There are a lot of factors in that behaviour. First, they've had Ich, and the parasite drains them. Then, they may have temperature preferences. I sometimes forget they are the temp of the water, and aren't warm blooded. We take this skill of ours for granted.
In warm water, there's less oxygen, and most sucker mouthed fish come from rapids conditions with lots of oxygen entering the water column in the agitation. So at very high temps, they may have been like me on a high mountain.
Ich is an interesting beast. If you think about it, each cyst is like a minehead, and the protected parasite bores in lapping up life fluids. It has to hurt. In nature, one Ich cyst bursts and the parasites vanish into the flow with very little chance of getting another host. They survive, and that's it. Ich can be an occasional problem for a wild fish. Inside the glass walls, the parasites find the same hosts they left, and suddenly we have a fatal concentration of hungry parasites boring into the skin and gills all over their victims.
We see it too late and treat it when the fish is being devoured, and the fish dies. So we we blame the meds. Aquarist logic isn't always 'spot' on.
It's why no matter what, I always have Ich meds on hand. You see it and you react quickly, and the fish survive and thrive. You wait for the online seller to deliver, and the fish can die.
So it becomes impossible to say what is doing this. Temperature? Oxygen saturation" The parasite being gone? All are really possible, and probably combine. It's nice to watch an Ich free tank though. Congrats.
In warm water, there's less oxygen, and most sucker mouthed fish come from rapids conditions with lots of oxygen entering the water column in the agitation. So at very high temps, they may have been like me on a high mountain.
Ich is an interesting beast. If you think about it, each cyst is like a minehead, and the protected parasite bores in lapping up life fluids. It has to hurt. In nature, one Ich cyst bursts and the parasites vanish into the flow with very little chance of getting another host. They survive, and that's it. Ich can be an occasional problem for a wild fish. Inside the glass walls, the parasites find the same hosts they left, and suddenly we have a fatal concentration of hungry parasites boring into the skin and gills all over their victims.
We see it too late and treat it when the fish is being devoured, and the fish dies. So we we blame the meds. Aquarist logic isn't always 'spot' on.
It's why no matter what, I always have Ich meds on hand. You see it and you react quickly, and the fish survive and thrive. You wait for the online seller to deliver, and the fish can die.
So it becomes impossible to say what is doing this. Temperature? Oxygen saturation" The parasite being gone? All are really possible, and probably combine. It's nice to watch an Ich free tank though. Congrats.
