Doug,
My understanding of ich is if the fish are treated for the parasite properly, there should be no ich left on the fish or in the treatment tank. The key here is proper ich treatment. Obviously, if the treatment did not work, ich would still be present on the fish and in the treatment tank, and further treatment would be required. Products such as Kick-Ich, IME, are of no value for treating ich. I would only use cupramine or hyposalinity for ich treatment.
I had the unfortunate occasion last year to I bring home a fish with ich, though I did not know it had ich. Within a couple of weeks, all the fish in my display tank got ich. I quickly set up a treatment tank with new saltwater and filtration from a tank without ich. As soon as all the ich were off the fish, I put the fish into the treatment tank. Well, none of the fish in treatment tank got ich in that tank, so I kept them in there for six weeks without treatment. They were ich free the whole six weeks.
I must have been extremely lucky to have removed the fish from the ich display tank at the exact time when no ich were on the fish. I was also very careful did not transfer water from the ich tank to the treatment tank.
The ich display tank had no fish in it for six weeks, so the ich went through their life cycle without hosts to attach to. The dang things must have died during the six week fallow period because when I put the fish back into the display tank, there were never any outbreaks of ich afterward.
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