Is this possible?

[majorhavok]

Ich is almost like the common cold. You catch a certain strain, your body adapts and eventualy becomes immune. Until next cold/flu season where a new strain is introduced and the infection starts again. Ich can lie dormant as your fish have become immune. Add a new fish who's not immune, they catch it, ich reproduces into yet another new strain and infects the entire tank all over.

At least that's my understanding. That's why quarenteen/hospital tanks are a good thing to have.

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I don't know about this.. I think a small colony can ALWAYS be present in small numbers and a fish can't really become "immune" to it. I think the number of free-floating parasites that are released in a cycle are kept to a minimum when the fish present have scales. Some can still be present in the gills I think, but that's just my guess. There is a lot of conflicting data out there on Ich IMO. Again i could be wrong, but I don't see how a fish can truly be "immune" to a parasite attaching itself to gill tissue and becoming encysted.

It's a nasty little bugger though and I hope one day a real cure or preventative measure can erradicate that puppy.

 

[joe jaskot]

Exceprt taken from the following site: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/ichthyophthirius

"Particularly resistant fishes can remain asymptomatic through several cycles of infestation and can act as "carriers" of Ich. What happens is, the free-swimming tomites attach most easily to the gills. The rest of the fishes' skin is protected by a sturdier mucus coating that's constantly renewed, sloughing off all kinds of minute organisms that might settle out. Trophonts that are newly-attached to the epidermis are invisibly small. So a "carrier" fish is simply one that is invisibly carrying Ich, perhaps on its gills. There is no "dormant" independent, long-term encysted life stage separate from a host fish for Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. This is useful to know. You will often hear to the contrary. Dr. Peter Burgess, who took Ichthyophthirius multifiliis as his Ph.D. subject at Plymouth University, mentioned among Ich "old wives' tales" that "It's present in all aquariums." "What utter rubbish" noted Dr. Burgess (in the November 2001 Practical Fishkeeping). Brits don't mince words."
I'm curious, has anyone had an Ich outbreak in a tank that there is absolutely no possibility of the introduction of Ich from an outside source?

I have heard of people saying that their loaches (in an established tank) came down with Ich after a drastic temperature swing. Has anyone experienced something like this?

I agree with Dr. Burgess. Ich is not present in every aquarium. There is no ich in my fishroom. My tank temperatures have on occasion dropped to the low 60s (power failures). Fish never came down with ich. Can't catch what isn't there.

 

[majorhavok]

I'm with you, if you have ich free fish and tanks, i think thats just fantastic. I absolutely think meds and temps CAN eradicate also. Thats also based on my research of "experts" and not my own experience. Ich was 100% fatal for my loaches and only my loaches. No other fish has shown any symptoms ever, but you can bet I'm gonna be paranoid for a while about Ich when I give CL's another try someday.

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[qu13tst0rm]

I rescued a Pucu and Jack Dempsey from a poorly kept tank, they had white stringy stuff hanging from their bodies. I don't know how long they had it prior to my intervention, but it took almost a year to clear it up without reoccurence. Lots of Melafix, Pimafix and salt.
The Jack Dempsey also had additional treatments of Methylene Blue.