ICK live after hypo?

[jimmyj7090]

MY question,

when you treat a tank with hypo, do any cysts or other stages of ick remain dormant in the tank. In other words, after 3 weeks of hypo treatment, if I rasie the salinity back to normal slowly, is there a chance that some stage of the Ick will still be alive and able to come back. Do I need to break down the hospital tank and move the fish to a second hospital tank before bringing the salinity back up?

My plan was to treat the fish with hypo for 3-4 weeks and keep the display (120 SPS) fishless for 8 weeks. The fish will be done with their treatment 5 weeks before the display. Is there a risk to simply bringing the salinity back up in the hospital tank, or do I need to worry about dormant cysts or something like that, that could become viable when the salinity increases?

I've been treating my fish in a hospital tank (75) with hypo for the past three weeks. The hospital tank cycled in right away (with the help of some bio balls and filter floss seeded in an established tank) and hasn't needed water changes to maintain good water quality. The fish (purple tang, perc pair, 6 line, sm copperband) are all eating well and looking great.

Thanks for any input
JK

[SAT]

Yes, that can happen. 3-4 weeks isn't long enough for a fully effective hypo treatment. I suggest a minimum of 6 weeks at the theraputic level (11ppt).

Moving the fish, as you suggest, is more likely to work. However, there's some evidence that hypo doesn't 100% stop the reproductive cycle until after a few life cycles. If that's true, simply moving the fish once may not do the job.

A quicker approach is the "hyposalinity transfer method". See:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2004/mini5.htm