Plants carry Ick Parasite?

[Gundy]

I have a buddy getting rid of abunch of plants from a tank that currently had ick. He hasn't treated the tank or anything, and the fish died.

I was wondering what I would do to rid the plants of ick if its even possible that they are carrying.. I know you can dip anacharis in diluted bleach water to rid of snails and was curious if something like this would work on other swords/potted plants?

 

[bs6749]

Put the plants in a separate tank and raise the temperature to 86 or so and see how the plants handle it. Keep them there for a couple of weeks and by then the ich should be gone. The longer you can keep them in the tank the better.

 

[Gundy]

But the plants are looking grim as is, I doubt they will survive.. The point of getting them into my tank is because my buddys lighting was insufficent.

 

[Purrbox]

As I understand it ick is found either free floating or carried by host fish. I would think that if you were to give them a good rinsing the risk would be minimal, especially if your fish are healthy and not stressed. A bleach dip or some such would simply add an extra level of security. The safest thing would be to quarentine them for several weeks in a tank with no fish. Without a host the ick life cycle can't complete and it will die off. Again this is all from memory, so I recommend double checking before following my suggestions.

 

[Gundy]

How would bleech dips effect the plants? Do I just dip them in a diluted solution then rinse them off?

 

[Purrbox]

Check out Steve Hampton's site for more information on dips. Certain species don't tolerate the dips as well as others, and healthy plants will always fair better than unhealthy plants.

 

[gu2high]

I would pour some bleach in a busket of water, dip the plants for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, the dip time depends on the concentration of bleach and plants - soft leaves should be shorter. Then rinse well, dip in a clean water for another 10 minutes with double amount of de-chlorinator such as Prime. This should be safe enough, even algaes are killed too.