Treating Ich with Invertabrates

[gar]

Removing fish leaving invertabrates for a month, will that kill off ich?
.......We've transfered our fish to QT leaving corals, anemone, crabs, snails, and shrimp. We are going to leave the fish out for at least a month as well as treat them while in the QT...Will this get rid of Ich from the main tank?
Also, is there a way to test if present before reintroducing fish back to the tank?

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by Gar
Removing fish leaving invertabrates for a month, will that kill off ich?
Yes. If the fish have Ich when you put them back in then you'll just be adding it back so make sure you treat them (hyposalinity).

 

[mrsgoose]

So does that mean Ich needs fish to survive? I have a 29g with 4 fish, one has ich. If I take them out and treat them, then the ich in the main tank will die off?

 

[bang guy]

Yes. Without fish Ich will die out in about 3 weeks.

 

[scsinet]

The other thing you can do if it's a FOWLR is isolate your invertebrates and treat the fish in the DT with hypo.
It's often less stressful to the fish to be in the main tank since the main tank is fully cycled and larger, and not as stressful for the invertebrates to be isolated since they don't move as much and don't put out nearly the ammonia that the fish do...
Anyhoo this is what I have done and it worked like a champ.