What to do. Please help!!!!!!

[lluv24]

Ok so about a month ago today I purshased a new blue jaw trigger and I didn't qt him and I paid the price. All my fish came down with ick especially my blue tang and my flame angel and my clowns. I couldn't catch most but I did catch the clowns and put them in qt and treated with copper and they have been great and eating very well. I lost the blue jaw and flame, but all my other fish have been clean of ick for the past three weeks now. They all r breathing and eating very well. My question is can I put my clowns back in the dt , or should I wait????

 

[snorvich]

A tank which has contained fish with ich, has ich unless it remains without fish for 9 weeks.

 

[lluv24]

I also have heard that almost all off our tanks have ick present. Is that true ? I just figured since I have not seen any ick in the past 3 weeks I might be ok. Or your saying I should tear my system apart to catch all my fish? Because I will always have a problem with ick?

 

[revaltion131]

It's not a perfect analogy, but it's very much like raccoons as rabies carriers. Just because you can't see any obvious signs of disease, does not mean that the parasite isn't just being carried by the healthy fish. All it takes is that one little bit for the parasite to take root and go so far as to kill the new host.

(Yes, I know rabies is a virus, not a parasite. Just thought I'd clear that up.)

Edit: I missed your new post while I was typing. You can add the new fish back, but sort of what I touched on above, there's zero guarantee that the clowns won't get it again and if possible, an even lower chance that the ich is completely gone. IIRC, the life cycle is something around 4 weeks.

 

[lluv24]

Ok so maybe I will wait another week. That will be about 4 weeks with no signs of ick. These are a really nice pair of black ice clowns and I don't want to loose them!!!!!

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I also have heard that almost all off our tanks have ick present. Is that true ? I just figured since I have not seen any ick in the past 3 weeks I might be ok. Or your saying I should tear my system apart to catch all my fish? Because I will always have a problem with ick?

Yes, you will always have a problem unless you correct it. You are not ok even though you haven't seen ich for an extended period.

Catch all of your fish, put them in quarantine and treat them with copper. Keep your DT without any fish for at least 9-10 weeks. Then put your fish back in the DT and quarantine all subsequent fish.

If you don't do this, you will always have a problem with ich cropping up and wiping out fish.

 

[MrTuskfish]

^^^^^^^I agree.^^^^
Just some basic info:
There is no such thing as an easier way out of your ich problem. just about everyone, including me, has tried it. Ich is living in your DT. Unless the tank is fishless for 9+ weeks, it is likely to come back. 4 weeks is not good enough. All of the fish in your DT will get it sooner or later and they probably have some in their gills now.. 4 weeks of no visible sign of ich doesn't mean its gone. You can drain most of your water into brute containers, etc. , to easily catch the fish. Please read all of the ich stickies above; they will make all of my drivel o.
obvious.

 

[snorvich]

Ok so maybe I will wait another week. That will be about 4 weeks with no signs of ick. These are a really nice pair of black ice clowns and I don't want to loose them!!!!!

Tanks have ich, fish are merely hosts for part of the life cycle. Unless the life cycle is interrupted by removing ALL fish for nine weeks, the problem will reoccur. Visible signs of ich are meaningless and diagnosing that way is an effort in futility.