Ich life span with no fish

[jayk198030]

I had Ich on several fish. I removed all 13 fish and r treating them. The ich came from a new fish.

My question is how long can Ich live with no fish host?

The Ich was white spots on one tang and the other tang had whitish eye and skin. All other fish looked ok but i am treating them all anyways to b safe.

 

[kinlayan]

In my opinion it can take up to 3 months of being fallow without fish to be ich free.

 

[ari5736]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15105097#post15105097 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kinlayan
In my opinion it can take up to 3 months of being fallow without fish to be ich free.

holy ****. Can anyone else weigh in on this ?

 

[ChrisKirkland]

It is about 6-8 weeks in 80 degree water...

 

[Ohiomom]

I would say 8 weeks..6 the absolute minimum..imo.

 

[kinlayan]

some ich cysts can be dormant over 70 days in scientific experiments depending on temperature and other factors

 

[1geo]

I agree with the last three posts. Ich eggs can remain in your substrata for up to 8 weeks before they hatch into swimmers looking for a host. They can only live as swimmers for up to 2 day if they do not find a host. Most writers say to increase tank temperature to 85 to 90 degrees, this speeds up the life cycle of the parasite and can reduce the fallow time to as little as 3 weeks. I still would recommend leaving your tank fishless for 8 weeks.