Explain this to me please...why is there still ICH?

[mvigor]

Why is there still ICH?

Fish breeders must almost certainly keep their tanks free from disease in order to keep churning out as many fish as possible. If they had a bad outbreak of ICH, it could ruin a percentage of the stock.

Plus, you would think, once they eliminated the ICH, it would remain gone forever from their building. If *I* were a huge-scale fish breeder, I would surely quarantine any new gene line before dropping it in my main production tanks.

So if the breeders don't have ICH, the fish must just get ICH at the LFS.

Seriously, why is it still so prevalent?

I can eliminate ICH from one of my tanks in 2, 4, maybe 6 weeks tops. Then as long as I don't get any new fish, I'll know with absolute certainty that my house is ICH-free. Even when I do go get new fish, a strict quarantine with separate nets and other tools keeps the bigger tanks safe. How hard is this?

 

[rrkss]

breeders usually have 10,000 gallon+ tanks. In those water volumes the ich parasite will do little to no damage to the fish. As soon as they go into the smaller water volumes like your home tank, that is when the ich gets noticed.

 

[mvigor]

Obviously I have no experience with such large volume tanks, but I am surprised to hear it. I would think that those breeders would keep their temps as high as possible to speed fry growth and that the ICH would only multiply faster, faster, faster.

 

[rrkss]

yes but remember that the ich swarmers would still need to find a host. Considering most die anyways, the swarmers are already pretty unsuccessful as is. With such large volumes of water, the swarmers would become even less successful thus minimizing the impact of ich on the breeder's tank. Yes erradicating ich would be easy but the breeders are in the business for profits. Fish shops will still buy from them regardless or not if they spend money on large amounts of salt or medication so in their minds why bother if the little bit of ich is not affecting their bottom line.

 

[mvigor]

So despite having huge tanks the breeding areas are, when compared to how most people keep their aquariums, relatively unstocked?

 

[rrkss]

Not neccessarily true. View it like this. In your home aquarium, finding a fish to feed on would be the same as a person living in New York heading from his bedroom to his refridgerator and getting a bite to eat. This gives a high level of success. In a breeder tank, it would be the same as that same New York person having to walk to Kansas to find food. The ich might not be lucky enough to bump into the fish and die.

 

[msouth468]

Ich is like the common cold. Every fish has it.

The health of the fish and conditions of the tank determine wether you will have an outbreak.

 

[mikesoverhere]

I usually use aqua-sol for prevention 5 drops to 10 gallons,when I add new fish or do water changes. It works for me of course i use caution 30 seconds for each drop.

 

[mvigor]

Ich is like the common cold. Every fish has it.

The health of the fish and conditions of the tank determine wether you will have an outbreak.

To put it bluntly, that old-wives tale is pure BS. ICH is a living parasite that can easily be completely removed from an aquarium. Do some research before spreading misinformation.

 

[Roan Art]

To put it bluntly, that old-wives tale is pure BS. ICH is a living parasite that can easily be completely removed from an aquarium. Do some research before spreading misinformation.

Very true.

Roan