Ich question

Ok I have a question about ich. I have a mandarin goby in a small thank that has ich. I also have a large 75Gallon tank that is about to cycle I think. I also have some ich medicine that contains malachite green.

If the small tank has the ich parasite and I put the goby in a bucket with the malachite green. Is it possible to just dose the goby and drop him in the clean tank? I'm asking this because I know that most sites say to keep the fish in a QT for about 2 to 6 weeks. But I also think that this is because they are waiting for the parasite to die in the current tank. Since I could transfer this fish to another clean tank. How long would I have to wait in this case?

 

I guess I'm actually asking how long would the malachite green take to completely kill all the parasites on the fish without question?

 

Malachite Green may be harmful to scaleless fish.

 

Just a dip in malachite green does not kill the parasite. Most medications kill the free swimming form of the parasite. Ich goes through several stages in its life and most if not all medications kill it in its free swimming stage if I'm not mistaken. I know copper works this way. Check with the manufacturer of malachite green. What I do with my new fish is a FW and methylene blue dip for 3-5 min ( I've never lost a fish as a result of a FW dip), then QT for 2 weeks in a tank with low dose copper. I add the copper to the QT tank after the fish has settled in the QT tank for 3-4 days. I know alot of people will disagree with the method, but after battling ich in my 120g for a year its not worth the risk of introducing the parasite again and losing hundreds of dollars worth of fish.

 

The problem I'm considering is that this is a Goby. I'd have to put him into something more than a QT fast because he needs to eat. I can put him into an established tank but I don't want to infect that tank. how long should I keep him in the ich med before it's safe to take him out.

fletch: wow thanks for the heads up. This would have been one dead fish. lol.

 

Is it eating brine shrimp? If it is, it could live off of this for 10-14 days without problems.

 

Nope. He's only eating pods.