Ich and Inverts... the final solution?

[majorpay]

My hospital tank has been setup to begin treatment on my dog faced puffer and flame angelfish, but the question still remains... what becomes of the inverts in the display tank? Will the live rock, coral substrate, snails, and urchin keep the ich alive during the weeks to follow while the tank is fish free, or are these not acceptable hosts for these parasites?

I am thinking about removing and reacclimating the mollys to my fresh water tank, or permanently moving them to the medical tank.

Is a 10 gallon tank good enough for my medical tank?

[majorpay]

Just saw the information about the QT... looks like I need 5 gallons per 1" of fish... Now while the puffer is pretty tiny, the flame angel is full grown. I guess that answers one question...

[leebca]

The parasite only lives on fish. When the tank is fishless, even though there are inverts present, the parasite will die off within about 8 weeks. Leave fishless for no less than 8 weeks.

[majorpay]

Update...

Well, the main tank is being hyposalinated and the holding tank is storing live rock and invertebrates. The main tank was so infected, that I felt this was the necessary course of action. Both fish look like they have quite a few less ich spots already, and I gave the puffer a FW dip last night. The flame angel seems ok, and swims around the tank normally during the day; HOWEVER, the dog faced puffer seems to spend most of his time hiding in the rocks... Maybe it's just me, but it looks sad... He only comes out at feeding time, and tends to pull the food in his mouth, then spit it out, or spends time chasing the little pieces of krill I put in, but doesn't show an active interest for very long.

I am going to continue treating this tank and the salinity is currently at 1.016. Still too high, but it is a gradual drop using a 10 gallon water change ever 12 hours or so. I figure tomorrow night I will be at 1.01.

So far, everything has survived this mess, but I still feel like I am crossing my fingers on this one. My biggest concern right now is the puffer...