is ich really gone?

[mperez]

A few weeks ago I noticed that my fish had ich. So I read a thread to set up a QT for hypo. My yellow tang and coral beauty have been in the QT with hypo for about 3 weeks, my maroon clown fish, golden head goby and 4 striped damsels have been in the QT for 2.5 weeks. My questions is when is it safe to add the fish back to the display tank?
I don’t see any spots on any of the fish. With the exception of the goby. I noticed that he has something on its tail but don’t know if that normal. It seems like white streaks that fade from the body. Doesn’t look like ich but want to be sure.

 

[beth]

One month for all fish who had ich. They all need one month now. What are using to measure salinity?

 

[drea]

what about fish that were in the tank with a fish that got ick, but they themselves did not get ick?
do they need to be qt'd as well?

 

[mperez]

I only had 2 fish with ich but i placed all (total of 5) in the QT tank to be safe. To measure salinity I use refractometer.

 

[drea]

what about fish that were in the tank with a fish that got ick, but they themselves did not get ick?
do they need to be qt'd as well?

 

[jr1053]

ALL fish in the same tank with the infected fish have been exposed to the parasites and have simply not yet begun to show signs of the illness. You need to treat all the fish in any tank where one fish shows signs of white spot disease with 4 to 6 weeks of hyposalinity to rid your tank of the parasites. If you do not follow this protocol you'll be treating this disease again and again and again.....

 

[drea]

is that for real? so if you have a 300 gallon fish tank and a blue tang gets ick, you need to qt all the other 30 or whatever amount of fish you have?
sounds weird.............. u would need like 20 qt tanks...........

 

[jerthunter]

Originally Posted by drea
is that for real? so if you have a 300 gallon fish tank and a blue tang gets ick, you need to qt all the other 30 or whatever amount of fish you have?
sounds weird.............. u would need like 20 qt tanks...........
Well in hindsight to prevent such a problem it would be beneficial to quarintine all new livestock for a month so that ich never gets into the 300 gal.
I personally would even quarintine any new inverts or coral in a seperate tank so that ich can't hitch a ride into your main tank

 

[mperez]

So ich can attack Inverts and coral? I thought it was only fish that ich can attack. If so then why do they not show up on the invert or coral?. I have had my display tank with just inverts and 1 coral for almost 3 weeks and have not seen anything. Sorry i'm just new to the ich problem.

 

[jerthunter]

Originally Posted by Mperez
So ich can attack Inverts and coral? I thought it was only fish that ich can attack. If so then why do they not show up on the invert or coral?. I have had my display tank with just inverts and 1 coral for almost 3 weeks and have not seen anything. Sorry i'm just new to the ich problem.
Sorry, no it won't attack inverts or coral, however in one of its stages they can live on pretty much any surface. So if the water the invert or coral came from had ich in the system there is a possibility of tranfering it. You might want to get other opinions on qting corals/inverts but I believe if you qt them for a few days away from fish any ich will have died and not be transfered.

 

[mperez]

WOW! you scared me for a minute their. My display tank has been fishless for almost 3 weeks now. So I know my display tank is free of ich.
Thanks

 

[scubadoo]

Originally Posted by Mperez
WOW! you scared me for a minute their. My display tank has been fishless for almost 3 weeks now. So I know my display tank is free of ich.
Thanks
It takes at least 4 weeks to break the cycle. I would wait 6 weeks to be certain the cycle is broken. Three weeks is not long enough