Ich gone after putting in qt tank

John A!10

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Around two and a half days ago I removed my two clownfish and firefish from my main display which had a very mild case of ich which wasn’t harming them at all but was getting a little worse. I added copper safe and haven’t seen the Ich in the qt tank at all. I doubt the copper had such a fast effect. Where did the ich go?
Also to note that when I removed the fish from the dt the ich was at the stage where it had fallen off the fish so the fish didn’t have that many spots, but they still did have some. Also it was definitely ich.
 

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Ich will fall off into a cyst phase. While in this phase, it is nearly invincible. However, afgter an average of 2 weeks (this number can be longer, with most having been hatched at 3 weeks), the ich leavs this stage and has about a 48 hour period where it attatches to a fish and starts the cycle over again. It is likely that the ich is in the cyst phase

 

kenchilada

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Also the ich you see as spots are not the parasite, but mucus the fish produces.

You can’t trust your eyes with ich, you have to attack it with its lifecycle in mind. Check out the info in the sticky thread.

 
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John A!10

John A!10

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I know coppersafe stays in the water for 30 days as well as adding it to water changes to keep the level appropriate, so shouldn’t that do the trick? Also if it had fallen off wouldn’t the copper kill it?
 

kenchilada

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I know coppersafe stays in the water for 30 days as well as adding it to water changes to keep the level appropriate, so shouldn’t that do the trick? Also if it had fallen off wouldn’t the copper kill it?
If you have ich in your display, eradicating it from the fish in quarantine is not so important because the ich is still in your DT.

If you want to get rid of ich from the system you must remove all fish and leave the display empty for 76 days AND treat the fish in separate quarantine as per the guide. Few options for that... TTM or 14-30 days of copper.

If you only want to “manage” ich in the DT, getting the fish back to health in quarantine is all you need to do. Of course they may be reinfected at any time if you go this route.
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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If you have ich in your display, eradicating it from the fish in quarantine is not so important because the ich is still in your DT.

If you want to get rid of ich from the system you must remove all fish and leave the display empty for 76 days AND treat the fish in separate quarantine as per the guide. Few options for that... TTM or 14-30 days of copper.

If you only want to “manage” ich in the DT, getting the fish back to health in quarantine is all you need to do. Of course they may be reinfected at any time if you go this route.
I’m doing a fallow period right now. The two clowns and firefish where the only fish in my dt, and I’m treating them with coppersafe for 28 days. I’m as just confused because I don’t see the ich anymore.
 

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I’m doing a fallow period right now. The two clowns and firefish where the only fish in my dt, and I’m treating them with coppersafe for 28 days. I’m as just confused because I don’t see the ich anymore
Let’s say you have a chicken coup with 12 chickens. Tomorrow you decide you hate chickens and you brutally slay all the chickens. You don’t see any more chickens. The next day, you see a chick strutting around the chicken coup. The chickens are back. Why? Because those jerks already had eggs hatching before you murdered them all.

Same with ich. Did any parasites encyst in your quarantine tank before you killed them with copper? There is no way to know, so you have to wait for them to “hatch” and murder the new ones too. That’s where the 14-30 day rules come in.
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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Let’s say you have a chicken coup with 12 chickens. Tomorrow you decide you hate chickens and you brutally slay all the chickens. You don’t see any more chickens. The next day, you see a chick strutting around the chicken coup. The chickens are back. Why? Because those jerks already had eggs hatching before you murdered them all.

Same with ich. Did any parasites encyst in your quarantine tank before you killed them with copper? There is no way to know, so you have to wait for them to “hatch” and murder the new ones too. That’s where the 14-30 day rules come in.
Thanks for the quick reply this makes it much easier to understand. I’ll do a 28 copper and then I’ll have them in the qt for another 30 days while my tank is fallow.
 

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Yea as you are treating the fish with something that kills ich it will kill the ich but I have heard that it doesn’t attack the ich that is actually on the fish as the ich is protected in that scenario...it also is a big possibility that the ich was just about to drop off the fish as you started treatment... I recently cured my fish too and at one point they were good in the qt no more white spots for like 3-4 days eventually I noticed white spots again so don’t be so happy or sure that ich is gone when you don’t see it on your fish anymore...but now I believe my fish should be ich free so I hope
 

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