[weez1959]

Hi Lee,
I have a question that has me stumped...
A fellow reefer that works at the local grocery store in the (dead ) fish dept. has a tang that has had ich for 8 months, why is it still alive? I offered to lend him one of my QT's but he said he doesn't want to bother since it's been fine since day one.
I thought ich kills in a few weeks if not treated...

[leebca]

If you read closely my post on the myths of Marine Ich, you'll find a possible answer.

First and foremost, is it truly Marine Ich? Many mis-diagnose this, though it would seem easy to diagnose.

Second, a fish can develop an immunity to the parasite. This doesn't mean that the parasite has no effect on the fish, it means the fish lives with it. Sort of like living with fleas. From my perspective, such a fish is surviving on a day-to-day basis, rather than thriving. It's on the borderline of harming the fish to make it live like this. Certainly such a fish will live a shortened and troubled life in captivity until the parasite dies on its own or the fish does.

Third, each fish within a species has a different tolerance and capacity for handling pathogens. So long as the numbers of the parasite remain low level, the fish can survive. Should there be a Bloom, introduction of new fishes, water quality problem, etc., the fish would likely be overcome. Simply put, even the best of species can't maintain a long immunity.

For the most part, those that frequent these Forums and seek advice and guidance are not the ones to put their fish through such a stress. Happily, they are responsible caring owners who have the best interests of the fish at heart, rather than what is convenient to them.

One of the real, but sad facts of marine fish husbandry is that the hobbyist can't tell if a fish is in distress. There are obvious signs of illness, being chased, etc., but for the very large part, a fish doesn't display or show when it is stressed. The hobbyist assumes all is well. More and more the fish becomes a commodity even in the home aquarium. Your friend has convinced himself the fish is 'happy.'

[weez1959]

Thanks Lee,
I'll try to go see this fish on the weekend, maybe you're right and it's not even ich
I'll let you know as soon as I see it.

[weez1959]

Hi Lee,

So I went over on the weekend and from what I could see, it is for sure ich, she/he is sprinkled in salt. I didn't take a picture because I though it would be sort of rude but I did bring him a 10g QT just in case he would change his mind. I did explain to him how to set it up but more than likely it will just collect dust until I pick it up again!

He says he's had the same fish in the tank since last October. I can't remember how many fish he had but what I can remember is there are the usual couple of clowns, a blue damsel, a few (3, I think) Bangaii, a small yellow angel of some sort and the tang, a 3-4" regal. There may have been other fish but I can't remember I also think the tank was a bit small (65g) for the tang but there's not much I can do about that. All the other fish seem ok except the angel looked like it had a bit of a blotch on it's tail.

Anyways what I was thinking was, since the tang seems to be doing well, should he do something or will the ich eventually just peter out on it's own?

[leebca]

If new Marine Ich parasites are not introduced into the system, the 'old' Marine Ich will become non-viable in about 10-11 months. That is, the Marine Ich there now will not be very infectious in about that time. In a year, the tank would, for all tense and purposes, be Marine Ich free.

The above depends on no new Marine Ich being introduced.

Although your effort is to be commended, the only real treatment is to treat all the fish for this parasite and let the tank go fallow for 8 weeks to kill off the parasite. The 10g QT would not be adequate for this. Even if the Tang was 'cured' it would still end up back into the infected tank.

[weez1959]

Yes, you're right, I sort of forgot about that! It's been so long since I've had that problem that it slipped my mind.
At this point it's been 8-9 months so I guess we'll wait and see

[weez1959]

Update....
Went to see the famous ich tank and he says he hasn't seen spots for almost a month now! He never did use the QT so I brought it home yesterday. I looked at all his fish and all of them looked really good! I looked for ich and there was no sign of it anywhere on the fish and his tang was just beautiful! I guess that's just proof of the 10-11 month thing
So I guess as long as the fish start out healthy they'll have a good chance of beating ich but I'm pretty sure the fish do go through 10-11 months of discomfort though....