How to transfer plants from a infected tank?

[Welsh]

Yesterday I mindlessly added plastic plants from my betta's tank in to my community tank, which of course has ICH!! Why did I do that I hear you ask? Well because i'm lazy and couldn't be bothered to clean them manually, so gave them to my pleco to clean! He did a great job too

An hour after adding them I realised what stupid mistake I'd made but nonetheless left them there because they contrasted nicely with the live plants.

Anyway, If I decide to put them back in my betta's empty tank how would I do it? Would I need to boil them first?

Also I have a huge anubias barteri on driftwood in the tank, its a perfect size for my 5 gallon and was wondering how I would go about making sure it doesn't carry the ICH into the tank.

Thanks

 

[Patterson333]

I'd boil the plants to be on the safe side. Ick can't survive high temperatures, or being dried out, so I'd boil the plants for a few minutes and then leave them out to sun dry just to be absolutely sure that they're decontaminated.

As far as the driftwood goes, maybe someone here could give you a better suggestion, buy here's what I would do: put it in a bucket with dechlorinated water and leave it outside for a few weeks. Not sure how long Ick parasites can survive without a host, but I'd imagine two weeks to be enough time, perhaps someone can correct me on that. Oh and I'd leave the bucket in the sun too, so the plant could get some direct sunlight. The only downside is waiting all that time to put the driftwood in...

 

[eco23]

I've heard of people running the DW through the dishwasher a couple times (no dishes or soap). I can't speak from personal experience, but I've heard it's a great way to deal with the tannins...and I'd have to assume that'd be a pretty good way to remove any parasites as well.

 

[Vircomore]

The Lifecycle of the Ich parasite is sped up drastically by increasing water temperature. So if you live in an area where it gets quite hot - I'd recommend filling a bucket with tank water and putting it outside with the affected decorations.

I've also heard that you can use a dilute solution of water and bleach even on live plants to clean them of snails and parasites - but I wouldn't use it on driftwood because if the bleach soaked in and then didn't rinse out - you would be in trouble.

If worse comes to worst, you could transplant the anubias off the driftwood, purge the anubias, and then just get a new piece of driftwood to attach it.

 

[Vircomore]

And ultimately, Ich cannot live long without animals. So if you want to take a super-safe route you can simply quarantine anything you want in an "animal-free tank" for about a month and the Ich parasite will be gone.

 

[Welsh]

I live in Wales and summer hasn't even made an appearance yet, I doubt it even will haha so leaving my plants outside would kill them haha

What about soaking everything in boiling water, for a couple minutes? I don't know whether this will destroy the anubias though.

I'm kicking myself for being so stupid haha

 

[Patterson333]

I live in Wales and summer hasn't even made an appearance yet, I doubt it even will haha

Wow I envy you so badly right now. I'm in Miami and the heat is absolutely unbearable.

Anyways, the boiling would absolutely work for the plastic plants. As far as the DW, I would imagine boiling it would mean almost certain death for the plant. Maybe you could just leave it in a bucket inside, possibly under a lamp. Or you could try the bleach trick, couldn't tell you how to go about doing that though as I've never done so myself.

 

[Welsh]

The bucket idea inside could work, along with a desk lamp. I could also try it with some elodea densa too, as this seems to be dying in my 12 gallon.

I was tempted with the bleach trick but I don't have much luck with anything, so think I may pass on that one lol.

 

[Patterson333]

If you have a heater that you could put in that bucket by any chance it would certainly help speed the process.

 

[Welsh]

Well, I decided to be reckless and boiled the kettle, added dechlorinator and then the plants -when the water had cooled down some obviously lol. I did this twice, leaving the plants soak each time and then raised the temp to 86 in my betta's tank; just to be on the safe side - He's been tail biting anyway, so the raised temperature may heal him quicker. Only time will tell whether this worked, I think it might as I added them last night and still no signs of the dreaded white spot!

Fingers crossed