Questions On Ick Treatment ? New Fish

[reefwisher]

I have 3 fish coming in tomorrow. One of them will be in QT by himself which is an austrailian harlequin tusk and the others two will be in QT by themselves in another QT tank which is a coral beauty and a long fin fairy wrasse. My questions is, if I don't see any signs of ick/velvet without any treatments such as copper or tank transfer am I good to go after the 6 weeks QT time or should I do one or the other treatment reguardless. My fear of not doing one of the treatment is the parasite remains hidden in the gills without doing something such as copper.

 

[b0bab0ey]

Conventional wisdom says if you QT for 9 weeks and don't see any symptoms of Ich, then you are probably good to go. Without looking it up, I think the odds are something like 99.7% in your favor after 9 weeks. However, you have to observe closely on a daily basis for things like scratching, twitching, etc. - not just "white spots". But IMO & E, Ich is a lot more complicated than that. For example, I've seen this bit of info repeated numerous times from several respected sources:

"Fish that survive a Cryptocaryon infection develop immunity, which can prevent significant disease for up to 6 months (Burgess 1992; Burgess and Matthews 1995). However, these survivors may act as carriers and provide a reservoir for future outbreaks (Colorni and Burgess 1997)." Source: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164

That right there is reason enough to prophylactically treat all new fish for Ich, IMO.

 

[reefwisher]

I agree 110% with you. I will treat my 3 new fish with copper as I have done in the past with a treatment of Prazi Pro after the copper treatment. Thank You.

 

[snorvich]

I agree 110% with you. I will treat my 3 new fish with copper as I have done in the past with a treatment of Prazi Pro after the copper treatment. Thank You.

Or you can use tank transfer and be done in 13 days. Then follow up with Prazipro.