responsible use of the ich shield would look like this:
Once you start using this medication, you should use it for long enough to break the life cycle of parasite and completely eradicate it from your system. You should not use it for a few days here or a few days there, or for a couple of days after you add new fish. It should be treated like a course of antibiotics prescribed by a doctor, taken to completion, even if you (or your fish) feel better.
If you are using it in a mixed tank where not every fish eats the pellets, or eats enough to get a therapeutic dose, you shouldn't use it.
If you're not sure if your fish are actually infected with C. irritans, you shouldn't use it.
If you're not going to properly quarantine new arrivals and just re-introduce the parasite back in to your display, you shouldn't use it.
Go ahead and use it prohylactically on new arrivals if you can get them to eat it (The LAST thing my powder blue started to eat was pellets, nearly a full year after I got him - my cowfish wouldn't eat a 3mm pellet unless I shoved it down his throat), but do it in a QT tank, and follow the proper protocol, which means making sure they eat it every single day for at least 21 days.
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