Ich treatment question

Jeff420 · Feb 25, 2021

Hi guys so i started a saltwater tank about a month ago and the 1 of the newly added fish seems to have ich by the looks of it and others are flashing every now and then. I've done some research about treating it but im a little confused on how to go about it because most of them say move to a quarantine tank for treatment which I understand but the surely when moving it back it'll get ich again? from owning freshwater tanks I've always just treated the whole tank and not individual fish for ich. I dont have any corals yet as ive only just started adding in fish slowly so far ive only got the 2 indo Pacific sergeant and 1 convict tang 2 dwarf zebra hermit crabs in the tank

dwest · Feb 25, 2021

Jeff420 said:
Hi guys so i started a saltwater tank about a month ago and the 1 of the newly added fish seems to have ich by the looks of it and others are flashing every now and then. I've done some research about treating it but im a little confused on how to go about it because most of them say move to a quarantine tank for treatment which I understand but the surely when moving it back it'll get ich again? from owning freshwater tanks I've always just treated the whole tank and not individual fish for ich. I dont have any corals yet as ive only just started adding in fish slowly so far ive only got the 2 indo Pacific sergeant and 1 convict tang 2 dwarf zebra hermit crabs in the tank

The way to prevent reinfecting the fish is to have the tank fallow (without fish) for a period of time. I believe the time is about 85 days which can be sped up with warmer water.

New Ich Fallow Period

First off, I must thank @victoly for bringing this recent study to my attention: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848617317544 It has now been peer-reviewed and the findings verified by other scientists. I'd also like to share a couple of other related studies (below)...

humble.fish

Shirak · Feb 25, 2021

Jeff420 said:
Hi guys so i started a saltwater tank about a month ago and the 1 of the newly added fish seems to have ich by the looks of it and others are flashing every now and then. I've done some research about treating it but im a little confused on how to go about it because most of them say move to a quarantine tank for treatment which I understand but the surely when moving it back it'll get ich again? from owning freshwater tanks I've always just treated the whole tank and not individual fish for ich. I dont have any corals yet as ive only just started adding in fish slowly so far ive only got the 2 indo Pacific sergeant and 1 convict tang 2 dwarf zebra hermit crabs in the tank

Treatment is done in a quarantine tank with copper. If you treat the fish in the main tank, copper will be in the rocks and sand and everything else and you won't be able to keep anything but fish in the tank. As Dwest mentioned the main tank needs to kept fish free for around 80 days to make sure the ich dies off before putting the fish back in after quarantine.