fish report 7

Well, things seem to be at an impasse and I am not sure which way to go. I have not seen ich spots reappear on fish for 10 days, but in the past several days occasionally see fish flashing- it's not a constant behavior though, they do it for a little while and then I don't see it again all day. I'm gradually bringing the temperature down and doing serious gravel vac to try and removing any remaining ich. If I don't see any more symptoms in the next week, I'll assume it's gone? but if I do, going to try medication. Which means I'd have to pull out the snails, at least as many as I can.

In the QT my cherry is hanging on, but not improving yet. Her tail is the same short length, still ragged edge, not much fuzz. I've quit treating with melafix and salt, continuing the twice daily water changes to remove it- in case I have to put snails in here. Lots of people say frequent fresh water is all a fish needs to heal anyways.

So then I have a quandry- who is more important to save, the fish which are more personable but I don't really want to keep the barbs in particular, or the snails which are not so interesting to me, but important to the health of my tank and favorites of my kids? If I put snails into QT with the cherry barb and they're carrying ich, and she becomes a host, someone will carry it right back into the main tank again. Or I could move the cherry back home and let her take her chances. Or just put her out of her misery. If the snails do go into QT they'd have to stay long enough without a fish host, for the possible ich on them to die out, before I bring them back to home tank.... so I guess the barb would have to be out of there anyways....

Positive note: I did a large water change on the main tank today, put fresh water in without salt, to start removing it. I think the kuhlis appreciated that, I saw their little faces poking out of their hideout under the log, they were wiggling around in there. Also the bitten platy's tail seems to be clean, at least. No signs of fin rot or fungus developing there yet.