What does Ich look like and info.
Here are results from a recent order that showed ich on the fish. One is from a scrap and the other is from a clipping of the rear fin. You see them on the video zooming by. They are a parasite which are alive and only come from a system that is infected. If someone tells you it's because of shipping stress or whatever, it's not true. Like I said, they are a live parasite and only come from an infected system. You can see their mouths and they just suck onto the fish during the day. At night they jump off in the location that the fish is sleeping to lay eggs. This is why sometimes you will hear people say, they looked fined this morning, then when I get home from work, they are peppered. As the fish dies, ich jumps onto another fish and so on and so on. Once eggs hatch in your system, mutiple fish will show signs and then goes into a full storm.
Fish Stress. Is not the cause of infection. Yes, a fish that is stress from shipping or bullying is more prone of cathing ich, If it's in your system. Reason for this, is that fish have a slim coat on their body, which protects them, but when stress, that coat is thin or gone. This is why they are more prone to it. This is why some ppl say I haven't seen ich in my tank for a longtime, but soon I put this new fish, bang. That's because either the new fish has it, or it was in your system, and his slime coat was thin from being stressed, Fish like Tangs, Rummy Nose do not have a thick slim coat and are prone to infection if it's in your system.
Can ich come from corals or Inverts? The answer is yes. If the system of the inverts or coral have fish that are infected, the tomonts are able to stick themselves to anything. They can be dorment for about 2 weeks and then hatch to look for a host. Most suppliers won't have inverts with fish system, the reason for this is fish at wholesalers are usually at a salinity of 1.016-018. Inverts cannot survive this lower salinity. Most stores like ourselves won't put any fish into invert systems.
Treatments. Either to kill this parasite, you need a strong medicine to kill them. Any natural remedies DO NOT WORK. Don't be fooled by someone who promotes these snake oils. All treatments need to be at a therapeudic level. Some wholesalers and stores will have copper treatment in their tanks but not a therapeudic level, which just suppresses the parasite and doesn't kill it.
