Advice? Ich

Please remember this is purely an opinion, I have no scientific background in this stuff.
My limited experience with Ich has been that 'curing' it is a bit of a misnomer. You can put it in check but certain fish (like many tangs for example) will often continue to carry it.
You can look at that story two ways I guess. Some people would tell you that you should assume all fish to be carriers and QT accordingly which would support your concept of getting a fish that clearly has it, treating it aggressively and then considering yourself to have gotten a deal.
That option of course has many risks. Can you keep the fish from dying? Do you have ample QT measures for the 6 week cycle to rid of ich? That's a lot of water changes, chemicals, and monitoring. And even then would the discount you got be any savings in long run?
The other way to approach it is of course to simply buy properly cared for, QT fish from a reputable dealer and take a safer (read: less risky) route when adding anything new. That said, any new addition still causes stress in the system which is a prime clinical indicator for a flare up in any fish carrying latent ich.
No clear answer. I guess it comes down to, how bad do you want that fish? What's your plan to keep it and others healthy, and what's your risk tolerance?

Looking at my own words, I realize I am probably of no help here......lol.

 

If u already have a quarantine setup going, I would try it. I acquired 2 fish a while back that were pretty unhealthy. It took me about 2 months but they completely turned around. It is all about the passion u have for the hobby and for me, I like the challenge of nursing unhealthy things back to normal.

 

In reference to petco Ive been told by them they dont sell/discount sick fish. I had been wanting a black snowflake and they had one. But all it would do was lay on the bottom. I thought the same get it discounted and see if I could save it. I asked one of the workers and the lady got a attitude and said "we dont sell sick fish". I felt like say so you just let them die. I mentioned it to another worker and they moved it to a different tank. I went back the next day and it was swimming around more so I went ahead and got it. Turns out it was just its personality, it lays in the sand sometimes, most of the time after it eats. Ive also had other fish get ich, treated and still lost the fish. So I dont think ich is always curable.

 

Here are my thoughts.

Ich has been proven to be 100% curable. I don't believe that fish always carry it.

If you save a fish from petco, you enable them to order and kill more. They don't care if they sell it at a discount as it is still probably profitable for them. The only way for them to learn and change is to let the fish die so they will eat the cost.

 

Giving two cents on my experience.

Purchased 4 lyretail anthias with Ick. Two made it pass QT. Been living in my display over 2 years.
Purchased 1 Hibbo with Ick and some kind of fungis. Got him past the ick stage and started to eat healthy. Randomly one day dead.
Purchased two clowns with Ick. Bigger female made it past QT.
Purchased two Royal Gramma, both with Ick. 1 Made it past QT.
List goes on... I love the fish and hate to see them suffer. Personally if I see the value in the risk to save the little guys I give it a shot. So far right around 50% success rate. Seems with every attempt I get stumpt on what is that, what is this kind of deal and have to do hours or days of research to find a cure. I have so much medication I could drown a horse....