how long does ick "live"

[kaytlu]

I recently started 2 nano planted tanks (5gal & 8gal) and did fishless cycling with the aid of Tetra SafeStart plus and API Quick Start.

I spent a good bit of time in planting them and they look quite promising.

So, about a week ago I went and got some small fish to "finish things off".

Unfortunately, today I saw one of the fish flashing against a plant. Even more unfortunately, it is in the nicer looking of the 2 tanks.

Just using Tetra Easy Strips, I tested the water & everything is hunky-dory as far as parameters go (in fact, I need to do some fert dosing to keep the plants from starving).

So, the first thing that came to mind is that I might have imported some Ick into my tanks when I got the fish.

I got them from the local Petco, & their tanks are only so-so in quality.

Anyway, what I want to know is how long Ick could live in a tank without any fish as host?

I don't want to destabilize the tank by medicating it, & plan to simply remove the few fish in it to a quarantine tank to treat them.

 

[Coryluv]

A couple of weeks after the last spot disappears.

My experience with it is this. I had ick once back in my first round of fish keeping in the 1970s and cured it with salt and slightly increased heat in the unplanted main tank. It was a new tank at the time. I got ick in 2012 in my qt tank with fish I just brought home and cured it with enough heat to kill most strains of ich and Kordon Ich Attack as a back up to that. I waited two weeks after the last spot disappeared before moving fish into my main planted tank. There was no ich left in either tank after that. Be sure to have good aeration whenever you increase temps for ich treatment.

If you can, put ALL your fish in a qt tank, and treat them there. Ich treatment is generally not live plant friendly. If in doubt give it three weeks, but for me it was two weeks. The ich can't live without a host so it will disappear from your planted tank on its own. You can slightly elevate the temp in your planted tank (80 to 82 F if your plants will stand that) to make sure the ich life cycle is more rapid. It will die when it can't find a host.

 

[coralbandit]

The ich will die within 2 weeks if no host are present.
You will still have to treat fish in the QT.
I know many who use AP quick cure or kordon rid ick plus without damaging the system(BB) or their plants...
Here is good info on ich,the life cycle and treatments.
Ich | The Skeptical Aquarist
Good luck.
You can kill it in tank also with heat as long as fish and plants can handle 86+ for 7 days....

 

[Coryluv]

P.S. There are a lot or reasons fish may flash. It may not be ich. Just keep an eye on them. It does no good to treat for the wrong thing.

 

[coralbandit]

P.S. There are a lot or reasons fish may flash. It may not be ich. Just keep an eye on them. It does no good to treat for the wrong thing.

^THIS^ also!!!
Fish itch!
Do you see the typical salting or any spots?

 

[evil Nick]

my fish go through spurts of flashing and I of course I ran to the thought of ich but have yet to see any signs.
Through lots of reading I found it could be a multitude of things from displaying to others, to water quality/PH and just simple irritations on them.

Just watch for visible signs and maybe use a bit of aquarium salt.

I noticed my fish would flash oddly after feeding, my thoughts were it was food getting caught in their gills. Oddly I recently switched foods (by chance not really on purpose) and have not seen flashing in some time.