how long will ick stay in a tank?

[lsu]

I have been out of town for two weeks and left my girlfriend in charge of my tank. She wanted to surprise me by adding a bi-color angel but she put it in my dt instead of my qt. The angel apparently had ick when she bought it but the guy at the lfs told her that was normal(I'm gonna have a nice talk with him today) I returned last night to discover ick was COVERING all of my fish except for the clowns. I took all the fish out and put them in my qt and started treatment. The bi-color was dead this morning, lawnmower and midas blenny do not look like they are going to make it through the day. If I end up losing all of my fish how long will the ick stay in the tank before I can add new fish? I know my shrimp and crabs will be fine but I was wondering if ick will also affect my anemones. I run a uv sterilizer in my tank, if that will help expedite the ick. Any help insight would be appreciated.

 

[reefpro]

How are you treating?

 

[ifirefight]

Leave DT fishless for 6 weeks.

 

[lsu]

I panicked and used foramlin, totally forgot about hypo in my panicked state, is it too late for hypo?

 

[reefpro]

Originally Posted by LSU
I panicked and used foramlin, totally forgot about hypo in my panicked state, is it too late for hypo?
I would still hypo myself....
Heres my hopes for you and your tank!

 

[lsu]

Thanks for the replies, my girlfriend called and told me both blennies have died. Starting hypo on the clowns when I get home tonight. Six weeks without fish is going to be rough, but I guess I can plan my new stock list to pass the time. And if anyone in Baton Rouge reads this i would not recommend using the new fish store on Tigerbend Road as they will take advantage of the inexperienced to make a buck.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by LSU
Thanks for the replies, my girlfriend called and told me both blennies have died. Starting hypo on the clowns when I get home tonight. Six weeks without fish is going to be rough, but I guess I can plan my new stock list to pass the time. And if anyone in Baton Rouge reads this i would not recommend using the new fish store on Tigerbend Road as they will take advantage of the inexperienced to make a buck.
Take 48 hours to lower your salinity to 1.009 (by taking out some saltwater and replacing with RO water). Once you no longer see ich spots, start counting down to 3 weeks. Then take 5 days to raise the salinity back to normal (1.025). Leave your DT fishless for 6 weeks? Then, and only then, will you be safe. Good luck.

 

[lsu]

Thanks azfishgal, this is my first bout with ick, I've been scouring the boards all day on hypo help, thanks for your input. I hope I can save my clowns they were my first fish from many years ago and I'm not sure I could start the tank back up without them. I could just kill the lfs guy for deceiving my grilfriend and starting this whole mess!!

 

[azfishgal]

lfs are famous for that, unfortunately. It's like when they sense a newbie they go in for the kill.

I bet your girlfriend feels bad, poor thing.

 

[rbaldino]

Six weeks sounds kind of long to me. I have read online that ich's lifecycle only lasts two weeks, and that can be sped up with higher temperatures. How long you want to leave the DT fishless is really up to you, though.

 

[grubsnaek]

6 weeks is what you should aim for, azfishgal hit it on the head on what to do

 

[ifirefight]

Originally Posted by rbaldino
Six weeks sounds kind of long to me. I have read online that ich's lifecycle only lasts two weeks, and that can be sped up with higher temperatures..
I have always heard 6 weeks... I would be interested in that article you are refering too.

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by ifirefight
I have always heard 6 weeks... I would be interested in that article you are refering too.

It's from about.com. Very informative. Read it and see if you still want to roll your eyes. Personally, it sounds pretty valid to me. This link should be okay:
*****

 

[ifirefight]

It's from about.com. Very informative. Read it and see if you still want to roll your eyes. Personally, it sounds pretty valid to me. This link should be okay:
[*****
Meh...pretty generic article.. Says raise temp to shorten ich lifecycle........ Does not say what a "normal temp" would be OR what a "proper RAISED temp" would be.NOT very informative in my opinion. Here is a quote from your article....Although nothing kills the parasite once it has checked into it's fish "hotel", several chemicals kill ich once it has left the fish. Malachite green, methylene blue, quinine hydrochloride, and mepracrine hydrochloride are all effective, and are available under several brand names. Here it state you can buy these items to kill ICH.. As we all know ONLY HYPO and cooper kill ICH. I look forward to yor rebuttle.

