the "Ick cycle" questions..

[preggoguppo]

i had ick for the first time 2 months ago, i treated my tank only untill my spots where not visable on my fish anymore, then a few weeks later, i got it again.. i read that you are sopose to treat your tank several days after the spots are gone to make sure its REALLY gone...so im guessing the first time i got it, i really didnt kill it completely, and thats why it showed up again... now i'm hopeing that it is actually GONE this time since i treated it several days after the spots where gone... i slowly want to add more fish now, but I want to make sure its still not lingering in my tank gravel as part of its cycle...
(i hope this all makes sence!!)

MY REAL QUESTION IS: How long after the spots fall off your fish, does it take for the spots re-appear again, if you still have ICK?

its been about a month since i had ICK *thumbsup2 ..do you think it is actually gone if i have no signs of it again, yet

 

[Balloon Fish]

i think you could probably try the salt and heat treatment to kill it fully if you still think there is ick in there. Normaly if your fish are healthy and dont have stress then it won't get ick again so just try to keep your fish as healthy as possible and stress free hope this helps.

 

[svetlana]

I would say that it sounds strange that your ick reappeared a few weeks after b/c it should take one week at most to reappear if it's not completely gone.
My only explanation to it would be that you've hit it pretty hard but some buggers remained and they actually hosted on your fish in very small portions afterwards so that you could not see it. Once they accumulated in sufficient amount they popped up again in full bloom.

 

[Lotus]

If it has been a month, then the tank is probably clear. However, new fish can bring it in with them.

 

[revfred]

Ich is an opportunistic disease. That is if the fish are stressed for some reason, and there are still free floating cysts in the water, they will latch onto a host and the white spots will break out again. In my experience, treating 5-7 days beyond when ALL the spots disappear works well.

Also, make sure that your temperature is constant and at the upper end of the ideal range. All of my tanks are kept at a constant 80 degrees F.