no-ich in sps is it really safe?

[krisfal]

Hypo is your best bet. LIke mentioned before leaving your tank fallow for 6-8weeks and you can't risk adding new corals during this time as you could introduce ick this way as well. Or inverts...anything wet basically. I'm a big believer that fish will fight it off after they have been in a mature tank for some time. In the beginning i had ick outbreaks for the first 10-12mths, using hypo and even coppersafe to cure the fish. After 3 yrs of my current setup being up i don't worry about ick as all the fish can fight it off easily. The big thing i wonder about is ick present in your system if no fish is infected? If it has a host but the host is immune can ick survive? I would argue that it can't survive if it can't attach, but i don't really think that can be proven by myself : ) Sorry about the rant!

If I remember right I think I read somewhere that if the fish in a tank resist the ich and nothing is new to reintroduce more, that after about 10-12 months it is likely that it is gone. Like you say if the ich cannot go through its life cycle it cannot survive.

 

[arc eye]

Curious about whether resistant fish can eventually eradicate ich myself. Wouldn't you know it, the last fish on my list (added after 10 months) brought a few ichy friends with him. Now my yellow tang and my fourline are showing spots as well....................I'm debating on dumping them all in some big hypo tank, but they are all eating and behaving normally.

Should I wait and see if it progresses or should I go fishing?

 

[krisfal]

Curious about whether resistant fish can eventually eradicate ich myself. Wouldn't you know it, the last fish on my list (added after 10 months) brought a few ichy friends with him. Now my yellow tang and my fourline are showing spots as well....................I'm debating on dumping them all in some big hypo tank, but they are all eating and behaving normally.

Should I wait and see if it progresses or should I go fishing?

If it were me I would start fishing. They could beat it eventually, but chances are you will loose some fish. If you go through the hypo treatment and leaving your display fallow for 6-8 weeks you will know you are good to go. And don't forget to quarantine in the future, if you had QT'd this last fish you would only be treating one:shock: That was a lesson I learned the hard way!

 

[arc eye]

Yeah, I hear ya.......

The one that brought it in is a target mandarin. I haven't seen it eat anything but pods so I'm not sure if it could survive a QT for 6-8 weeks. I'm relatively certain all the others would. Is it possible to quarantine a mandarin? or is he destined for the great toilet bowl abyss?

 

[krisfal]

Yeah, I hear ya.......

The one that brought it in is a target mandarin. I haven't seen it eat anything but pods so I'm not sure if it could survive a QT for 6-8 weeks. I'm relatively certain all the others would. Is it possible to quarantine a mandarin? or is he destined for the great toilet bowl abyss?

Lee Birch did a great write up on training Mandarins to eat, it is about halfway down in this thread.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27464

It is a best practice to train them to eat prepared foods, overtime your pod population will be dominated by just a few types that may not provide your mandarin with complete nutrition. I had mine trained to take small formula sinking pellets and he would wait below the auto feeder when it was time for it to feed.

 

[arc eye]

That is a very interesting article. I will definitely have to try something similar.

I do have a refugium, but like you said, I was a bit worried about the pod diversity and proliferation in my tank over the long haul. Believe it or not I originally purchased the fish for its supposed propensity to eat brown/red flatworms (not AEFW) in addition to its beauty..............so far I haven't seen it eat a single one. My plan if it is not doing well and is not ich ridden, i.e. starving, is to give it to a better home.

Fortunately all of my fish are looking much better today and the mandarin is still on the hunt as usual..........................QT still pending

 

[luke33]

I always heard mandarin's can't get infected with ick because of there slimy skin. Does your mandarin actually have ick or is it your other fish. They can carry it though as they are wet : )

 

[arc eye]

At first I thought the mandarin just had sand specks on its sides from puffing a bit of my substrate through its gills while hunting, but then I noticed ich looking spots on both my fourline wrasse and my yellow tang. Today, both the mandarin and the fourline are exhibiting no suspicious spots, but the yellow tang still looks like it might have ich. I am new to substrate (only prevoius experience was bare bottom) so its possible its just specks of sand caught in their mucus and this is just something I have never dealt with before, but I sort of doubt thats the case as I have seen some definite cases of ich. I will continue monitoring the situation and let you guys know how things progress.

 

[luke33]

I doubt if your mandarin has ick but its very likely adding the new fish sparked a mild outbreak on your YT. You can pull them all out of let them go for a while and hope it fixes itself.