Two puffers, 1 tank=stress? Ich is not carried in to the tank. It is a parasite that is constantly present in the aquarium. It is only when a fish becomes week or stressed that their immune systems cant fight it off. I would try and figure out the reason for the stress.

A good read on ick. Dispells some of the myths.

http://www.txinstall.com/ich/ich.htm

Why would two puffers in one tank equal stress?

If you have any idea what would be stressing them, let me know! There is zero aggression. Not even the odd chase. They are fed 3 times a day. Nitrates are kept to 5 and below at all times. Temperature has not swung more than 1 degree in 4 months (this has been a lot of work). Stress is exactly what I have worked my butt off to make sure is NOT in the tank. I think the reason this is such a mild break out each time (about 5-6 spots on the two puffers) is because the tank is so stress free. Sorry if it sounds like Im attacking your comment but I made it very clear in the beginning that I have worked extra hard to make sure stress in not a factor. And I strongly believe it has not been. Or I think they would all be dead months ago.

Maybe I need to clear this up...This is not a big outbreak by any means. Its only 2 of the 15 or so fish that even get the ich and its about 5-6 spots each usually. This last time the dogface did have it a bit worse than that but by this morning almost all the spots are gone. So its not a terrible outbreak and the fish don't even seem to notice its there but it still really bugs me and I am worried that if something does go wrong (power outtage, temperature swing, etc.) that they will get attacked hard by the ich.

BTW, as written in the Reefkeeping articles, I do NOT believe ich is present in every tank. And you can rid your tank of ich. Its just been hard this time.

Yeah good article. About the same as the Reefkeeping ones with a few added points which are good.

I have talked to a bunch of people and really don't believe the 11 months and then ich dies off theory. I guess in that last article it was saying it kind of "slows" down? Not dies off? Someone had told me that they added nothing to a tank for over two years but their tangs would still get ich once in a while. 5 years after that and the tangs still get a bit of ich.

I'm surprised Hypo didn't work. I have used Hypo before in the past and it worked great. Did you QT all of your fish and do hypo on all of them? Four weeks of QT and hypo for all of our fish got rid of the ich in our first set up.

This is a huge myth that keeps getting tossed around. Ich is not always present. It needs a host or it does not live. Given then right precautions when acquiring (new) fish or anything you add to your tank, you will never have ich in your tank.

Yup everything for 6 weeks the first time and 8 weeks the second time. 1.008 both time using three different refractometers to make sure.

I agree and I was so careful but there is something I missed somewhere obviously. What Im so frustrated about is why after all the treatment its still around. The tank was fallow for 8 weeks. Before that it was dry for a month. And during this time the fish were all in hypo for 8 weeks. Where the heck was the ich hiding???

I have read that sometimes Ich can last in cyst form for up to 7 months. :crazyeye:

Perhaps this has happened to you? Beyond that, it is best to do hypo, then normal QT for a month to see if the ich is truly gone. Since hypo only works if the salinity is strictly watched, perhaps your refractometer is mis calibrated and the salinity was not bang on, some Ich survives the treatment. Thinking your 8 weeks was enough you re-introduce them to your DT but some Ich survived and voila. All over again! Very frustrating for sure.

So your entire treatment length can be as long as 2 months. 1 month hypo, 1 month normal QT.. and 2 month fallow DT.

Not an easy prospect for sure.

Yeah I think your probably right...

Im sure the refractometer is working though because after hypo did not work the first time I borrow BOTH of my brothers refractometers. So I used three to make sure and they all read 1.008 after being calibrated. The fish were in 1.008 for 8 weeks. Then one more week or raising the salinity back up and then back to the display that was fallow for 9 months.

Ich was living somewhere though. It survived.