If this is true it would explain alot...I am awaiting a response from this person on the source of this info.

My new puffer came down with Ick and I asked for advice on a forum that is dedicated to puffers. One of the responses is VERY interesting and if it turned out to be true it really would explain alot.

here is a copy of the response that I am referring to

[i]hmm how bad is the ich? if it is a mild case then id think watching it a few days and then treating if necessary is the best course of action.

ill explain why. I got a percula clown from my LFS that was q/ted for me by itself before i took it home but after getting home its health deteriorated and it would only eat if it was with the other clown. once it was too weak to even eat i euthanized it and the next day my puffer had a few spots on him. I left it alone and after a week it cleared up and now all fish are spotless and doing fine.

here is the reason behind it and the only reason i say this is that it was lab tested and it true as far as experiance and over ten years in fish.

All fish have ich. you cannot completely erradicate the parasite and if you could idk what would happen to the immune system of the fish. It is a parasitic relationship but it is heald in check by chemicals actually the lack of chemicals. here lies the secret.

ich only becomes a true problem when a fish gives off a chemical into the water that sets off or triggers the parasite to begin to spawn agressivly and creat alot more of its kind. the reason ich isnt in this state all the time is that if it was then all the fish would be dead and ich would die as well. so once this chemical is in the water the parasites begin to multiply and cause the visible ich and the mucus scabs you can see with your eyes.

once the statsis of the balance between fish and their immune systems not leaking off the chemicals in their blood and skin is corrected the ich stops the sped up cycle and stays mostly dormant only replacing the lost ich tomites on the fish themselves. this also occurs because the fishes immune system fights off any truly burrowing ich and so the ich stays in the mucus layer not causeing the scabbing and or spotting on the fish.

we tested this in a lab using mucus layer scrappings from ich free and ich laden fish and then tested fish after they were deemed ich free after treatment and found the tomite stages alive and well but not causeing an outbreak.

a uv sterilizer does nothing really to kill ich in outbreak mode as it cannot process the waters voloume and pull the cysts off the substrate and enough water to rid ich from a tank. it is best used as i use it to kill algae and on a q/t tank to help any sick fish not get as covered in ich as i use a large turnover rate on it from the q/t (5 or ten gallon tank with 500-800gph pump on the 20watt sterilizer. which runs a skimmer too. [/i

here is the site

http://puffer.proboards2.com/index.c...num=1113634832
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