Ich again?!!!

Romad

I agree with AK and Jeaninel about treating the tank long after you see the last of the spots. Good luck with your treatment and hope your fish are ok afterwards. Keep us posted.

Ellador

Good morning! ; )
The link Kymmie supplied up there... this one: The Skeptical Aquarist (thank you again, Kymmie) says that ich can be present on a fish, but unseen, so I suppose this does mean some fish can be carriers. The article says ich will usually attach itself inside the gills of scaled fish, damaging their respiratory systems, and the ich can live this way for quite some time, unnoticed. Since clowns don't really have scales, ich is more easily able to attach to their bodies and be visible to us-- which I think means that if ich is visible on clowns, the other fish in the tank are infected as well.

Ellador

I definitely will-- thank you all so much.

aunt kymmie

I think that's exactly what happens, at least in my tank. Clowns are incredibly susceptible to Ich. All three times I had an Ich outbreak it was ALWAYS the clowns that were the first to show symptoms, and the last visible white spot while medicating was always on a clown. I think of clowns as the proverbial "canary in the coal mine". I can't think of any other reason I could have had an outbreak of Ich other than the "always present" theory. The other fish with the clowns are my Discus, rams, a shoal of cardinals, and my Pictus. Other than the Cardinals none of the other fish ever showed any symptoms of Ich at all. So I'm thinking one of these other species is a "carrier"??

Pasfur

It wasn't long ago, just a few months, that I read a clip in some magazine (Science Journal?) about a study being done an an Ivy league university (I think it was Harvard, but I can't recall). Anyhow, they were trying to answer the question of how the ich parasite appears in tanks out of nowhere without logical explanation. We've all had it happen and the hobby appears to be divided in its opinion of weather or not ich remains in the tank at all times. The study had not drawn a conclusion at the time of print.

I personally believe that ich is introduced into our tanks by alien lifeforms from the planet Xion who have a dislike for livebearers of red / orange color.

aunt kymmie

I knew it!!

jeaninel

LOL

Ellador

Ha- that's great! Does Bob know about this? Maybe the prediction was true, only the aliens came in the form of ich... ; )

Ellador

Okay, so I was doing some reading and came across this: columnaris. What is described, about the fins being eaten away, makes me wonder if ich is really the culprit, after all.