Ich has about a 4 week cycle ... about 1 week in the cycle it will be visible on the fish ( the other 3 weeks it will be in either egg/larvae/freeswimming ) ... As Alan suggested you have to leave the tank fallow to be sure that once they become free swimming again there is no host available for them to latch onto.

Cheers

hmmm, could be ich then. grumble.

So if I get rid of the fish, what about my other inverts? my snails, and 2 hermit crabs.. will ich infect them?

Your inverts should be safe as the parasite feeds exclusively on fish. This is a quote from Advanced Aquarist:

"Cryptocaryon irritans is a ciliated protozoan parasite of marine teleost fish in tropical and temperate waters. This pathogen is an obligate parasite of marine fish (Iwama, Pickering, Sumpter & Shreck, 1997. Dickerson & Dawe, 1994). This means that it feeds exclusively on fish and cannot complete its life cycle unless this food source is available within its environment. The theront stage of this parasite will not survive for more than a day or two without a host fish"

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2003/mini1.htm

What ever you decide, make sure to quarintine it.

Of course. And a good call too!

Here I go off topic, on my own post, but do all of you have a completely seperate take for qt?

Yup. :P

I have a simple 10 gallon qt going through it's cycle right now. It consists of a cheap 10 gallon tank a simple sponge filter and a heater. Pretty cheap and simple insurance :smile:

Hmmm... where the hell do I keep all this? lol!

I guess my 5gal fuge I made is too small. I haven't glued it together yet, so I can always make it slightly bigger. What would be the minimum size to keep the new found friends?

I have seen recommendations in the range of 10-20 gallons. If you are planning on keeping larger fish that like room to swim, such as tangs, a larger tank is probably required.

Most likely I won't be getting any tangs at all, because of the size of my tank (38). I've read up on the "tang police" and don't want them knocking at my door.