Ick. Gone for good or not?

[Wulfonce]

My 90g cold water tank got ick about a month ago. Due to financial issues I didn't bother to treat the tank with anything other then aquarium salt. Now, 8 weeks later it seems that the ick is gone. All of the 28 river chub show no signs of white specks anymore and have been totally speck free for almost 2 weeks now.

is it safe to say that the ick is gone?

What is the minimum temperature Ick can survive in?

What are some things I can do to insure this doesn't happen again?

 

[Lupin]

Ich tends to thrive in cooler temperature however the lifecycle also slows down. What was the temperature exactly throughout the two months period? When you treated for ich, did you also increase the temperature? If so, how high was the temperature? How long did you treat your fish with aquarium salt?

Normally, for ich cases, two weeks is the recommended treatment period but it also depends on the temperature as the lifecycle reflects the time frame for treatment. The reason we elevate the temperature as much as necessary is that by increasing the speed of lifecycle rate, we allow the salt or medicines to hit the free-swimming ich wherein they are most vulnerable to exposure of lethal agents that could make them explode to death. If they were embedded under the epidermis of the fish or encased in cysts, then they are far from vulnerability to salt.

What you can do to prevent ich is be serious when you quarantine your new fish. Don't take quarantining for granted. Do it at 3-4 weeks minimum. The longer the quarantine period, the better. There are plenty of parasites out there that have a much longer lifecycle than the curable ich. Get a spare tank and keep it barebottom for easier maintenance. Operate it with a sponge filter and a heater.

 

[Wulfonce]

Ich tends to thrive in cooler temperature however the lifecycle also slows down. What was the temperature exactly throughout the two months period? When you treated for ich, did you also increase the temperature? If so, how high was the temperature? How long did you treat your fish with aquarium salt?

Normally, for ich cases, two weeks is the recommended treatment period but it also depends on the temperature as the lifecycle reflects the time frame for treatment. The reason we elevate the temperature as much as necessary is that by increasing the speed of lifecycle rate, we allow the salt or medicines to hit the free-swimming ich wherein they are most vulnerable to exposure of lethal agents that could make them explode to death. If they were embedded under the epidermis of the fish or encased in cysts, then they are far from vulnerability to salt.

What was the temperature exactly throughout the two months period?

67F

When you treated for ich, did you also increase the temperature?

No, Im fairly new to cold water tanks and decided against raising the temperature. I have no idea what temperatures cold water fish can tolerate.

How long did you treat your fish with aquarium salt?

Around 7 weeks

What you can do to prevent ich is be serious when you quarantine your new fish. Don't take quarantining for granted. Do it at 3-4 weeks minimum. The longer the quarantine period, the better. There are plenty of parasites out there that have a much longer lifecycle than the curable ich. Get a spare tank and keep it barebottom for easier maintenance. Operate it with a sponge filter and a heater.

Understood. But for the record these fish have been thriving in the tank for months. Nothing new was introduced to cause the Ick. It just happened one day. Unless one of the fish had Ick right from the get go and it just took this long to fully take effect.

 

[Lupin]

No, Im fairly new to cold water tanks and decided against raising the temperature. I have no idea what temperatures cold water fish can tolerate.

Depends which fish you have. If we are talking about goldfish, hillstream loaches, dojo loaches and koi, then they can tolerate as high as 80 degrees for at least a few weeks until ich is destroyed completely.

At 67 degrees, the lifecycle would be extremely slow and it is likely after two weeks, you may still have a few protozoans still there back as a low lying infection and will appear as outbreak again if they sense their hosts become stressed again. Seven weeks though may be effective enough to destroy almost all of the protozoans and hopefully they won't come back. Ich is easy to eliminate but a PITA if the fish is extremely stressed since the treatments administered also take their toll on the fish's health.

Understood. But for the record these fish have been thriving in the tank for months. Nothing new was introduced to cause the Ick. It just happened one day. Unless one of the fish had Ick right from the get go and it just took this long to fully take effect.

That is correct. They needed a host to live long and had remained from your detection as a low lying infection appearing only when they felt their hosts may have been stressed or weakened. They reside inside gill tissues mostly as a low lying infection.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Unless one of the fish had Ick right from the get go and it just took this long to fully take effect.

I agree also that it was the 67 degree temps that caused the ich life cycle to slow down enough that it took a long time to show up. This is where the myth that 'ich always lays dormant in tanks' came from. The life cycle was probably extremely slow given the temps were so low. It wasn't laying dormant waiting to attack during stress, it just took that long to multiply to a point where you saw the spots.

 

[Wulfonce]

thanks for the info.

Is ick common in the wild? I netted these river chub from... a river.
I figured if they were tough enough to survive cow **** and chemicals leaching off farmers fields into the river, surely ick wouldn't be a problem.

They're a north american native. So I guess they can tolerate winter conditions. Knowing that, what would be the safe "high" temperature they could survive in? I'd rather give the Ick one final showdown if I can. I dont need this coming back to bite me in the ass later.

Stupid Ick.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

No, I don't believe it's common in the wild at all. Because there's so much area compared to fish number. The ich cysts that fall off the fish have to find a host within a certain number of days (3-5 or so) and most die before a new host is found.
Are you quite certain it was actually ich? It looked like grains of salt sprinkled on their bodies & fins? Look at fishbase.org and you'll find the temp ranges for your particular fish. For example the shocking to me was Goldfish's range was like 40-103 degrees :-O I would imagine the 103 would be very temporary. But you may find the top range for your fish is higher than you think. If so, I'd certainly for it if I were you.