Guppy pestering glofish

NC Frank

Not only very possible but very probable that there is an issue stressing out the fish causing ich. Lack of decorations and inadequate school/group sizes may very well be contributing to the issue.

Oldman47

Ich is not ever caused by poor water quality, stress or any number of other things. Ich is a parasite that will infest your fish if it is present in a tank. Frequently, new fish or plants can be a way of bringing the parasite into a tank but it is still the parasite that causes the disease, not the temperature shifts, pH shifts or anything of the sort. I am often amazed at the things that get blamed for a parasite infestation.

NC Frank

Very incorrect statement. Fish become prone to getting the disease by being stressed. A healthy fish in a healthy environment will in most cases not develop ich.

Angelove

I believe our water quality is fine, since we keep an eye on it, but it appears the fish have definitely been stressed by each other and by the decor. We're learning as we go, unfortunately for the fish. My husband said today that he had noticed ich on one of the tetras shortly after we first brought him home. At the time, he did not know what he was looking at. So, ich was in there quite a while before we understood what was happening. The good news is that the fish we're treating are looking lively, for the most part.

bettababy

Correct NC Frank. Ich is a parasite, but is present in most aquariums. A healthy, unstressed fish is able to fight off infestation issues. A stressed or unhealthy fish becomes vulnerable because it is not naturally able to fight it.

When we bring a fish home from a lfs many of them are carrying the ich parasite, we just can't see it because it is microscopic and it can be present in the intestinal tract and in the gills either in protozoan form or as a cyst. These things are not seen by the naked eye when we look at the fish, and unless the immune system of the fish has been weakened from things such as dirty water, stress, other illness, etc. this fish can carry the parasite into a healthy tank where the cyst will drop into the substrate unseen and begin to reproduce.

When we see the white dots on the fish, the white dots themselves are not just the parasite. The white dots are the fish's slime coat over the parasite, as the fish is trying to naturally fight off the parasitic infestation.

Sorry ghreed... your info is not completely accurate. The dirty water, pH shifts, etc that you accuse other of "blaming" the infestation on, are indeed what bring on the infestation due to the fish's weakened immune system that these things cause, and their inability to fight it naturally. Most fish will carry the ich parasite even though we can't see it. It is the conditions listed that cause the problems.

A tank that has been healthy and "ich free" for years with no new fish additions can indeed suddenly show up with a problem with ich. The reason for this is because the parasite is already there, but conditions change which makes the fish vulnerable to it.... such as the case of frequent/rapid temp fluctuations, dirty water, etc.

I hope this helps to clarify.

Oldman47

If ich was present in my tanks, I would have at least some fish in over 25 tanks showing some kind of symptoms BettaBaby. Healthy fish can indeed get ich, it is a terrible bane if you let some slip past quarantine into your tank. I run several tanks of goodeids with no heater at all, the fish water temperature rises and falls with my room temperatures and with the seasons. I also place fish in an outdoor tub in late spring when temperatures are in the 50s and don't bring them back in until the temperature is quite low. I measured the water temperature this fall at only 50F shortly before bring in the fish to avoid them freezing. The tub was well over 80F during the heat of summer and had no temperature controls on it. My tub fish are among the healthiest that I have and never show any ich infestations. My only run in with any ich in the last 6 years, since I got back into the hobby, was with some female bettas that I put together as a sorority in a new tank. There was nothing in the tank to infest the bettas, there had been nothing in the tank before them but some ammonia. I noticed a spot on one of the bettas on their first day together, after I got them out of the tiny travesties that they are shipped in. By the time I got my treatment started properly, I saw spots on many of them. After a week of treatment, they were all cured and the tank then ran with that sorority for well over a year with no outbreak until I had a chemical poisoning from a leaking lamp ballast that killed them all overnight. After replacing the water in the tank to remove the poison, I placed a colony of endlers and a nice amle betta into that tank and ran it thatr way for a couple of years before I needed the room for my Xenophallus unmbratillis that still share it today, with no evidence of ich whatsoever. Ich is a parasite thatr5 cannot survive without a host for more than a few days so I seriously doubt that it can spontaneously generate from nothing in a tank that experiences some stress. Please get your facts straight on this one. Try a read through of this nice description of the disease, with the appropriate citations of proper scientific articles on the subject. The Skeptical Aquarist