Ich spots - how long will a single parasite stay?

[Eclyps19]

I have a lot of little particles in my water column - I tend to freak myself out a lot when I see something white that gets stuck to the fins of one of my fish, only to come back an hour later and see that it's gone. I'm curious as to how long a single "ich" parasite will hang out in one spot. Do they move around? Stay in a single spot for 24h? Feed and then detach within a couple hours?

 

[nereefpat]

The feeding stage will stay attached somewhere in the 3-7 day range before it drops off. The spot will not move. Its stays in one spot, as you are seeing the skin's reaction to the parasite.