Diary of my Saltwater setup

[leanne]

My fish originally got Ich about 4 weeks ago after a new addition to the tank. I left them for a few days to see if it was just stress but The ich got worse. I took my fish to my LFS and they treated them for me and they returned fine. Under the bight lights of my aquarium though my box and mandarin still had a couple of dots. This was when I decided to put them in the TT (I did give them 72 hours to get over the trip).

I'm a bt reluctant to do anything to any of my fish in their main tanks - I don't want to do anything that will affect my other fish etc. I think even though it is risky to treat the fish in a separate tank due to the stress factor I would rather put on fish in danger than all my other fish and invertebrates.

Another thing with Ich is that the fish becomes infected and doesn't develop the white spots until the fish's immune system has been activated. The white spots are in facta type of granulation tissue. So if a fish has Ich and has got the spots I wouldn't risk leaving it to see if it gets better on it's own - it is already suffering.

Navarre - which did you type itch in capitals - I don't understand?

 

[Navarre]

Sorry leanne, i didnt mean anything by typing in Caps. I just got back froma long journey back to cornwall from Lancs and was very tired. I was trying to catch up with the posts that i missed and read yours. I replied and pushed the send button without reading it to make sure it was ok. My appologies as it was not ment to mean anything.

Navarre

 

[leanne]

'sOK. I thought i'd done something wrong...

 

[journeyman]

Hi Leanne,

Just felt I should congatulate you on your diary, it's an inspiration for anyone like me wanting to learn more about this interesting hobby.
After driving past my local Aquarium stockist every day for the last four years, curiosity got the better of me and I called in recently for a casual look.
I was immediatly excited by what I saw and proceded to bore the *** off a very patient assistant with endless questions about the what, why, where, when and hows of starting a Marine aquarium.
A book, a video and Leannes diary later, I can't wait to get started (hey, its got to be less expensive than my current hobby of racing cars.....or is it?)
Looking forward to reading more of your diary (it's far more interesting than this bloody great book I'm reading)

David

 

[leanne]

Aw cheers David - as you can see though it's not all been good or easy.

Have a read of spanairs journal if you want to hear more about a tank a bit bigger. We both started our diaries rougly the same time.

 

[bgraber]

http/www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-j.../marineich.html

Actually the white spots are the parasites burrowed under the skin feeding on tissue.. Then they drop off into the substrate. Then they divide and come back Nasty little buggers. And scaleless fish(mandarin, box fish) do not tolerate copper well at all. It is recommended that you use a copperless(malachite green, formalin blue) or hyposalinity/hypersalinity to treat. And yes a hospital tank is the best bet. Just trying to inform those who are reading this thread..
Can you take any pics of the mandarin with ICH? I've honestly never heard of one getting ICH due to their skin structure. But with a heavy infestation I guess anything is possible. Another thing is ICH does Not live in the tank at all times.. It is a parasite that needs a host in order to live.. I've read 6 weeks is all the longer their life cycle is without fish.
Just a quip:

Burgess and Matthews (1994) were attempting to maintain a viable population of C. irritans which could be used in later studies. To maintain the parasite populations, they needed host fish in order for the trophonts to feed and continue the life cycle. Each host fish was only used once in a process of serial transition such that none of the hosts would die or develop an immunity. While the procedure worked very well and enabled them to maintain populations for some time, the viability of the populations decreased with time and none of the 7 isolates they used survived more than 34 cycles, around 10 to 11 months. They suggest this is due to senescence and aging in cell lines is well recognised in Ciliophora.

The presence of aging cell lines in C. irritans suggests that an aquarium that has been running for longer than 12 months without any additions is unlikely to have any surviving "Ich" parasites, yet another exception to "Ich" always being present.

Carry on

 

[leanne]

I can't take pics unfortunately as it died...

If it wasn't Ich it was something that looked exactly the same and the fish responded exactly the same - any ideas?

 

[bgraber]

amyloodium?

 

[leanne]

Hey guys. I'm not herer any more. Thanks to all of you for your brilliant advice. I am still keeping marine fish but I have moved to another forum (no offence on anyone here by the way). Hope you are all well. Byeee

 

[leanne]

...

 

[OzzieGirl]

Hi guys,

That was a great thread and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, I found it very informative and thank Leanne and the other members for posting as I learnt quite a lot from it about marine fish (although it would have been nicer with pictures, but Leanne must have took those with her aswell).

Cheers

Steph

 

[Navarre]

I have seen the latest photos of leannes tank. Its a credit to her passion for marines and looks awseome!

It certainly shows how much she cares for her reef.