i read says the same thing about SG at 1.009 (or something very close) killing marine ich, but very few actually said why/how it kills them. These sites seem to be in agreement on all the other information about ich, so I don't (yet) have a good reason to doubt them, but if they are wrong I would definitely like to know!

 

[leebca]

I see. What is actually says is that 'they don't know.' The 'it prevents them from reproducing' is a speculation. It's important to read closely. They are wrong in this particular speculation, but then, they haven't the decades of study and been working with this parasite as I have. It's easy to repeat something that is only someone else's 'guess' which then leads others to think it is a fact. The fact is, we're not sure how hypo stops the Marine Ich parasite (as the first link says).

However, I believe Dr. Burgess has made the best 'guess' of them all. Simply put, he says the hyposaline environment stresses the parasite until the parasite just can't handle it anymore. This is what I tell people/hobbyists. Even in hyposalinity I have seen the parasite reproduce and go through its cycle in a bare tank with only fish in it. But at some point in its life cycle, the parasite 'gives up' and doesn't continue its life cycle. Having seen and documented that the parasite still goes through all stages of its life cycle in the hypo environment, I'm cautious about declaring 'how hypo 'kills' them.' But the stress theory seems to work in all cases, for the time being.

The above facts I've gathered is how I've come to the recommendation that the time in hypo starts AFTER the last spots are seen. And should spots show up again, the clock starts over. The above facts are also why I don't actually tell someone to perform hypo for a specific length of time -- only a certain amount of time AFTER the last spots are seen.

We're fortunate that a hyposaline environment does in fact stop them. We are, however very unfortunate that hypo doesn't stop the other parasites! Maybe those other parasites have some feature which prevents the hyposaline environment from stressing them to death.

Thanks for the links. Always on the look out for actual data and scientific evidence to further the database.