Ever hear of ich spot visible for 35 days?

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LeahK

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Jul 5, 2007
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What's the longest anyone has seen a visible ich spot stay on a fish? Let me give a little background to this question. I was qt-ing some long-fin rosy barbs. I planned to qt them for 3 weeks or even more, but to make a long story short I pro-actively over-medicated and harmed my biological filter. The ammonia started to rise and I managed it for a few days with water changes, but it started to get out of hand. By that time, the barbs had been in qt for 2 weeks, and looking fine, so I went ahead and put them in my 55 community tank, rather than expose them to more water quality issues. The thing is, these barbs have very iridescent tails, and 2 barbs have one white-looking spot each on them, one on a tail and one on a fin. I've had the barbs for a total of 24 days, and I noted those 2 white spots at least 19 days ago. The spots were probably there when I got them. Of course when I first noticed them I thought it was ich, but when the spots stayed there for so long, I began to think they were just part of the barbs' glittery coloration. Because the spots do look whiter when the light catches them and duller when in the shade--not really the "grain of salt" look of ich. And, no other fish, including the other barbs and the clown loaches who've lived with them for over a week now, are showing any symptoms of ich--no spots, no flashing. But then I read, just last night, an article at the Novalek/Kordon website, saying that some strains of ich can remain in the visible white spot stage for up to 35 days!:eek: Has anyone ever heard of this? My heart really skipped a beat when I read that, because I thought, what if those 2 spots are actually long-lasting ich spots? But, even if that were so, I feel like it would be unlikely to have only one generation of ich on my barbs--that is, I feel like there would have been some invisible ich in their gills, too, which would have hatched and spread by now and become visible, after 24 days. Like I said, I've seen those same 2 spots for at least 19 days, and I'd really like to be assured that it is very unlikely to be ich, because I have a new clown loach in qt who wants to move into the community tank soon--and I really don't want to think that those 2 little glittery barbs have been harboring little ich time bombs. Any opinions on this?
 

LeahK

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Jul 5, 2007
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I should, for 10 of their qt days, the barbs were treated with coppersafe. This was part of what I think harmed the biological filter, but I believe it also decreases the likelihood of them having ich.
 

Marinemom

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Apr 8, 2006
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Ich has many stages as you probably know but I have never heard of that for 35 days. In that amount of time if the ich persists, there usually is not a good outcome and most likely the fish would of been dead way before 35 days anyway.

Marinemom
 

wataugachicken

The Dancing Banana
Jul 14, 2005
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Charlotte, NC
possibly the spots are scar tissue from an old bite or nip wound.
 

LeahK

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Jul 5, 2007
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Thanks for the reassurance. Glad to hear skepticism about the 35-day cyst. --Leah
 
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