I was just wondering, if your fish caught Ick and you removed all of them from the tank and treated then in the other tank, would the Ick die in the main tank without any hosts to infect?
Can ich survive without fish??
- Thread starter Watcher74
- Start date
Yeah, you could probably turn the temp up to like 90°+ and it would basically fry the ich. Obviously, you can't have fish in a tank with the temp that high.
you can never completely get rid of ick the young that come from the cysts will die if they do not find a host in 60 hours, but the full grown cysts can survive in the gravel for a very extended period of time. Scientists do not understand how the Ich cysts can survive indefinately, with out a host, but they do somehow. Ick is probably in your tank to stay, so don't worry about irradicating it, just control it. Aslo another helpful hit for treating your fish is warm up the aquarium to about 80-85 degrees, this provides an invironment that is not very agreeable for Ick.
The answer would be yes, eventually. The best answers I've found on ICH have been this article If I had a tank devoid of fish, I would probably take the temp very high, and high dose the salt just to speed things up a bunch, or maybe even use meds. But ICH can't survive long term without a host so time would eventually get it.
Well vato I guess we were posting simultaneously. The common mis-conception is that ich cannot be irradicated, because people don't see it for months and then suddenly it appears again without any new fish being added. The truth is that most fish are pretty resistive to the parasites when the fish are healthy, and therefore the life cycle of ich continues on a very small unnnoticed scale usually in the gill tissue. then some other situation causes one of the fish to be stressed and then the ich showes up very predominantly on the stressed fish. I searched far and wide, and even asked a couple of people for articles thay claimed to have that said ich couldn't be irradicated, and have yet to see a viable source that claims ich can't be killed off permanently and completely. As I've said before, I would very much like to see a study that claims ICH can't be killed off ( that is not in any way a sarcatic request, please take it at face value). I am constantly seeking new information.
Dave
Dave
If you keep a tank free of fish for a variable period (highly temperature dependent), Ich will not survive. It has no dormant form.
If you can find a way to do it holding the themperature above 150 degrees for a matter of hours with a very high salt concentration would probaly do the trick. I did that and I haven't seen any ich for a while.
Extremely high temperatures are not required, nor is a high (whatever that is) salt concentration.
Temperature in the upper 80sF will minimize the time requirement to about a week (with about a 2x margin of safety), At the mid 70sF I'd allow 3 weeks, and I'd feed to keep the nitrification bacteria alive - either clear ammonia every other day to give a detectable ammonia reading immediately after addition, or just feed as if there were fish in the tank, again every other day.
Temperature in the upper 80sF will minimize the time requirement to about a week (with about a 2x margin of safety), At the mid 70sF I'd allow 3 weeks, and I'd feed to keep the nitrification bacteria alive - either clear ammonia every other day to give a detectable ammonia reading immediately after addition, or just feed as if there were fish in the tank, again every other day.
daveedka and RTR got it! Not the either needs me to back up their info!! There is plenty of threads on ich here at AC. Look around if you have doubts and PLEASE post any info to the contrary.
QC, that's where the myth came from. People don't see ich in the tank (most likely b/c it was infecting gills) for a while and then the fish get stressed from whatever, and ich gets the upper hand (fishs immune system is reduced) and can infect the fish more severely to the point you can see them.
That is not to say you didn't erradicate it from your tank.
QC, that's where the myth came from. People don't see ich in the tank (most likely b/c it was infecting gills) for a while and then the fish get stressed from whatever, and ich gets the upper hand (fishs immune system is reduced) and can infect the fish more severely to the point you can see them.
That is not to say you didn't erradicate it from your tank.
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