How long will Ick live with no fish in the tank?

[tyrel]

My cycling fish have Ick, and the store says they will take them back when the cycle is done. If I take out the cycle fish before the perminent fish ( 4 inch senegal bichir) goen in, can I leave the tank absent of fish untill any free swimming Ick dies? How long untill it is safe for the new fish to go in?

Will the absense of fish inturupt the cycle too much?

I do have "quick cure" If my above plan won't work, but i'd really reather not use it.

 

[xIHaKIx]

I dont think so, I had a fish tank and one of my fish died cause of ich, like before i added fish (he was doing poop and stuff to get the tank going) and when I flushed him down the toilet the next day I woke up and had little white bugs all over my glass. You should just sue the ich remover, I got something w. a fish on it dressed like a doctor and it turns my water blue, It wors really good.

 

[Skyrmir]

The bacteria that completes your cycle would most likely die before the ich would if you took the fish out. The simplest method would be to raise the temperature of the water to 86 degrees or a little above while your cycling. After the last of the dots have disappeared off your cycle fish, keep the heat up for 2 more weeks. Then go get your new fish.

If anything the little bit of extra heat may speed up your cycle a little. Bacteria grow faster when it's warm. It would be a really BAD idea to use meds on a tank your trying to cycle though. Most if not all ich medicines will kill at least some to all of your good bacteria. Slowing things down or putting you right back at square one.

What it comes down to is meds are iffy at best at actually curing ich. There's a chance they they could slow down or stall your cycle. Even if the meds do work, they are not going to kill the dormant stage of the disease. Putting any new fish at risk, and being new fish from a pet store, it's pretty much garunteed they're stressed when you get them. Wich means they are just going to get infected, then you have to deal with ich and expensive fish.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Could add a little aquarium salt to help too. I think there's a place in here where it tells how to do the salt treatment. Maybe someone can post it.

 

[zenkatydid]

this is a good thread for me too. i have a tank that had fish with ich in it a week or so ago. i was treating them, but they were moved into a second infected tank to consolidate the treatments.

would new fish that i put into this tank be infected? if so, how do i go about killing off the remaining bacteria? afaik, you can only kill them when they're in their free-swimming form, not when they're dormant in the gravel (is that right?) - so how do i get them to swim?

 

[greenmaji]

If you removed the fish.. you would need to feed the bacteria.. fish food or NH3..
it takes 2-3 weeks for Ick to die.. 2 weeks is its life cycle..
I would take the fish back to the store now and continue the cycle fishless with NH3 and raise the temperature to 86 degrees.. it will likely take more then 3 weeks to finish your cycle anyway..
and yes.. if you dont kill the ick the new fish will be infected, even if you cant see it expect it..

 

[workfortheman]

Kudos, Maji~ if you don't supply the bacteria with food they will not survive & grow.

Check out here for fishless cycling:

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article14.html

 

[Skyrmir]

Zenkat, just raise the temp to 86 degrees or a little over. You can also add 1 tablespoon NON-iodized salt per 5 gallons water. (make sure your fish can survive this level of salt first!) Generally most scaleless fish like loaches don't tolerate salt well. Make sure to keep up the heat/salt for 2 weeks after the last fish is gone or the spots on the fish are gone. Otherwise it's just gonna come right back.

 

[Guest]

I agree, just raise the temperature will speed up the lifecycle of the ich and kill it off. At low temperatures ick can stay in its dormant Spore stage for a pretty long time.