What should I do?

[bguile]

Hi Lee,

On January 29th I received two fish from an online vendor, a Lyretail Anthias and a Lamarck Angel. I put them in quarantine and both appear to be doing fine and eating well.

About a week or so after placing them in quarantine, I noticed 2 or 3 small white "blemishes" appearing under the skin of the anthias and thought it may be Ich as it approached the surface but I didn't want to jump the gun. Then one day they were gone. I figured if it was Ich, then they should reappear within a couple weeks. Well now..it's been 4 weeks since I've seen the last white spot and during this whole time I've never seen anything on the Lamarck. Today makes 6 weeks of quarantine. I am going to hold them in quarantine for another two weeks to see what happens, but do you think it safe to say it wasn't Ich and put them in the display tank without medication if I don't see anything?

One thing I'm wondering is if it could've been Ich and gotten killed in it's free swimming stages. The reason I thought that was because I wasn't keeping up with evaporation as well as I was supposed to and the salinity of the water got up to 1.036 and I thought I read somewhere that Ich couldn't tolerate that high a salinity. Could that have been the case? Or maybe it just wasn't Ich. Thanks in advance.

[leebca]

Unfortunately (and to the best of my knowledge) Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) can live/thrive at any conditions that the fish will live and thrive.

Many people who claim to have seen Marine Ich on their fish 'come and go' and who claim they saw it once then never again are in error. Marine Ich doesn't go away. What they often see are spots that look similar to Trophonts but are not related to Marine Ich.

Such spots are sometimes just walled off bacteria, much like the human pimple or 'whitehead.' Fish will exhibit the same. Their system will wall off a bacteria or toxic-producing bacterium species and create a white spot similar to a Marine Ich Trophont.

I find it very annoying and get annoyed when people make the leap to the incorrect conclusion that their fish cured themselves of Marine Ich or that the Marine Ich went away on its own. In fact some notable aquarists make such claims and that leads the less informed to think it is okay to keep infected fishes.

But when I examine fish that had 'Marine Ich' spots I find they were not infected with this parasite at all. But people still make the statement like, 'My fish had Marine Ich and it healed itself' and other such garbage. On the reverse side of the coin, hobbyists who claim their fish are disease free when other fishes are exhibiting Trophonts do indeed have been infected when I test the fish scraping and clippings under a microscope.

Sorry for the rant.

Anyway, short answer, your fish are healthy enough now to add to your marine system assuming the QT is not a very large tank and further assuming conditions like temperature, etc. are for the most part 'normal.' These fishes at least are not infected with Marine Ich and won't bring new parasites into your display.

[bguile]

:eek3: There was a lot of information in that rant!

I for one don't mind it at all. I truly understand the feeling of hearing incorrect information perpetuated when all it would take is a little research and forethought to debunk myths and opinions. Almost nothing upsets me more.

Again thanks for the information. I believe I've come to understand the life cycle of Ich and it's characteristics but wanted to bounce that scenario off you to get a second opinion.