cheeks69 said:
Metrondiazole will not eliminate Ick if I'm not mistaken that is an antibiotic. There are only 3 proven methods to eliminate Crypto irritans and that's copper, hyposalinity and the transfer method. You should never treat a reef with medication always use a Q tank not only can it affect the nitrifying/denitrifying bacteria but it can have long term effects on inverts.
It's possible that the fish may be able to recover on it's own if the infection isn't severe and then develop immunity but the parameters would have to remain excellent and the fish would have to be in a stress free environment. Dave mentioned a couple of things that can be of great help garlic and Selcon will definitely boost the immune system.
I must respectfully disagree....
Metronidazole (flagyl...Which is indeed an antibiotic when used in us humanoid type organisms)) or any other medication inteneded for this use (having been proven reef safe of course) will kill Cryptocaryon and/or Oodinium Tomites. Since it's impractical for us to dismantle our tanks to catch our fish, we often use these "medications". The key is temperature elevation and hyposalinity. Temperature elevation to speed up the life cycle while the Tomont is embedded in the fishes gills and/or flesh, so that it will come to the end of the cycle and form the cysts (which is what we see) that contain the many tomites. Hyposalinity to encourage the cysts to burst releasing the Tomites. Once the tomites erupt from the cysts and are at the free swimming stage, they can only survive without a host for 1-3 days. However, at the Tomont stage while the parasite is embedded within the flesh and or gills it may live indefinitely...ergo the elevated temp. Since they're not very hardy little critters at this free swimming stage, pretty much any "medication" deemed for this use will kill them. Again that is assuming that the chosen medication has been proven reef safe. And treatment for up to a week after the symptoms disappear to insure total elimination.
We must keep in mind that this is not an infection, virus, or a bacteria..But is a parasite, (an animal)...Therefore the fish cannot develop an immunity. But, aiding in boosting our fishes immune system may help in the prevention of complications secondary to infestation.
I do agree that the best way to combat these vermin would be to place all new fish into a QT prior to introducing them to our tanks. Second best would be to catch our fish and place them in a QT. However, one would have to weigh the benefits of the QT as opposed to treating the tank, in relation to chasing the fish around the tank and stressing them even further than they are already at this point.
We hear many people say that "I got rid of the ich but it returned tenfold about 3-5 weeks later". The simple fact is...They never "got rid of it" to begin with... they did something..i.e., temp, hyposalinity, medication, or a combination thereof, to cause the cysts to burst but never killed the free swimming Tomites, (at least not all of them). So they embedded themselves in the fishes flesh/gills, and a few weeks later they see the cysts all over again when the Tomonts reach the end of their life cycle...Only in larger numbers.
It's my opinion that too many people view this parasite as "Ich" (Ichthyophthirius Multifiliis) which is a freshwater parasite that may go into a dormant stage and become very persistent. Whereas Cryptocaryon and Oodinium will not, and can be easily eradicated from a reef tank inside of 10 days without detrimental effects to the rest of the tanks inhabitants.....JMTCW derived from my experience and research. :turntable
