Young Bristlenose with Ich

[motors99]

Last week (8 days ago) I received some young BN which have been eating well, acting frisky. Tonight I discovered the first few spots of Ich.

Temp 75, pH 7.5, GH 120 ppm, KH 100 ppm, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate trace, 10G qt tank, no substrate, HOTB AC 50?/200?, bio sponge only and sponge prefilter. New tank, pulled HOTB off a heavily stocked 29G, rinsed media very lightly, plants & everything else has come out of that 29G which also has other BN in it, none of which show ich. The affected fish are not flashing or showing any signs of distress.

I am warming tank slowly, have begun to add salt.

Question is where does Ich originate. I have seen everything written from all fish carry it, to it comes from municipal tap water.

I have not had Ich for decades. Seriously, I rememeber it from when I was a kid but just never had it since. I would think if all fish carry it or it came from tap water at some point one fish would have been stressed enough for an outbreak.

I have read about the life cycle and it doesn't seem like it could come from a municipal water supply treated with chloramine. I'm also struggling with the idea it is always present when I have not had a single case in ages. I am comfortable with the idea that some populations of fish may carry it yet not fully express all the symptoms.

And finally, how fanatically do I need to be about preventing cross contamination? I have multiple tanks and 11 with fish. This of course assumes it didn't come out of the faucet or already exists in all my tanks.

thanks,
Mike

[Barbie]

Hi Mike!

Ich is rarely a problem you'll see in tanks of fish that haven't been recently stressed. Usually they've been exposed to recently purchased fish, but do not necessarily show any signs to warn there might be a problem the next time they have to deal with a stress factor. With that being said, designate a single hose and bucket for your water changes on the ich tank only and you should be fine. Once the treatment period if over, run a bleach solution through it and you're good to go.

Most importantly, are you sure it's ich and not oodinium? Young bristlenose seem to be VERY prone to oodinium when moved if they have been exposed to it. Oodinium will have less of an organized pattern and look more gold in color. It also tends to make them act more itchy and hang out higher in the water column as they struggle for enough oxygen with the water temperature going up. You do still need to be raising the temperature, but it's something to keep an eye out for. When you say you added salt, how much did you add? Plan on doing daily 30-50% water changes and carefully siphoning the bottom of the tank to remove the ich as they go through their reproductive period and fall off the fish to the bottom of the tank. If you're up to doing a 25% change twice a day, I've found I do have faster success that way, but the once a day plan works also. Hope this helps! Good luck with the babies .

Barbie

[motors99]

Oh, you are going to make me say it, I have middle aged eyes. I baited them all into a front corner and tried to get a better look. I really think it's ich. There are very few spots. Not all are the same size but do look more like grains of light sand than coarse dust. They are not super bright blinding white, more like ivory colored, but not tan or darked. The colors of the fish is making this very difficult. Most are not very dark, only one rather small one is dark enough for spots to show up well but it has those mini light spots so it's hard to tell if it's a spot which is supposed to be there or a bad white spot. The larger fish are significantly lighter and have more blotchy spots and uneven coloring.

I believe in aggressive treatment with the least harmful method so I am going with twice a day WCs, it takes 30% before I feel I have really sucked up everything possible. As soon as the tank is refilled and settled I feed so they will be on the floor when it is the cleanest. Then hopefully they will go stick on the wall in the corner up off the floor with a full belly. I am keeping a full cover of floating plants to encourage them up into a dark coner but the plants won't be able to handle the salt much longer.

Last night I only felt okay putting 1 tablespoon of salt in because I was going to sleep shortly after. And since I was still raising the temp and not able to watch them... Today's first WC was replaced with 4 teaspoons of salt, one to replace what I siphoned out and 3 more to make it 2 full tablespoons and temp is up to 85F (29C?). Aside from clearly accelerated metabolism, they are not showing any stress (or symptoms for that matter). With only a few more degrees to go I may make more than a single tablespoon increase in salt. I realize it would be nice if I could speed up the "treatment" but some of these fish are little more than fry.

But I still don't know, is Ich present in EVERY tank or, even more unlikely, comes from tap water (which sounds insane to me but I don't know beans about Ich).

mike

[B-2]

I have always wondered that too. From what I've heard ich is found in every aquarium. How is it possible that a fish can get ich if it has been kept in pure filtered water for it's whole life. Does this mean there is ich living in our well water?

[motors99]

I have read about it's life cycle over and over and over. There is a stage during which the parasite is free swimming and needs to find a host or it will die. Say it's a few days at average aquarium temperatures. I know well water can be pretty cold but that doesn't mean it will live forever without a host. I don't know anyone who has fish IN their well. My municipal water supply is wells, it is processed, chloramine is used, it is stored in a giant tank. I just don't see how Ich is going to survive that.

And there have been many times that my fish were stressed. Power goes out for too long. Bad fish-sitter when I have been on vacation. Heater sticks on, heater sticks off. Filters which die and I don't notice right away. Even a tank which broke and I was picking fish up off the floor and tossing as many as I could find into a bucket. No Ich.

The same day I got the BN in question, I also received some much younger BN fry which were half dead, one was swimming. Out of 10 I only lost 3. They are in an old very established tank. If any fish should get Ich it is them. They are fine.

Say you start with R/O water, raise killies or something from eggs, use fake plants. Boiled any peat or coir you put in the tank. There is no possible way Ich is going to come floating in the window.

At least the fish are still acting fine, no flashing, no sign of respiratory distress. They just act like I dumped a bunch of caffeine in the water. I just wish it was easier for me to see the spots. It was hard before, now they don't hold still.

mike

Editted to add link to article supporting the theory ich is not present in ALL aquariums:
http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php