Snail question in regards to Ick

I am not all that familiar with Ick and snails etc in a home aquarium, but a friend has a betta which appears to have some ick. She also has a nice large snail in the tank with the betta. Just the snail and betta is in this tank. So she removed the snail as the directions on the medication she used for the ICK said it is harmfull to snails and plants. She has the snail in a container of water, but according to directions (coppersafe by Mardel) it says its good for up to 1 month time. So her question is can she place this snail that was in with a betta with Ick into another aquarium with fish that she has or can the snail carry ICK into this other tank.

She is just looking for a way to keep this snail for another 3 weeks or so.

Hi, Roy! I know that .sig from rec.ponds where I'm usually clueless. *waves*

Unfortunately, your friend's snail could have ich parasite cysts attached to its shell. However, after being in a container alone for a while the snail can go into another tank because the parasites will have hatched and died without any fish. At room temp I would give 10 days alone; at tropical temps above 76 F, only a week. The snail should be OK with some romaine lettuce or fish food to eat and frequent water changes. From your post it looks like it's been close to a week so there's only a few more days to go.

Before I put the snail back in the betta's tank, I'd be doubly sure the copper is gone. I'd do a couple of very large water changes and then filter over fresh high-quality carbon. That way the snail will definately not be exposed to any copper.

I hate copper. I have had 0 luck with copper.

I used WS3 recently to kill white spot (Ich).

Seems not to kill my golden apple snails, CJ or rock mountain Shrimp or my Dwarf African Frogs. . It did kill my Clown Pleco and Spotted Congo Puffer though!

Put a large slab of Poly-Filter foam in your tank to remove all traces of Copper. Tiny amounts kill.