Treat or not? - Crosshatch ich

[pmrogers]

Quick question: Does treating a fish for ich on the first cycle help them survive subsequent flare-ups of the same ich?

Full story: I'm an idiot and introduced a new Copperband without quarantine because it was from a good source, net caught, etc. The copperband introduced ich to the tank, which has now infested our crosshatch trigger and 10-yr-old purple tang.

The crosshatch is catchable, but many of the fish in the tank are not.

My question, is, should I catch the crosshatch and treat, or let her try to fight it off naturally? There's no way I'm going to remove all fish from the tank, so the tank now has ich for the foreseeable future. Even if I treat the crosshatch this time, she'll just catch it again from the tank over the next few weeks.

So I'm leaning toward letting her try to fight it off, but if helping her beat it this first time might increase her chances for beating it on her own over time, I'll treat.

Opinions?

Thanks!
Paul

 

[Untamed12]

I don't think that triggers are especially vunerable to ich. You better make sure you have the correct diagnosis, however.

So if you are sure it is ich...then I wouldn't bother trying to treat the trigger. I believe the stress associated with treating for it is worse than having it (for triggers).

Besides, I'm not sure that fish develop "immunity" to ich. It's not a virus or bacteria. It is a parasite. If you kill the parasites that happen to be on the fish at the time, it will just become "reinfected" once it goes back into the tank.

 

[Nanook]

[moved]