[Craig Manoukian]

Here is my take on ich and I expect some controversy from these remarks. I have never had a tang with ich in my tank in a little over two years.

Ich is a parasite. All parasites need a host. Parasites exist in all forms of nature and the negative effects of the parasite are in direct proportion to the host's ability to prevail against it.

It is widely believed that ich exists in every tank. If that is the case, then it stands to reason, that all the ich parasite needs is a host it can attack. So all ich needs is a fish under enough stress, whether it be a tang, an angel, etc., so that it can proliferate.

The best way to avoid ich is to have healthy unstressed fish. Red Skunk Cleaner Shrimp are also an important component of an overall Ich Prevention Plan.

The key to a successful Ich Prevention Plan starts before you add any livestock to your tank. The Plan assumes you have researched the type of tank you want to have, i.e. FO or reef, and have developed a stocking plan. This plan includes the total adult length your tank can accomodate for all fish and an introduction schedule that is slow and gradual. In addition, you add the fish in a least to most aggressive progression. I believe that people add too many fish too soon. This causes a spike in ammonia that the dentrification bacteria is not able to handle and results in poor water quality which will stress all of the fish in the tank.

In addition, we probably don't do a very good job of shopping for our fish. It is important to watch the fish at the LFS and see if it is swimming comfortably and eating. Are there signs of nipped fins, labored breathing, or other indicators of stress? Did the fish just arrive to the LFS from Fiji or has it had a few days to acclimate from being yanked out of the ocean? Did it take two hours for the LFS employee to completely exhaust your fish befor netting it? I tell the folks at my LFS that if it takes more than 60 seconds or two passes to catch the fish, I don't want it.

If you have followed the ideas presented above, bring home healthy fish, and properly acclimate them you can avoid the majority of ich challenges in my opinion. By proper planning, avoidance, and prevetion, you can eliminate the real challenge of treating a fish who has this disease, yikes, and that is a topic that needs its own thread which should be more properly be discussed in the forum dealing with the proper diagnosis and treatment of common fish diseases.