How long do I leave my display tank fishless once it gets ich?

My tank is today 12 weeks old. I did not have a QT to put my fish in before the display tank (since I have bought one) I had a foxface fish, 2 perculla clowns, a scooter blennie, a peppermint shrimp, a skunk cleaner shrimp, 4 turbo snails, 2 other snails, 6 hermit crabs and a choc chip starfish. A week ago is when I noticed that all of the fish in my tank had a little ich. Since at the time I didn't have a QT I bought some ich medicine to help the fish. By the way I have no corals and 50 pounds of live rock in a 55 gal tank. I changed 50 percent of the water 24 hours after first dosage. They looked a tad better, but the next day they had it really bad. My foxface's face was all mangled and its eyes looked like they were about to fall out. My perculas were covered in white spots and it looked like my scooter blennie had spots. The next day I added a 2nd dosage and changed another 50 percent of my water the next day. That following morning the smaller percula fish died and my foxface was completely covered in white spots as was the other percula that was still living. I bought a QT and dipped the foxface in freshwater before adding him to the QT and he died a few hours later. I didn't dip my other percula or blennie but put them directly in the QT. That was yesterday. I added my first ich dosage in the QT tank last night and the percula looks a little better today but still has ich pretty bad. because of the blennies pigment I can't tell if he still has ich. So I guess my question is. Is it safe to leave all the shrimp, the starfish, the crabs, and the snails in the display tank with the ich still in there? Will it longer the life of the ich? and With no other fish in there would you buy something to try to kill the ich left in the tank or just let them die off in the next few weeks? Sorry this thread is so long but I have spent a lot of money and want to treat this the best way I can. Please help!

 

To completely rid of ich you have to leave your tank FISHless for 6 weeks (although i would personally go 8 after a bad experience i previously had..)..you can leave whatever inverts/corals you have in the tank. the parasite can only feed off of fish

 

8 weeks. No less.

 

Honestly, while its a good precaution to keep your tank fishless for a while, ich can lay dormant for a very long time, 8 weeks is a good time period. However, in many cases, the fish can fight off the disease if they have good water quality and nutrition. You may want to look into your water quality. For example, are effectively skimming, are you running carbon?

 

by adding all these different treatments, doing 50% water changes, and doing freshwater dips- you have essentially stressed them to death.

Best thing to do when you notice your fish have ich is.... (ready for it?).. nothing! Keep your water quality pristine.. dont do anything eratic. Make sure they are eating well, and wait!

As I always say- ich is to fish as the common cold is to humans. Something that we can beat very easily without anyone elses help.... same thing goes for fish.

And if it hits them extremely fast and they literally go down hill within 24 hours... chances are that it was not ich in the first place.... there are many other diseases in the marine hobby that look alot like ich but are 10 times more malefic.

My advice, leave everything alone, leave your fish in your main aquarium, any inverts, etc. Dont do any more major water changes (at least not any above 15-20%). Keep the water levels at an appropriate level- make sure there are no major temperature swings (something common this time of year), keep salinity at a steady level, and keep feeding with high quality marine grade fish food. And from there on... just monitor... you'll notice your fish are hardier than you think.