Is my ich problem gone?

[Aquadam]

I had an outbreak of ich in my DT awhile ago. I lost a few fish, and treated the tank with No-Ich. Whether or not the No-Ich was the helping factor, it is coming up on 6 weeks that there has been any sign of parasites.

My question is that even though there have been no signs of ich on my fish, does this mean that the problem is gone? I know that some fish can become immune to the problem, but can the parasites continue their life cycle without actually appearing on the fish?

 

[Recty]

The first spot the ich seems to attack is the gills, so they can have it and you cant see it.

 

[Aquadam]

All signs of ich are definately gone, and have been for the last six weeks. I'm wondering if the parasites can still continue their cycle without actually attaching to the fish?

 

[rort]

all signs may be gone but ich is still in ur tank. There is a study that was done that showed that the parasites continued to be present in the tank for 11 months with fish in it. If u add another fish that is carrying a diff strain of ich, than that 11 months starts over again! There may be may be no signs but I can will beat $ that there is ich still in ur DT.

I wish I could do this for my DT because I am dealing with ich, but the best way to get rid of ich is to take all the fish out and QT with hyposalinity, an leave the DT fishless for 6 weeks.

 

[Aquadam]

So the six week rule only pertains to when there are no fish in the tank? Otherwise you are saying it takes close to a year before the ich is completely gone?

At this point I only have a percula and two firefish in the tank, maybe I should just catch them if I can and leave the DT empty. I know I can catch the clown, but it's those gobies that will be tough.

 

[Recty]

Most "studies" actually say more like 8 weeks and the latest one I read said it has to be 11 weeks to be 100% ich free.

And yes, that is fishless for 11 weeks. Then you have to treat them in quarantine for ich and make sure you have it killed off before you reintroduce them to your display.

I've been doing a lot of research on this lately as I'm dealing with ich currently in my 210g. I've got my triggers removed to two quarantine tanks and I'm treating with copper. I've got 3 stupid damsels left to catch out of the main tank and then I'll be able to start my 8 weeks.

 

[shelburn61]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13539171#post13539171 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Aquadam
All signs of ich are definately gone, and have been for the last six weeks. I'm wondering if the parasites can still continue their cycle without actually attaching to the fish?

Just because you can't SEE any ich lesions does not mean the fish are completely ich free. The fish may have increased immunity, but most likely the parasites are still present in small numbers and you run the risk of newly added fish getting severe infections...

 

[Aquadam]

I guess I need to go about this the right way and remove the fish from the DT. It's still hard not to give in to that urge of putting something new in the tank, even though I know I really shouldn't. Thanks for all the input.