# Another ich question



## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

So I have a ten gallon tank with a betta, some platies, two african dwarf frogs, and an apple snail. I had three tiger platies... but then when I was in Bozeman, I came across some painted platies that I couldn't resist. So I brought three more home. Apparently that was too much. The tank seemingly very suddenly broke out with ich and finrot.

So I quarantined the frogs and the snail in my 2.5 gallon and immediately started treatment on the platies and betta. Everything went well. I did lose one tiger platy, though. After the treatment, I moved the other two tiger platies to a seperate tank and plan on giving them to my sister if they continue to show no more signs of illness. This way I'm not overstocked...

So far, nobody is showing signs of ich or finrot. But I'm afraid to move my frogs and snail back. I'm afraid some of the ich may have hitchhiked to the quarantine tank with them, and I don't want to reintroduce it to the 10 gallon. The quarantine tank has a small internal filter with no carbon (just a little sponge filter) and a "betta bowl" heater that is basically a pad that sits under the gravel. It keeps the tank around 76 degrees, but on a warm day it goes up to about 79 degrees. I do 75% water changes every other day or every couple of days. 

How long should I keep them in there before it is safe to move them back? How long will the ich survive without a host?


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

I was thinking one to two months? If I do keep them quarantined that long, do I really need to do such large water changes? I was hoping to eliminate a lot of the ich with the water changes...


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## Danio king (Feb 25, 2011)

if you treat the fish it should kill most of the bacteria in the water also, you might want to do what i call a dunk rinse. i do it when i get diseased fish. i dont really think it does anything but make me feel safer but fill a bowl with clean dechlorinated water dunk the netted fish in the bowl for 30 second to a minute and move him back to the main tank. continue to treat for at least 3 days after moving them back though just to make sure all traces of the disease are gone


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Well the thing is the frogs and the snail are not susceptible to ich. They also cannot tolerate the medications to treat ich. So I quarantined them while I treated the tank. But I'm still worried that the ich parasite hitchhiked to the quarantine tank with the frogs or snail, and I don't want to reintroduce it to the 10 gallon tank when I move them back....


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