How do we know it does not live inside a fish's stomach much like a tapeworm? Could ick be ingested and lie dormant inside the host to be expelled in feces. I did some research and found nothing to confirm or dismiss the theory. Maybe they attach to food when they are mobile and just wait it out inside the fish. I could explain why it seems to show up for no reason at all sometimes. There are many insect larvae or eggs that can stay dormant for years or decades and appear when conditions are just right.
I'm just grasping at straws and thinking aloud I suppose.
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Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer
Actually something else that has been kind of brought up is quarantine tanks and hospital tanks--different things. My QT tank (rubbermaid) is full of LR, macro algae, crabs, ect. My hospital tank is a different rubbermaid that stays dry in case I need it.
I use 40G rubbermaids since I find them a bit easier to have around than a 40G tank and IMO a 10G is WAY too small to QT most any fish.
I also keep a sponge in my DT sump that can be used in the hospital tank as a filter if needed. If you do this though, make sure you "rinse" out the sponge every now and then (I do it every water change) to make sure it doesn't accumulate detritus and large amounts of bacteria that will lead to high nitrates. You just need it to have enough bacteria to keep a hospital tank cycled...although most meds will kill the filter anyways  |
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Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer
Well QT always does something and always helps. My belief is that it gives the fish a chance to get strong and healthy enough not keep ich away.
The point was that if you do a quick search with google scholar, you can find all kinds of studies where ich lived without a host for longer than 6 weeks...in one it was almost 3 months and then they stopped the experiment. So I was saying in that case, your tank may still not be ich free even after going through all the pain of QT for 8 weeks. I hear it quite often..."I had my tank fishless for 8 weeks and I still get ich"...thats because ich can live longer without a host. I am not sure where the 8 week thing came from. I assume most will die after 6-8 weeks without a host.
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