Quote:
Originally Posted by VFX
14. INTERESTING FIND: If no new MI is introduce into an infected aquarium, the MI already there continues to cycle through multiple generations until about 10 to 11 months when the MI has ‘worn itself out’ and becomes less infective. A tank can be free of an MI infestation if it is never exposed to new MI parasites for over 11 months.
10. Let aquarium go fishless (without any foreign saltwater additions (e.g., water from LFS system, water from another tank or system -- use only distilled or RO/DI for evaporation and freshly made, uncontaminated salt water for water changes), without contamination from infected tanks, live rock additions, etc.) for at least 8 weeks and the tank will be free of MI. This 'fallow period' has over a 99.9% chance of success.
Points 14 & 10 above seem to contradict each other, much like other reports & papers I've seen in researching Ich.
So where does that leave me?
Back to square one. Leaving my reef tank fishless & question marks over how long to do it for.
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My understanding of the two referenced points:
For point # 14, An existing tank with fish (hosts) will be ich free after about 11 months as long as no new strains of ich are introduced (ie. new fish, corals or outside sources of SW) This is believed to occur through a mutation of the parasite itself, it basically becomes so "inbred" it can no longer survive.
Point #10 refers to a fallow tank with no fish (no hosts for the ich parasite), which after around 8 weeks without a host the parasite can no longer survive.
Since my display tank has ich already (all the fish came through fine) and I don't want to quarantine them all of them for 2 months, I hope to go through 11 months without new additions to "cure" the ich . I won't be adding any fish but there are still some corals and inverts I would like to add so the clock hasn't started yet.