Some of you guys are stating myths and rumors, not facts. And this is not beneficial to the person seeking advise. I had ich once and was extremely frustrated with the conflicted accounts given by different people. After having and treating ich for 8 weeks after extensive research and finally resulted in
success, I believe I'm in a position to state the facts and I can back them up.
1. Ich always comes from something wet that you add; not just fish. Although the parasites only host on fish, their eggs and cysts are free-swimming and can be attached to anything that's wet because they are microsopic. In this case, probably in the moisture of your chaeto.
2. Getting another fish to treat a fish with parasite is the worst idea. It's like getting a human to come into contact with another human to treat chick pox. It wastes money and it may backfire. The treating fish themselves can become a victim of ich.
3. It is possible to have an ich-free tank. Read more in the links below.
4. The only sure way to get rid of ich is to take all your fish out of your DT, leave it fallow w/ no fish for 6-8 weeks, while going hypo or using copper to treat the fish in a separate tank. Sorry, there is no other way if you want to do this right.
5. Hypo and copper are so far the only proven methods of killing ich. But they should not be used together. I chose to use hypo because it's the more "natural" way of the two.
6. Do lots of research and read. If you think you know everything about ich, read again.
7. It may not be practical or financially feasible for some people to remove all the fish and set up a separate tank. That's fine. You can let nature take its course and the fish might live on for a few months. But it will always come back and when you sell your fish to someone else you may pass on the parasite. That person might not be as lucky as you.
8. It goes without saying this applies to corals as well. Not QTing anything wet is like playing Russian Roulette with your tank.
I went through 8 weeks of no fish because my favorite fish are tangs and I had to do it right. And they are expensive as sh!t so there is another reason for doing it right.
Read the following links if you wish to learn more about ich.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php
http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/blank/blichcycle.htm
http://joejaworski.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/the-marine-ich-epidemic/ (MUST READ!!!!)
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm
