Ich - Remove or not fish from tank!

[aecarval]

Hi guys. I need help. I bought a goby and unfortunately, I couldn't quarantine it and put it directly in my aquarium and the worst happened. My Hepatus caught ich! He is eating well and is very active in the aquarium. I tried to take it out to put it in the hospital but unfortunately, I couldn't. Do you think I leave him in the aquarium to see if he recovers on his own? Thanks in advance.

 

[Spieg]

If you're certain it is ich, I would remove all fish and let tank go fallow to break the ich life cycle. I'd do this sooner than later while the fish is still healthy enough to handle the stress of hospitalization and copper treatment. If this is a fish only tank then you could treat copper in the tank, but wont be able to have coral/invertebrates in that tank in the future. I'm sure someone will jump in and say you just need to feed high quality food and it will recover. I'm not in that school though... I don't like to take the risk of it getting worse and/or spreading to other fish.

 

[Wolf89]

Personally, I would ride it out. I've seen more fish killed by copper to treat ich than I've seen ich kill.

 

[AZMSGT]

Ich goes through cycles. It progressively gets worse and worse till fish succumb to it. The trophents will leave the fish, the fish will heal then the next round will happen again but worse. It can take 3-5 years for the full cycle to end and for the trophents to die off. Strong fish can survive but it’s a nasty thing to watch. I choose to stop the cycle, cure the fish and purge the tank. How would you like it if you where attacked by swarms of mosquitos regularly to a level where they wear you down and give you a few heart attacks. Similar concept but for fish.

You can take all your fish out and do the Tank transfer method to cure them. It’s much easier on the fish than Copper, but it takes two complete systems to do it. But to rid your self of Ick you need to let your main tank go fishless for 76 days.

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[Fishfinder]

If it’s 1 fish with a few spots I would leave it. Most fish can fight it off. If the fish are covered and obviously in distress then treat it

 

[Mckinsey1991]

Some fish have terrible immune systems. I have had one fish in the whole tank have multiple breakouts of ich. I'd venture to believe ich is inhabiting peoples aquariums whether they like it, and know it or not. It shows up, goes away, one fish may die and others may never get it, some fish never show signs ever. Just depends, I treated a fish, in a QT tank left the DT empty on high temp, did everything right put the fish back after some time, he got ich again, added a fish between that time (before he showed signs), that fish never got it. The time I had the fish in the QT tank he was more stressed, and wasn't eating. Other wise in the DT he was fine. It's a pesky thing but not something to be terrified by, if the fish is healthy and eating, the tank parameters are good? Garlic helps kill parasites, may not hurt to add a bit to their food.