Lee1

All marine creatures require freshwater just as we do to survive, they just process it differently. Since their bodies are less salty than the water surrounding them, to prevent the loss of needed freshwater they take in seawater, process it to eliminate the salt molecules, and then retain the freshwater to maintain a balance with nature. When the salinity of seawater is lowered, or hyposalinity is applied, it results in a lowering of the osmotic pressure of the water at the same time, thus the related name Osmotic Shock Therapy (OST). Fish and a few other sea creatures can withstand and adjust to this change in pressure, but protozoan (Cryptocaryon/White Spot Disease, and Brooklynella/Clownfish Disease), dinoflagellate (Oodinium/Velvet or Coral Fish Disease), and flat worm (Black Spot Disease) ich organisms cannot. Reduce this necessary pressure, particularly rapidly, and they literally explode! Although delicate corals and invertebrates may not immediately rupture as ich parasites do, these too are marine animals that cannot tolerate exposure to low osmotic pressure, resulting in a rather quick death. When is hyposalinity most effective on ich? Hyposalinity is largely ineffective on mature ich parasites that are well protected in the gills surrounded by thick mucus produced by an infected fish, when embedded deep in the tissues of their host, and during the final encrusted cyst stage of life. It is primarily during the free-swimming phase of life when newborn organisms are released from a mature cyst, and before they have the chance to fully attach and develop into mature parasites that they are most vulnerable and can be eliminated with hyposalinity.

this one is my question to you???? I have a 75-gallon reef aquarium and since January my fish have been experiencing repeated saltwater ich attacks. Because the whole aquarium is infested, I decided to use a product called Organicure to cure the ich. I called the company and they said the medication was safe for invertebrates. However, various corals and anemones died during the treatment. They did not die right away. They stopped opening up and never recovered. Also during this time, most of the saltwater fishes continued to die. Maybe the medication is not strong enough or not as effective as it claims to be. The ich seemed to disappear until last week, when it started again. Two weeks ago I began using a copper and iron absorbent to remove residual copper in the water. I also saw a display for the new product, X-Parasite, which claimed it is not copper based and is completely safe for all invertebrates. I started using both of these last week. Within a week a cleaner wrasse and a sleeper goby died. I suspect they ran out of parasitic foods to eat. Do you know of any other more effective medication to get rid of ich in a reef aquarium? I started using a quarantine aquarium two weeks ago (I should have done this a long time ago). I used old gravel from the display aquarium and treated it with copper for a week. Then I added an ocellaris clownfish to cycle the water. I tested the water for nitrate a few days ago. Then I bought a yelloweye bristletooth (Ctenochaetus strigosus) and placed it in the quarantine aquarium yesterday. I plan on keeping it in quarantine for at least another three weeks, or until the aquarium is free of ich.

That was 30 years ago. On a recent trip to a local LFS, I purchased a Pearly-Scale Butterfly fish. After being placed in my quarantine tank, I noticed it definitely has Ich. Fortunately, I’m a lot smarter now and the fish was promptly treated, released from quarantine, and has been doing fine in a community tank ever since. Marine Ich has been running rampant in this hobby for at least 30 years, perhaps much longer. Surely in this amount of time the importers, the exporters, industry support groups, or even LFS’s would have gotten together and figured out how to wipe out this parasite from the supply chain. But they haven’t. It keeps propagating (and surviving) from the South Pacific holding tanks to your living room aquarium. There are procedures such as dips and medications that can stop Ich in its tracks. But this doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon. The ornamental marine business is a rag-tag industry of rogue fish collectors and corrupt, unregulated island-countries. When clownfish sell for $0.03 each at the dock, there isn’t much incentive to install treatment facilities. The bottom line is that it is your responsibility to deal with Ich on any fish you buy. Do not think for one minute that a fish with clear fins in your LFS’s tank does not have Ich. The parasite normally attaches to the gills first, which cannot be seen. And not all fish scratch when infected with Ich. Many LFS’s use copper in some or all their fish holding tanks. This is an excellent measure to minimize the spread of the disease, but it does not necessarily prevent the parasite from coming home with you. First off, the copper concentration may have drifted below its therapeutic level. the knee at which copper kills the parasite is very slim. Secondly, it takes at least 7 days for attached cysts to dislodge. If the fish hasn’t been at the LFS very long, the copper won’t have enough time to work. I don’t know what the odds are of buying a fish today infected with Ich, but talking with fellow aquarists across different parts of the country, the consensus seems to be approximately 2 out of every 3 fish either have Ich or a related life-threatening parasite (i.e. Oodinium) when purchased. Folks, this is an epidemic. If this was happening to humans, the world would be in deep shit. Such a statistic makes cancer and heart disease look like the common cold.