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I seem to have a reoccurring problem with lice (louce) in my tank. For the last three weeks I get rid of them then they come back 3 or 4 days later.
I have been treating the tank with Aquatronics Dyacide but I have been finding it more effective to remove the fish from the tank and put Potassium Permanganate on the lice and wipe it off.
The lice seem to come back after I feed my fish Hikari frozen tubifex worms.
Is it related?
What are the chances that lice could survive freezing?

The background – My tank has been set up since Christmas and was cycled for 2 weeks with some feeders. It is loaded with live plants that were bought before the fish were added. Then mid January the lice started showing up.
Water quality is amazingly clean, water changes every 7 days.

Am I totally off? Is there some better way to treat my tank?


Stephen

Since fish lice are capable of staying alive on fish that actually swim in sub zero water that is only kept liquid by friction in fast flowing rivers id say its probably not a good idea to assume that freezing will kill them. Try freeze dried tubifex instead to be sure, cos although the freezing wont kill them, the dehydration process sure will.

If you ever cant get a louse of a fish with meds, you can take the fish out of the tank and put a drop of paraffin on the louse, they usually drop off in seconds, but be careful not to burn the fishs gills or pollute the tankwater.

What may be happening is that the treatments may not be consistant enough, the lice will reproduce and the eggs have a variable hatching rate. Most meds will not kill the eggs, but only the adult lice.In theory if you can keep killing the adults before they get a chance to reproduce the infection will eventually wane, but if you cant find a treatment that kills the eggs the tank and all gear associated with it will have to be spotlessly cleaned and treated with a bleach or heated to steralize it.