How Long After Treating Ich Can New Fish Be Added

[Molly96]

about a week and a half ago i notice my balloon molly had ich so i moved her into a quarntine tank and treated her and the main tank was fine none of the other fish got ich and i moved her back into the tank and she is fine now how long should i wait before adding new fish. it was not a very bad case it was on her tail fin and it cleared up fast.

 

[phantomlink]

I would wait at least a week and watch every single fish closely, all it takes is one spec and restart the outbreak

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I'm even more careful and would wait 2 weeks after treatment is complete.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If you spot Ich on a fish you should treat all the fish in the tank. The odds of just your Molly having been infected and not spread the disease is very low, treat the main tank ASAP.
 
It is bad practice to add newly bought fish to your main tank, it could introduce disease but often these new fish need a change to get their first regular decent meals since being transported within the fish trade. Keep new fish in quarantine for at least two weeks and I would not add new fish to a tank that has had an outbreak for at least a month.

 

[the_lock_man]

Goaty, old chap, please remember that not all of us are blessed with enough space for 6/7 tanks. I, for one, do not have anywhere that a QT could be set up. If I were to find somewhere, when it was finished with, a child would come along and commandeer that space for themself.

Yes, in a perfect world, everyone would quarantine new fish. We don't all live in a perfect world.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Goaty, old chap, please remember that not all of us are blessed with enough space for 6/7 tanks. I, for one, do not have anywhere that a QT could be set up. If I were to find somewhere, when it was finished with, a child would come along and commandeer that space for themself.

Yes, in a perfect world, everyone would quarantine new fish. We don't all live in a perfect world.

 Lock man, you do not need 6/7 tanks to keep a 60x30x30cm+ plastic tub to hand to set up a QT in a safe bit of floor when needed. Yes, I'm fortunate that I do not have kids to worry about when I set up my 80l plastic tub flike I did for my Halfbeaks at the weekend, but then I consider myself fortunate to not have to deal with the stress of kids.
 
I used to add new fish straight to main tanks, but then 11 months ago that choice appeared to come back to haunt me. I added 4 new Synodontis nigriventris to my 120x30x37cm existing group of 9 and within two weeks, I lost most of a community (6 reclusive nocturnal Synodontis decora youngsters; 1 Synodontis nigriventris;  Steatocranus "dad") to what appeared to be Ich and slime disease. Since then new fish only ever share a QT with new fish for at least 3 weeks, losing those poor catfish and my favourite ("dad") was heartbreaking, but at least his legacy lives on (as two of dad's final batch paired up and revealed ~25 of their own fry this last week).

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, that issue isn't even an issue here, as the OP clearly stated that they HAVE a QT, to which they moved the infected molly.
 
 
I also agree that the TANK is infected as much as the fish when it comes to ich, as much of the lifecycle of the parasite is while the parasite is NOT hosted by a fish - and the parasite can only be killed while not attached to a fish.  Its unlikely that this fish alone was infected and there was no trace of ich elsewhere in the tank.