Can ICK Parasites survive in a tank with no fish in it

[Fish Breath]

I have an 80 gal tank wich was infected with Ick I removed all the fish to a quarateen tank I lost all my neon tetras and my gold neons and a few other fish but have saved about five fish from thisdiseasee I still have them in quarateen.My question is about the 80 gal tank that the fish originally came from,can the parasites survive in the tank with no fish in it for two weeks now I read some thing about the parasites swimming around in the water Also can they host on small snails that are in the 80 gal or on any plants .I guess my question is what should i do with the 80 with no fish in it do I have to treat it too even there are no fish in it do I have change the water or empty it or do I just leave it be and return the treated fish back to in in another week or so

 

[Menagerie]

According to most research, ich can only survive if it has a host (aka a fish). However, the ich may be able to stay dormant in the tank. There is an article on FW ich in the Articles section. My suggestion is to put the fish back in and treat the whole tank with heat and salt. Simply raise the temperature slowly to 86F and add the recommended amount of salt (found in the article). Your snails will be fine. I'm not sure how you treated the fish in QT, but this natural way does work and I have not lost a fish when treating this way.

 

[FawnN]

From my understanding is:

The parasites must find a fish host within about 48 hours to survive. And when you encounter ich, you need to leave the fish in the tank and treat the entire tank. Your fish are already stressed so you don't want to move them and any additional stress. Besides, you don't want to introduce ich to another tank.

Cranking up the heat, adding salt and meds will kill the parasites.

 

[Guest]

I would treat the tank without any fish in it if the fish are allready better. And then put the fish back. You wouldn't want the fish to get infected again if the ick is still in the tank althought I doubt it.