A couple questions on ICH
 

Hello all,

I ran a 150 gallon reef tank back in 2000 for around a year before I left the military, Always wanted to get back into the hobby and our business recently bought a building that had a 265 gallon tank from the previous owners. We moved the tank and got it up and going and after a couple weeks added some Chromis. Around a week later I added 2 clownfish. We got around 200 pound of rock with it from the previous owners but added around 75 more of live rock from a LFS when setting it up. The tank had sat empty for 3 years so all the previous rock was dead.

So moving on to Wednesday I decided to buy a Naso tang from a LFS in another town and I followed the hour long acclimation procedure. I did not have a QT tank setup so we just did the acclimation. The Tang has immediatly started eating, exploring the tank, found his hiding spots. he acts like he has always been in the tank. this afternoon I noticed he had 3 very tiny little white specks on him. I will check him again in the morning but my questions I suppose are as follows.

If a tank has been Ich free for 75 days, is it possible for a fish in that tank to develop ICH if nothing new is added? From what I am reading on the disease it has a maximum lifespan of the 70 day range if it doesnt find a host. So my thinking is if a tank has been going strong for 4 months with no ICH, and a fish gets stressed it is not possible for that fish to get ICH?

next question is if tomorrow this is indeed ICH on the Naso I plan on getting a QT tank setup quickly to remove him and treat, but if the chromis and Clowns dont have ICH is it necessary to QT them as well?

From my understanding and reading of fellow refers all fish have to be removed from DT and treated , Now in my case I’ve had 3 Ich outbreaks , and my fish have all survived( white tail bristle tooth , blue tang and yellow tang) key is keep them eating and feed, plenty of nori soaked in selcom , oh and always always quarantine ,


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Ick cannot survive without a host fish....just fish...nothing else.
Yup 70 days is more than long enough.
Likely, if you have, came with the tang....they are prone to this.
If you have, tank must go fish less for at least 8 weeks.
Treat any fish you want to keep with either hypo salinity or cupramine see sticky notes.
Once they stop eating, suspect Ick.....starts in the gills and spreads.....most people treat outside the DT so they do not kill others and biological filter and have to cycle all over...

Your correct to a certain degree, a tank and rock that has completely dried out, this will kill ick. The actual fallow time is 76 days this strain of ick was found to be capable of staying encysted for 72 days under controlled conditions then hatching and if no fish Is present dying that is were the 4 extra days comes into the equation.
And finally if a system is ick free and a fish is introduced and comes down with ick that fish brought the parasite into the tank. A fish that is stressed is more susceptible to ick but it has to be present.
If the fish does have ick all fish will have to be Qt'ed and treated the inverts and corals can remain in the DT but it has remain fallow for 76 days. One final note when treating ick the same thing applies to the 76 day fallow period. Here's what I mean the fish will be treated for 30 days in copper chloroquine phosphate or hyposalinity then transferred to a 2 nd sterile qt. the reason is no meds will kill the cysted ick it has to hatch for the meds to kill it. There's one other option and that's ttm and you will need 2 tanks for this that do not share equipment

Is it possible for any inverts to get Ich? I have a small serpent star that I've had for close to a year. He has developed small white spots all over him in the past few weeks. He is eating, and comes out when I feed the fish but he doesn't seem to be growing much, and the white spots concern me. Any information would be helpful.

No fish only

Ok, with that said, any idea what is going on with my little star?

O don't have any ideas I would try the invert forum or a Google search see if anything comes up

You could post something in the “other invertebrates” section. Someone more skilled with sea star car may be able to help:)