How long till I know I am in the clear with ich

[OkiTank]

I have 3 lampeye tetras with what I think is ich. I had five and two died within a few days of bringing them home from the pet store. All of them were covered with spots when I brought them home about 2 weeks ago. I was looking at all of the fish, my wife tried to get me to leave in a hurry and I just told the guy to wrap them up without inspecting them too well. I know, my bad. Lesson learned unfortunately the hard way. Please save me the insult to injury. I won't make this mistake again.

Anyway, they are lasting longer than I thought. My first thought was that I would just let them die off and then wait a month before adding anything new to the tank after the last one goes. If they do end up dying this is the safe thing to do right?

The thing is though that I have them in the tank with a bunch of red cherry shrimp. I don't really want to use chemical treatments if I can help it. If they end up clearing up how long until I know that it is safe to add more fish?

Currently everything is in a 10 gal tank with a cheap corner bubble filter. I don't have much filtration because again it was only 5 baby tetras (shorter than 1 inch) and the shrimp most of which are still babies. I figured low bioload. I do have some random live plants in there as well and some snails. Change water about once a week approx 30%.

Thanks all for any advice or input you have.

 

[Sachiel]

I'm dealing with Ich myself, so I'll tell you how I'm treating it.

Get a filter from petco or walmart (whatever's cheaper) and remove the carbon (if it's attached, cut a slit to remove it) and let that run your tank (keep the bubble filter or air) Now get a heater and aquarium or kosher salt, and put 10tsp of salt in the water (for 10gal) AFTER removing the plants and shrimp. They may not survive the salt treatment. QT the plants and shrimp. (the heat+salt is stronger and more effective than medication, but get rid-ich as a backup) gradually turn up the heat (+1 every 1-3 hours) to 86*F just fast enough to prevent the ich from reproducing, and slow enough not to stress your babies. If no progress is made by the 5th day, your fish may not make it. Do this for at least 10 days. Some fish can tolerate high temps, so if they can tolerate 87*F go for it, just watch the thermometer to make sure you're not overheating them. 86*F is enough, however.

I hope this helps you! My betta's been diagnosed yesterday by it. Hopefully I caught it before it could get too bad (he has 1 spot)

 

[Vircomore]

If the only living things remaining in the tank are shrimp, snails, and plants - then you will likely not need to medicate against ich.

You can do the "heat + some salt" treatment if you want, but ich is a parasite that can only effectively feed on fish. So within 6-8 weeks of your tank having no fish in it - the ich parasite should be effectively starved out of existence.

Just don't re-locate your shrimp, snails, or plants to any other tanks with fish in it - because they can still carry the parasite "on their shells" until it dies.