# How long can Ich last without a host?



## Tonysok (Apr 1, 2008)

I need to treat my fish tank with ich. I was wondering if I move my plants to a fishless tank and some ich tomonts happen to hitchhike over. Would they eventually die off without host? Or would they stay alive until there's another host available?


Thanks, Tony


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## secondaccess (Nov 30, 2008)

A heater speeds up the growth of ICH. And I believe it is on the fish 24 hours. I also heard ICH is attracted to light, black out the tank kills ICH. 

Also ICH can lay dormant.


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## milalic (Aug 25, 2005)

Tonysok said:


> I need to treat my fish tank with ich. I was wondering if I move my plants to a fishless tank and some ich tomonts happen to hitchhike over. Would they eventually die off without host? Or would they stay alive until there's another host available?
> 
> 
> Thanks, Tony



They will die without host. You need to raise the temp to around 82F to speed the ich cycle.


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## taekwondodo (Apr 16, 2006)

three-four days between hosts...


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Personally, I'd leave a tank fallow for at least a month, even with warmer temps. There's actually many strains of ich, and I doubt that we've studied them all to know for sure the differences between the all.

Ich don't need light to reproduce, that's a myth. People darken their tanks commonly while treating fish just to reduce stress.


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## Tonysok (Apr 1, 2008)

Thanks for all the input. I've removed all my plants from the tank and raise the temp to 82F. Now I'm just debating whether to add salt or not.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

What kind of fish are in the tank?

And what are you doing with the plants?


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## Tonysok (Apr 1, 2008)

I have a pair of GBR, 3 Black Molly, and 10 Fancy Male Guppy. The plants are in a 5 gallon bucket with tank water. There's Java fern, Anubias nana, Cpyt wendtii, and Sunset hydro in there. I was planning to move them into my shrimp tank with Ottos after 4 days since it was mention ich could only survive 4 days between hosts.



lauraleellbp said:


> What kind of fish are in the tank?
> 
> And what are you doing with the plants?


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## Leviathan_XE (Jun 10, 2005)

I would have to agree with lauralee on this one. I would run the tank fallow(fishless) for at least a month. Heck, even some say that would be rushing it, and to be on the safe side, go fishless for at least 6 weeks to be sure that it goes through it's life-cycle and without a fish host to help it reproduce, it would die off. I wouldn't bother moving your plants at all, as ich can live for a brief period of time on wet surfaces you risk spreading the contamination to your other tanks that come in contact with even the slightest amount of water from the infected tank.
I would not place them in your tank with the ottos. Also I've never heard of getting rid of ich by going dark.


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## KDahlin (Mar 12, 2007)

taekwondodo said:


> three-four days between hosts...


I really don't think this is accurate. Especially if you maintain the temp at 82 degrees. They stop reproducing at 86 degrees and it's generally recommended for heat treatment to have the infected fish at this temperature, raising it slowly, no more than 1 or 2 degrees per hour, and maintaining this temp for a minimum of 3 days after all signs of the parasites have disappeared; or 10 days. Most tropical fish can handle this just fine as long as you provide plenty of aeration (add an airstone and agitate the surface, and don't add any medications concurrently to further stress the fish).

Blacking out the tank does nothing to ich.


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## Tonysok (Apr 1, 2008)

Leviathan_XE said:


> I would have to agree with lauralee on this one. I would run the tank fallow(fishless) for at least a month. Heck, even some say that would be rushing it, and to be on the safe side, go fishless for at least 6 weeks to be sure that it goes through it's life-cycle and without a fish host to help it reproduce, it would die off. I wouldn't bother moving your plants at all, as ich can live for a brief period of time on wet surfaces you risk spreading the contamination to your other tanks that come in contact with even the slightest amount of water from the infected tank.
> I would not place them in your tank with the ottos. Also I've never heard of getting rid of ich by going dark.


Okay if I decided to run the tank fishless. When do I know to pull the fish out to a seperate tank? When the fish no longer have white spot on them?


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml


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## KDahlin (Mar 12, 2007)

From The Cichlid Forum: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

Do not discontinue treatment when the spots go away. This is critical, because we know that they are visible only as a trophont on the body of the host, and not during the reproductive or free-swimming stage. We also know that trophonts on the gills are impossible to see.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I'm a little confused by your last post- where do you want to put the fish you pull out of the current tank? Personally, at this point I'd add salt to the main tank and treat the fish and the substrate to actually kill the ich. I'd treat for a minimum of 2 weeks, and leave them in QT for a minimum of 2 weeks after that.

I'd leave the plants in the bucket with just lights over it to keep them alive- definitely don't stick those plants in the other tank; ich will drop Otos down like flies and Otos are very sensitive to all medications. Personally, I'd either thow the plants out or leave them in QT for the same month the rest of your fish are in QT.

EDIT - dude, double-ninja'd!! 

PLUS - read _*both*_ of those articles :thumbsup:


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## Tonysok (Apr 1, 2008)

lauraleellbp said:


> I'm a little confused by your last post- where do you want to put the fish you pull out of the current tank? Personally, at this point I'd add salt to the main tank and treat the fish and the substrate to actually kill the ich. I'd treat for a minimum of 2 weeks, and leave them in QT for a minimum of 2 weeks after that.
> 
> I'd leave the plants in the bucket with just lights over it to keep them alive- definitely don't stick those plants in the other tank; ich will drop Otos down like flies and Otos are very sensitive to all medications. Personally, I'd either thow the plants out or leave them in QT for the same month the rest of your fish are in QT.
> 
> ...


I'm confuse myself haha, LeviathanXE mention to run the tank fishless for a 4-6 weeks, but inorder to do that wouldn't I have to eventually move the fish to another place? But I'll probably just go with your route and add salt to the tank leaving the plants in the 5 gallon bucket and hope they stay alive. Thanks again for all your help.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I think he's saying that his fish are in a QT tank and he's asking how long he has to keep them there before it's safe to bring them back.


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## Christine T (May 4, 2008)

If you have the fish in a QT tank, treat according to the directions on the meds, (some say for two weeks, some say for 30 days [like Coppersafe]). So I'd treat the recommended time, and then leave the fish in QT for 2-4 weeks after treatment to make sure the ich is really gone.

Also, take extra care to acclimate them to the main tank again. Medicating fish is stressful and being sick is stressful, take some extra time to slowly get them back to the main tank. You don't want to stress them with the move b/c then they'll be susceptible to illness again.


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