ich (was thanks for rams (question for Mike)

[Piabinha@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/19/1999 11:43:24 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
JonesE@CommercePath.com writes:

> It has to do with the life cycle of Ich. It is a parasite that encysts on
>  the fish after a short period of feeding it drops off, falls into the
>  gravel, breeds, and multiplies. the youngsters then seek out a new host to
>  encyst on. not having light disrupts their ability to find a host to attach
>  to. Since they only have a short window of opportunity to attach, if we 
turn
>  off the lights for a week and they have to attach to a host we disrupt 
their
>  ability to complete their life cycle they can't become adults and breed,
>  thusly we clear the tank of ich without meds. Gravel vacs also help by
>  removing the critters while they are not attached to the fish.

i just had a small outbreak of ich on some newly acquired african tetras.  
instead of medicating, i just increased the water temp. to 86 (30) and then 
did a water change vacuuming the gravel when the ich cleared (30 hours 
later).  it seems to be gone for now.

tsuh yang chen, nyc, USA


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