sclabman;795715; said:
dont all fish already have the ick parasite on them, they just continually keep it in check? I was under the assumption that once they are stressed their immune system cant fight it off so there's an outbreak.
Feeding it a feeder with ick (and only ick) would probably be fine. I would worry about other diseases.
Not true. (sorry ewurm)
Ich is a parasite in which it needs a host to live. It does not lay dormant in the tank, waiting for a stressed fish to become it's host. I thought this was the case in the past, but it is not.
Feeding Ich infested feeders to your tank will only allow the parasite to enter the tank, and it can reproduce itself and infect perfectly healthy fish.
When Ich is visible on the fish, the 'Cyst' is encapsulated and un-killable without killing the fish. At the end of it's life cycle, which is effected by water temp, it ruptures and releases thousands of tiny offspring into the water. These offspring are incredibly sensitive to medications such as Malachite Green, Formalin, and even basic Aquarium Salt.
The combination of Heat (84 degrees), and Salt (double dose or more) will speed up the life cycle, exposing the vulnerable offspring to medications quickly leading to death of the parasite as a whole.
Dormant parasites can lay low in the tank and fail to rupture and release their offspring at times, in areas such as filters and gravel beds. Especially at lower temps. They do however need a host organism to live, so a tank that is completely empty for 2-3 weeks usually rids itself of the parasite as it dies off from a lack of food source (the host being the fish.)
However, they do not react to the stresses or the immune system of the fish. Scaleless fish are more easily infected, as Ich tends to attack soft tissues such as the gills.
Hopefully this quick lesson on Ich learns everyone a few things, and never ever feed Ich infested fish to another unless you plan on treating that tank. Wherever you purchased those feeders from, I wouldn't get them from their again. If people are selling sick feeder fish, it obviously shows their ignorance and lack of intelligence, or failure to understand good fishkeeping husbandry. Not to mention,
Ich is a very common parasite and it shows very poor quality, meaning the feeders likely have internal parasites and a bunch of other negative issues. That is why you should always QT your feeders in a super high salinity for about a month, or find a store that does it for you already.
Good luck Bro!
(ps. Net sharing, water sharing, decor sharing, and even moving wet hand from tank to tank can easily transfer this parasite.)
