Does experience count with ich? Poll.
 

Wondering how many experienced reefers have losses from ich, vs. new reefers.

For instance: are you a new reefer who's lost fish?
A new reefer who hasn't lost fish but who's had ich?

An experienced reefer who's had ich but who hasn't lost fish in years?
An experienced reefer who quarantines and hasn't lost fish [to ich] in years?

A new reefer with a new tank who's lost fish to ich?
An experienced reefer with a new tank who's lost fish to ich?
An experienced reefer with a new tank who's not lost fish to ich?

Talk about your experience level and your tank's age and your history with this pest.

Personally---[sorry: I botched the poll part, but answers will still work.]
I'm an old hand who's got a new tank. Had a mild outbreak, nothing for the last 8 months, no fish loss.

I keep corals, watch my params, feed garlic, and did not add an ich prone fish until the tank had some age on it. I think the last point is important, myself. Putting an ich-prone fish into a new and unstable tank is risky. Their chances are much better when the tank is close to a year old.

i have never QTed, i believe ich is always present, but if your fish are healthy and not stressed they either wont ever get it, or they will fight it off quickly. through the years i have had some small outbreaks with new fish ( early years) but in the last few i have not had any. also i always stress coat new fish, make sure the slime coat stays strong.

I am a firm believer that ich is NOT always present in a system. I had many losses (butterflies/tangs) when I first started in the late 80's. I could always trace it to a particular introduction. I had ich once in my previous tank, introduced by a royal gramma. It was getting progressively worse, even an established springeri pseudo got it. I attached my UV, and it cleared up in a week. I'm making no claims here, just relaying a story :D

I have had no ich in my new tank. A attribute this to 1. Most of my fish are anthias, which I personally have never seen contract ich. 2. The tomini tang was at the dealer for 2 months. Even if he carried ich, he didn't show it. And he just carried it into a tank full of established anthias.

My final fish for my tank, a powder blue tang, is in QT right now. He was mail ordered. He shows no signs of any problems, but with their reputation, he will, nonetheless, remain in QT for at least 4 weeks.

the reason i think its always present is because i have had new intros in my tank have quick outbreaks and within days they get over it, i guess i believe its always present in MY tank!

that is the lifecycle ...they don't "get over it".(well, if you have a huge tank and the trophont 's don't find a host in time, they could could dieoff)..the trophonts attach to the fish for several days(the visual stage), then they drop off of the fish and encyst on the bottom to reproduce and multiply(not visible)..when they burst open, they must find a host(fish)..not all of them burst open at the same time..it could be over a month before they burst open and look for a host..that is why they "seem" to come and go...ich is not always present in a tank..if you qt everything wet and treat the fish that have it, your tank will be ich free!!!:)

Would be interesting grant work to figure out the answer. I know it is present in most if not all tanks. The UV will certainly limit it from any sort of fish to fish transmission, and wipe out the free swimming stages. However there are non swimming situations on and off fish as well as the whole encysting aspect of their life cycle. I have seen tanks that without an introduction of new fish for 6 yrs or more- got ich after a power outage. Fresh and salt water- which is odd considering the differences in the morphologies, but true just the same. WIth proper QT you allow fish to be gently transitioned from wild to final captivity. the proper treating of parasites in QT along with proper non competitive feeding will allow for a stress free introduction to a new tank and a much lessened likelyhood of ich in the display.

with proper qt and treatment, it won't have the opportunity to get into the display!! i have never had it in my displays since i started qt'ing EVERYTHING wet..

Had ich a few times before I invested in a QT system. Now that that is setup the only ich I have seen is on a new fish in the QT. Then hypo, then display. Ich free display ever since :).