Clown ich after 4 days! I need your opinion!

[razec]

I had a brand new tank cycled using the shrimp method for 3 weeks without any livestock.
Before I went to LFS to buy fish my tank was fully cycled and the readings were:
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Salinity 1.027

I bought 2 clowns 3 days ago. Today I noticed that both of them have ich (white spots).

My question to you is:

Were this fish already infected, or they got the ich in my tank?

Thank you in advance.

[zhonk]

They were probably already infected.

[Grins]

Already infected, it is a huge part of why you should use a QT tank.

[razec]

Thank you for your help.

[mandy21]

the PetCo I go to is notorious for ich. workers know that, store manager knows that, but yet they keep tossing fish in the tanks with ich failing to realize that it doesn't just stay on the infected fish and goes out of the tank when that fish leaves the tank. Drives me nuts. always QT your fish. We're always excited to get them into the main tank, but I'd cry my eyes out if my selfishness overtook the health of my tanks.