The Puffer Forum

Ok, so I had white spot... (from a non-quarentined fish- stupid, stupid me)

I got all the fish into quarentine but sadly lost two clowns and my valentini (i'm very angry with myself. )

Did manage to save a clown and my dwarf fuzzy. Three weeks on, they are doing well, no signs of illness, eating well, active etc..


I am setting up and cycling a new 50G marine tank... (an upgrade was needed to house the lion when fully grown.)

I have my remaining fish in their quarentine tank, and i will transfer them if they are still showing no signs of ich in another week.

The live rock and a leather are still in the original ich infected tank. I am leaving them in there for 4 weekswithout fish to wipe out all ich bacteria...

BUT...


Will my leather keep the ich bacteria alive? Or the hermit crab hitchhiker that scuttles about in there? Also the tank has had a few stray river shrimp in there until a few days ago, (uneated lion food) can they keep the ich bacteria alive? The tank has been without fish for three weeks, but only without river shrimp for a few days.. It still has a leather and a crab in there....

..what i'm trying to work out is how long i need to leave the rock, sand etc before I can safely transfer it without the risk of the ich transfering...

I hope someone can help.

thanks.

Ich is a parasite - not a bacteria.

The tank should be fishless with NO new additions (rock, inverts, etc) for at least 6 weeks.

i'm sorry i'm new to marines so i'm not quite getting this...

I haven't introduced anything new to the tank...


but although i took all the fish out... i left in a hermit crab and a leather in. (as i knew the copper treatment in quarentine would kill them)

will the parasite be able to continue living off these?

Do i have to remove the leather and crab in order to clear the live rock and sand in the tank of ich...

What i mean is... can the tank rid itself of ich with the leather and crab still living in there?


If not, then how am i supposed to rid the leather and crab of the ich parasite?


sorry if i'm being stupid here...

The parasite has to have a fish host to feed off in order to continue its life cycle....no fish and the parasite dies off.

So the leather and the inverts are fine in the tank.....just do not add anything to this tank during the fallow (fishless)period and then no matter what you add (fish, rock, inverts, corals, algae, etc).....ALL have to be quarantined or you will be encountering this problem again.

thanks very much, yes i learnt my lesson very well, and i'm sorry that my negligence cost little lives.