Is this ICH?!?!

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Thank you!! I may pick that stuff up...

I wrapped a towel over the top of the tank and turned the heat up another notch so it sits over 88... I dont wanna bake my fish, but I'm scared the ich may be getting immune to the heat.

Just lettin you know, it will stain some of your decorations blue if you use it.
 
Last night I turned the heater up and this morning it was at 89. I'm going to leave it at this for the weekend and see how things work out. I'm going to do another water change today and hope for the best.
 
I've read that meds and high temps deplete water of oxygen so they shouldn't be used together.

Also I think the high temps just stop them reproducing and speed up the life cycle. If you had any thermonts they may be completing their life cycle.

Good Luck!
 
jlbfish said:
I've read that meds and high temps deplete water of oxygen so they shouldn't be used together.

Also I think the high temps just stop them reproducing and speed up the life cycle. If you had any thermonts they may be completing their life cycle.

Good Luck!

Yea I've heard the same, I haven't purchased any meds yet. I hope they complete their life cycles soon! I'm hoping the water change today gets anything left over and I should be clear very soon. Two weeks is too long!
 
Heat alone will get rid of it most of the time. If you are one of the unlucky ones that got the ich strand that isn't affected by heat, you need to be really careful about what meds you use. I think you said in a earlier post that you have a pleco. Being that it doesn't have scales it can be super sensitive to meds. Just make sure the stuff you use can be used with the fish you have.

I've successfully treated ich with just heat in the past. A lot of my plants were damaged, but they bounced back in time, you just need to be patient. After the last time, I decided I'm not putting another fish in my tank without QTing it first. It just makes everything a lot easier in the long run. With plants you can dip them to kill anything that may be on them. A bleach solution could be used, or some other methods. Poke around the forums and you'll find a few different ways to dip your plants. Good luck!
 
FishN00b83 said:
Heat alone will get rid of it most of the time. If you are one of the unlucky ones that got the ich strand that isn't affected by heat, you need to be really careful about what meds you use. I think you said in a earlier post that you have a pleco. Being that it doesn't have scales it can be super sensitive to meds. Just make sure the stuff you use can be used with the fish you have.

I've successfully treated ich with just heat in the past. A lot of my plants were damaged, but they bounced back in time, you just need to be patient. After the last time, I decided I'm not putting another fish in my tank without QTing it first. It just makes everything a lot easier in the long run. With plants you can dip them to kill anything that may be on them. A bleach solution could be used, or some other methods. Poke around the forums and you'll find a few different ways to dip your plants. Good luck!

I really hope the heat alone takes care of it. I do have a pleco and kuhli loaches so i was really hoping to not have to resort to meds.

My plants are definitely getting beat up, my swords leaves are turning brown and the water sprite is doing the same. I am DEF using a QT tank going forward.

Is 14 days very long for me to still be showing new spots? Or is that normal? From what I seen most people clear it out completely in two weeks and are done. Even if the spots disappear in the next couple days I still have another week to keep the temp up just to make sure.

Thank you so much for the advice, greatly appreciated!!
 
The timing is never exact. As long as you keep the heat 86 or higher and don't let it drop, eventually the parasites will die. Ich is one of those things that gets worse before it gets better, so if its no getting any worse you're making progress.

Plants for the most part bounce back like I said before, you just need to be patient. Make sure to pull off all leaves that are not green. Once a yellow, brown, or clear spot starts to show, its not going to get any better, so just yank it. When you do pull them off, get as close to the stem as possible, and it should start to grow new leaves.
 
It has lasted quite a long time already and in my opinion it wouldn't be wise to just continue with the heat treatment if it proves not to be working. If it doesn't clear up in the next week use the medication I used while slowly dropping the temperature back to normal in your tank. I also have a pleco and the treatment I reccommended is safe for them.
 
OK, so here's my update on this situation. I turned the heat up to 89 degrees on this past Saturday. I'm going on day four since I seen my last spot! (keeping my fingers crossed). My plants look terrible and ALOT have melted away and I'm pretty sure I seen my pleco give me the finger hahaha he does NOT look happy. The good news is no spots in four days.

