sophiefishstuff wrote:
In message .com, Scat
writes

Hi there
Go here to learn more about Ich and its incubation periods:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php
Kim


thanks Kim;

I understand about the incubation periods of ich and I'd be happy to get
rid of it in a tank with no fish in it; however it's being sure that the
gouramis are genuinely clear (rather than visibly clear) that worries me...

Ich can hang out silently in the gills. The only sign is that if there
are a lot of parasites, the fish will gill harder than usual. I had an
infected SAE bring ich into a new tank this way - I saw the hard gilling
and couldn't figure out why. Next thing I knew, the cardinals I bought
at the same time had ich.

A week ich-free is usually considered safe. However if I had your rare
loaches, I'd wait for two weeks, watching to be sure the gouramis are
gilling normally the whole time. If you have no snails or inverts in
your main tank, you could add one dose of Aquarisol when you introduce
the gouramis. Aquarisol is a very mild copper treatment and is great
for preventing ich without being toxic or stressing fish.

Good luck!

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com