# Ich after quarantine



## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Hi folks. So I learned my lesson after my last ich outbreak and set up a quarantine tank. I kept fish in it for over a week before introducing them into the main tank. Now, 4 days after we introduced the new fish, one of them is showing some signs of ich. How did this happen?


----------



## pinetree (Nov 29, 2009)

I'm sorry this happened. I have always QT'd fish for 4-6 weeks, so maybe a week just wasn't enough time. Ick can happen anytime, too. It can show up out of the blue in a well-established tank that has had no additions or changes.


----------



## Guest (May 13, 2010)

Betsy!

ich never goes away! its always around and springs up on a stressed out fish. repeat treatment all over.


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Not so. Ich does go completely away IF you get rid of it completely. The catch is that almost nobody ever does.
One week is not long enough by a longshot. It takes 24 days to be sure. There are different kinds of "ick" you see, some with a 3 day life cycle and and some taking much longer. Since it's hard to tell them apart, always assume it's one of the slow ones.


----------



## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Ah the "ich is always present" vs. "ich will go away if treated properly" debate! I guess we were using an inadequate qt time. We'll not make that mistake again. So this is what we decided to do for treatment:

Coppersafe (LFS didn't have aquarisol) in the big tank (60g) after removing the loaches, plants, and invertebrate. 
Question: This stuff is stable for 30 days, so unless we do a water change, re-dosing is unnecessary? Can I buy a test to see when it breaks down? Any advice for the water changes? The Coppersafe doesn't include dosing specifics for after water changes. 
What water change procedures should I follow when returning the plants/loaches/invertebrate to the tank?

Plants: Quarantining plants in an unoccupied tank at 80F to kill the ich by outlasting its lifecycle in the absence of a host.

Loaches: My husband wants to transfer them between two 10g tanks, emptying and drying each tank after each daily move with the idea that the ich will fall off the fish, get dumped when the tank is being emptied, and eventually we'll have no more ich on the loaches. We're doing this because the last time we killed our loaches when we treated with Kordon's ridich+ and he doesn't want to take that chance again even though we are using a different medication. 

What do you think?

Oh, and Eluviet - hi!!!! I've been out of town traveling for work so I haven't been online.


----------



## FishMatt (May 12, 2010)

Is anyone tapping the aquarium glass that can cause ick.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

The moving the fish continually method should work if you get the tank ich-free, TOS mentioned it in an earlier thread. Only question is whether the fish will live long enough. I guess that depends on how healthy they are and how badly they are infected.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

tapping on the glass doesn't cause ich anymore than going out in the rain without a coat causes colds. Glass tapping causes stress which weakens the immune system and makes acquiring an infection more likely. I've never seen ich in the same tank twice, so you can kill it. But you can have dormant ich in your tanks for years and never have an infected fish until a heater fails and a tank gets cold.


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The tank transfer method of ick removal is labor intensive, but it works fine. As a "bonus," if you can call it that, the fish stay fairly stressed and susceptible all the time, so any ick still remaining will reveal itself constantly. Don't worry about this. Once the ickies are all gone, no amount of stress can ever cause ick again, so tap the glass all you want. LOL!
DO *NOT* SKIP A DAY!!! 
It helps tremendously to make up a huge batch of water all at once at the very start and make all the daily water changes from that supply. This ensures the best chance for fishy survival due to the least amount of transfer shock.
Finally, two weeks is much better than one.


----------



## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

My cocker spaniel is "tapping" on the glass but most of the fish are pretty used to him and we've got plenty of cover and hiding places. It was the newly introduced fish (the loaches) that are showing symptoms. This tank transfer plan is pretty labor intensive! I'm not sure where we might store that batch of water, but I can see that it would be a good idea. 

Anyone have any tips on the use of coppersafe? Or more specifically, the reintroduction of the loaches, intervetebrate and plants?

Thanks.


----------

