silly question

[Lindsikins00]

I was going to go pick up some more blue legged hermits from the LFS. Unfortunatly the only LFS that has a good supply of these guys is the store where the fish always have ich. Is it possible to transmit ich with these guys? If so what is the best way to handle this?

 

[BillyZ]

I would say it's unlikely, but still possible. Ich goes through 3 stages throughout its life. The first stage, a larval stage, leaves them immobile where they are settled or attached(?) to rock and such. If there are ich larvae attached to the shells of the hermits, then when the ich parasite reaches the second stage they would then be free swiming in your tank and could infect a fish (where it then spends it's third stage).

As I said, unlikely, but possible, as far as I know.

as far as how to handle it.. IMO, wait until you find some at another LFS. See if another LFS, one with better quality livestock, will order some for you. Why take the chance of introducing ich into your system if your experience with that LFS is bad?

 

[Lindsikins00]

Yea I don't want to take a risk. I'll just try a few snails from the good store. They can order stuff, but they only get shipments every 3-4 weeks. :-( It is worth the wait to keep my fish healthy. Thanks!

 

[Fuvibo1]

you could try to treat them before putting in your real tank, you could always set up a 5 gallons treatment tank to treat a fish or new purchase before introducing to the tank, for fish my LFS told me to give it a freshwater bath before introducing the new fish to the tank, but he told me the best way to do this is to give the new fish a freshwater bath and than but it in the treatment tank for about a week or two before introducing it in the real tank, that is how i treat my fish and newcomer (like snail and hermit crab) that i purchase from my LFS