Ich breakout - recovery

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

I have a 20 gallon tropical tank.  Using a Aqueon filter appropriate for the tank size.  Was keeping 2 Green Barbs, 1 Zebra Barb, 1 Dwarf Guarami, 1 Pleco Catfish and 1 Panda Cory.  Also, 2 Mystery Snails.  Left on vacation on a Friday, tank temp @ 79 - all seemed well (all fish but Guarami were fairly new within the month).  Came home on Sunday night to all Barbs and Cat dead.  Guarami died next day, began Kickich treatment and lost Panda three days later.  Pretty confident this was case of ich due to my online diagnosis re: appearance of fish.

Currently, on day #7 of Kickich treatment.  Snails still going strong.  No carbon in filter.  Temp 79.  

Should I continue Kickich treatment?  What kind of water change should I do?  Thinking ich eggs could be on snail shells...Should I move the snails or will the ich "eggs" eventually die?  Will this erradicate ich completely?  Husband thinks I should empty the tank, bleach it and start from scratch.

Can you help me know where to go from here?  When to add a new fish?  How long til ich is gone for good...and would that happen on it's own now that there are no "hosts"?

Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Cindy,
 Hmm....  if it was ich, the fish would have been covered in little white dots, sort of like they were coated in icing sugar.  Ich usuually doesn't kill things so quickly so I am a little concerned that something else happened.  Basically ich has about a 7 day life cycle. For much of that it is in a hard "cyst" stage (the little white dots) and no medicine, despite what they say, can penetrate those. After a few days, they hatch, and that is when the ich is vulnerable to treatment. So, if you treat for 7 days, you should be covered.  

 If you want, you can do the bleach thing, just to be sure.  If you go that route, make sure to rinse the tank REALLY well afterwards to get rid of all traces of bleach. I then typically let the tank sit dry for 2 or 3 days before refilling it.  

-- Ron C.
   rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
   Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your help!  I really appreciate it since I'm new at this.  I think I'll skip the bleach treatment since I don't really want to re-cycle the tank again, if you think that's OK.

If this was some other kind of illness (although I did see white spots all over the Guarami, plus a "chewed away looking" area on his side - the cat and barbs were all fuzzy and white and seemed also to have holes eaten into their sides), would you agree that it would be OK to complete the ich treatment just in case and then to assume the tank will be ready for new fish?

You didn't address the snail question, so I'm assuming that whatever "cysts" could possibly be on their shells, would be dead by now since there have been no fish hosts in the tank for 2 weeks. yes?

Thank you!!

Answer
Hi Cindy,
  It was fine to complete the ich treatment, and anything on the snails should be gone.  I am concerned about the "chewed away looking" area... hmm...  that could have been one fish chewing on another but it is really hard to say from here unfortunately.   

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>