do gobys eat ich?
- Thread starter DclownD
- Start date
Cleaner gobies and wrasse feed on surface parasites - ich is not a surface parasite, it's buried in the flesh. They msotly feed on isopod parasites. There is a rumour they don't get ich as they have a 'special' slime coat, and that helps, but they can, and do succumb sometimes anyway.
Garlic can't be demonstrated to do anything. Frankly most people who think they have got ich , but it went away by itself/after garlic/after ginger or whatever can't tell the difference between ich and sand grains, marine snow, whatever.
Garlic can't be demonstrated to do anything. Frankly most people who think they have got ich , but it went away by itself/after garlic/after ginger or whatever can't tell the difference between ich and sand grains, marine snow, whatever.
I will be honest, my definition of marine snow, or rather usage is not the same as wikipedia's, however I am not sure marine snow is a strictly defined technical term.
Rather than arguing semantics where I may or may not be wrong, my point is this. If I stir, dig around in my sandbed, a fair amount of material is released into the water column. Some of this is fine sand/dust, some of this is live organic material, some of this is dead organic material, and some of this is noncarbonate nonorganics. It's a mixture, and this stuff floats around till it settles out, is skimmed out or a mechanical filter traps it. Now, very often after all this kak is stirred up, my fish get a fine layer of this stuff stuck to their slime coat. It's a mass of small white dots, and it appears on the fish at a time of 'stress', a water change.
My honest opinion is that a lot of people of people are not very good at recognising whitespot and call anything ich, or whitespot, or cryptocaryon, as long as it's white, and spotty. They then treat it with RidIch , or garlic, or do whatever, and it's another anecdotal tick for these things being a cure for a parasitic disease that it never actually was. I am amazed at how often I hear 'everytime I do a water change my blue tang gets ich (or small white dots) all over'. My fish LIKE water changes - water changes are NOT stressful! I almost fail to see how they can be , even if they are off by 1 or 2C, or a tiny bit of salinity 1.023 rather 1.025, when you mix 20 gallons of water change in to 100 gallons over the course of half an hour the bulk change is nothing. You have to try to make them stressful to make them stressful because in any practical situation they can't be! Every time I do a water change my Kole and dwarf angels get sugar sized white dots on them - it's called sand.
Rather than arguing semantics where I may or may not be wrong, my point is this. If I stir, dig around in my sandbed, a fair amount of material is released into the water column. Some of this is fine sand/dust, some of this is live organic material, some of this is dead organic material, and some of this is noncarbonate nonorganics. It's a mixture, and this stuff floats around till it settles out, is skimmed out or a mechanical filter traps it. Now, very often after all this kak is stirred up, my fish get a fine layer of this stuff stuck to their slime coat. It's a mass of small white dots, and it appears on the fish at a time of 'stress', a water change.
My honest opinion is that a lot of people of people are not very good at recognising whitespot and call anything ich, or whitespot, or cryptocaryon, as long as it's white, and spotty. They then treat it with RidIch , or garlic, or do whatever, and it's another anecdotal tick for these things being a cure for a parasitic disease that it never actually was. I am amazed at how often I hear 'everytime I do a water change my blue tang gets ich (or small white dots) all over'. My fish LIKE water changes - water changes are NOT stressful! I almost fail to see how they can be , even if they are off by 1 or 2C, or a tiny bit of salinity 1.023 rather 1.025, when you mix 20 gallons of water change in to 100 gallons over the course of half an hour the bulk change is nothing. You have to try to make them stressful to make them stressful because in any practical situation they can't be! Every time I do a water change my Kole and dwarf angels get sugar sized white dots on them - it's called sand.