After getting home from picking up the most sought after fish food in town - I'm not sure. The seller of the food suggests I take him back out of QT and simply feed the tank with his food.
Salinity still isn't down to 1.010 yet but he looks great. I can only assume this means that at least the majority of the parasites have now falling off of him and are on the bottom of the tank. I don't think him looking better has anything to do with the salinity at this point. I think it was just the timing of things in correlation with the parasitic life cycle. But it does lead me to another decision point.
I KNOW - most would advise to simply leave him in QT and continue with the full hypo treatment BUT........
I believe it is pretty well known that the parasite can not infect a healthy fish. It simply can not burrow through the protective film of a healthy fish. This is why some will say to simply leave the fish in the tank and overfeed. This is an attempt to build up their immune system.
I'm not sure if anyone has thought of this one yet (simply because I've never read it) but it seems to me that if you have a fish in QT for ich and it gets to the point of looking good that it simply means the parasites have left the fish. That means they are on the bottom of the tank going into their own next phase. Wouldn't this be a good time to remove the fish and thoroughly clean the QT and then replace the fish in QT? I would think that you would get rid of hundreds if not thousands of the parasites before they reemerge (sp) into the water column looking for another host.
OR - this might also be a good time to simply remove the fish and put him back into the display and overfeed to build up their immune system.
OK - call me crazy (It won't be the first time).
THE FOOD:
There is another current thread on home made fish food recipes but since I'm making it relevant to this thread - I guess it's going here.
The guy that makes this food is a regular Joe Blow Reef Addict with a normal 9-5 job. This isn't sold in any store or anything but all the local reefers clammer to buy it when he makes it. His recipe really isn't secret because you can't make it yourself at the cost you can buy it from him for because he buys things in bulk, etc.
I have no doubt that the stuff is good. I've been reading posts raving about his food for quite some time already. I finally got in on the deal today.
His food is (for the most part) hand chopped but some in put through a blender.
Main item is Shrimp - about 80%. WILD Shrimp. The everyday farm raised stuff will contain nitrates. He buys 50 lbs of shrimp when he makes this stuff. He says that will make two batches of his recipe.
Add to the Wild Shrimp:
Clams
Mussels
Scallops
Lobster
Spirulina - Dried from Hawaii
Fresh Garlic
Fresh Aloe Vera
Cyclopeez
Selcon
Multi-Vitamins (Sold for fish - Not a mult-vit from the bathroom cabinet)
Mixed and frozen in flat sheets. No need to thaw and rinse it's all clean stuff. Has bits of pieces of multiple sizes to feed everything imaginable in your tank.
(Little does he know that I will be testing the juices from it once all my back ordered regeants arrive for my Hanna meter
)
He sells a 7 oz flat pack for $10 and says it costs him $7 worth of ingredients to make it.
That's a lot of immune boosting power.
I'll make a decision on whether to let the QT go as is, Clean the QT and continue with it or put the fish back in the main display sometime tomorrow.