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by ifirefight
Meh...pretty generic article.. Says raise temp to shorten ich lifecycle........ Does not say what a "normal temp" would be OR what a "proper RAISED temp" would be.NOT very informative in my opinion. Here is a quote from your article....Although nothing kills the parasite once it has checked into it's fish "hotel", several chemicals kill ich once it has left the fish. Malachite green, methylene blue, quinine hydrochloride, and mepracrine hydrochloride are all effective, and are available under several brand names. Here it state you can buy these items to kill ICH.. As we all know ONLY HYPO and cooper kill ICH. I look forward to yor rebuttle.
What's "cooper"? Just kidding. Actually, I'd like to know where you get the idea that only hypo and copper kill ich? Did everyone vote? Was there some meeting I missed? Have you tested this hypothesis yourself with a study group and a control group containing thousands of species and hundreds of different treatment methods? Honestly, I get tired of the pronouncements some people make on this forum. All most of them are doing is repeating something they've heard someone else say; I doubt many of them have actual first hand experience. I've treated ich with products like Kick Ich and Copper Safe, and I wouldn't be surprised if the products mentioned in the article contain something that is effective against ich. And don't discount the article because you think it's generic. It's written for the general public, not scientists, so of course it's dumbed-down a little. Regardless of the language used, it's still valid information. And no offense, but until you make a living studying and treating fish diseases instead of fighting fires, I'll trust their information more than yours.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by rbaldino
What's "cooper"? Just kidding. Actually, I'd like to know where you get the idea that only hypo and copper kill ich? Did everyone vote? Was there some meeting I missed? Have you tested this hypothesis yourself with a study group and a control group containing thousands of species and hundreds of different treatment methods? Honestly, I get tired of the pronouncements some people make on this forum. All most of them are doing is repeating something they've heard someone else say; I doubt many of them have actual first hand experience. I've treated ich with products like Kick Ich and Copper Safe, and I wouldn't be surprised if the products mentioned in the article contain something that is effective against ich. And don't discount the article because you think it's generic. It's written for the general public, not scientists, so of course it's dumbed-down a little. Regardless of the language used, it's still valid information. And no offense, but until you make a living studying and treating fish diseases instead of fighting fires, I'll trust their information more than yours.
Come over to disease and treatment and read the Common Treatments FAQ.
There are only two proven methods to kill ich, they are copper and hyposalinity. Many fish, including scaleless fish, are very sensitive to copper. Hyposalinity is the preferred treatment. Leaving a system fallow, or fishless, for 6 weeks ensures that all parasites have died from lack of host. Raising the temperature will speed up ich's life cycle. Unfortuately, it is much more harmfull to the fish. The temp would have to be raised to 86 to have any effect on the parasites. That is too much of an increase for salt fish to be comfortable.

 

[nietzsche]

the article is based on fw fish, might be different than sw. i just know it would be a lot more safe to do something as hypo than put chemicals in the tank, who knows how all fish will react to them....

i wouldnt trust anything they have to say from a .com website anyways

 

[sfoister]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
Come over to disease and treatment and read the Common Treatments FAQ.
There are only two proven methods to kill ich, they are copper and hyposalinity. Many fish, including scaleless fish, are very sensitive to copper. Hyposalinity is the preferred treatment. Leaving a system fallow, or fishless, for 6 weeks ensures that all parasites have died from lack of host. Raising the temperature will speed up ich's life cycle. Unfortuately, it is much more harmfull to the fish. The temp would have to be raised to 86 to have any effect on the parasites. That is too much of an increase for salt fish to be comfortable.
So then if what you say is true, all of these products that claim to fight ich are completely useless. How could that be? How could a company put out a product that is completely uneffective?

 

[nietzsche]

companies could care less what they put in the market, as long as they have people believing it'll work then that's all it takes for them to get their money..

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by nietzsche
the article is based on fw fish, might be different than sw. i just know it would be a lot more safe to do something as hypo than put chemicals in the tank, who knows how all fish will react to them....

i wouldnt trust anything they have to say from a .com website anyways
Treating FW ich is alot easier than treating SW ich because of the fish themselves. FW fish are often captive breed. If they are wild caught, they come from much smaller water masses and are more accustom to fluctuations. In all fairness, you cannot discredit a website based on their ".com" after all, this is saltwaterfish.com