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Did I beat the ich2007-11-24 23:11:08

Within the last three weeks or so I saw ich developing in my tank after the introduction of my pakistani loaches. When I noticed it I turned the heat up to 31 degrees but some still came back a bit in some of my fish. I then turned the heat up to 32 1/2 and for the last three days have not seen anything! The strange thing is that one of my scissor tails developed dropsy very quickly on Saturday and by Monday he wasn't to save so we put him down humanely. The other fish have not been reinfected and no signs of dropsy, temps are back at 30%... did I beat the ich? No meds, only high temps...

Answers:

The ich parasite's life cycle is 10 days at normal tropical aquarium temps. As the temp goes up, the life cycle is shortened, as the temp goes down, the life cycle is lengthened.

As far as beating the ich, if you have had the temp at 85 degrees farenheit for AT LEAST 10 DAYS and have seen "no reinfestation of the fish for 5 days," you are safe. The timeline here is VERY important! Dropping the temp too soon can allow reinfestation.

Loaches are very susceptible to ich and they would be the first to be attacked again. They are scaleless fish and the ich parasite finds them particularly delicious.

As far as all fish being infected with ich, that is just not true (one of the old wives tales from back in the 50's). I have recently discussed this with MagicMan, who is very knowledgeable (he teaches the subject in a college course) on fish diseases, and he told me there is no scientific evidence to prove that the ich "parasite" can exist in a cyst state for any longer than that part of their normal life cycle (just a few days).