I plan on keeping it up for probably 3 more days before I start lowering the temp. My temp has been high for a long time now so I really have to be careful when lowering it. I hope this thing is gone for good because it's been very frustrating!!
 
jlbfish said:
How's it going? Still staying clear of spots?

So far I haven't seen any spots on my barbs or cichlid but I had a bit of a scare yesterday. I can't tell for sure but it looked like one of my kuhlis may have had one, the problem is I don't see those guys enough to be able to tell. But I've been keeping up with the water changes every other day. Today is 6 days that I havent seen spots on the barbs. I think I have to keep it up 7 days or so from the last seen spot. So, I'm hoping the kuhli is fine and it was just a piece of sand or something.
 
JoeyGeeze said:
So far I haven't seen any spots on my barbs or cichlid but I had a bit of a scare yesterday. I can't tell for sure but it looked like one of my kuhlis may have had one, the problem is I don't see those guys enough to be able to tell. But I've been keeping up with the water changes every other day. Today is 6 days that I havent seen spots on the barbs. I think I have to keep it up 7 days or so from the last seen spot. So, I'm hoping the kuhli is fine and it was just a piece of sand or something.

Sounds promising! Fingers crossed!
 
I seen my kuhlis this morning during feeding time and it looks like one may still have Ich. I'm pretty much at a loss at this point. I've had the temperature raised for almost a month now. I haven't seen any spots on my barbs or cichlids in 7 days today, but now just that one kuhli loach. I don't think the heat treatment alone is working and I'm pretty close to losing my mind with this situation. I'm at 88/89 degrees in the tank, why this Ich is surviving is beyond me....

I don't know how well the kuhlis and my pleco would handle salt or chemicals, but im leaning towards buying some type of chemical treatment to knock this out for good. I seen kordon rid ich in the store but I don't want to stain any decorations, I have white holy rock and a few caves. Also I don't wanna destroy my plants either. Anything else on the market that people have experience with and definitely works? Thanks guys. I'm being pushed to my limit with this one!
 
I'm not sure about meds others may have more advice. If you use a staining med you can take your decor out. If it dries completely the ich should die.

I have no clue about the plants. :/.

Sorry it's not getting better. Are you sure what you are seeing is still ich and not something else?
 
Well, I'm not 100% positive that its still ich, but it definitely looks like it. The problem is that i have 6 kuhlis, and trying to see them all at once and check them real good is pretty difficult haha. They only come out for feeding time, and they wiggle around so much that I cant tell if its ich on him or something else. It could be debris, but I definitely seen a white spec or two this morning.

Im considering removing the big holy rock that I have in the tank for a few days and letting it dry out completely. The kuhlis live in that rock like a kuhli condo haha.
 
Im no where near an expert but I had a heat resistant ich problem with a clown loach a while ago, after messing around trying to get rid of it I finally managed it using Esha 2000 medication which got rid of it in three days and didn't affect my plec or filtration
 
I'm contemplating adding salt to my tank to rid the ich. I've read mixed reviews on it, but have also heard mixed reviews on medication. It's either that or raise the temperature to over 90 degrees, which seems extreme :/
 
Regarding adding salt... How much is the correct dosage? I'm reading a lot of different numbers online. Since I have plants and scaleless fish, is 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons ok? My tank is 46 gallons so would that mean 9 tablespoons of salt get added into my tank? That seems like a bit much.
 
Salt will help kill it. I was told to use 1 tbsp per gallon but I thought that was a bit much. I wouldn't raise the temp anymore. 86° is all u need
 
Ok I've decided to go with the salt method to rid my tank of ich. I've been reading nonstop about how to do this properly and will start it tonight. Please feel free to chime in on your thoughts.

I will use 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons (because of loaches and plants). I have a 46 gallon tank so I figure 4.5 tablespoons. I will add 1 tablespoon tonight (7pm) to see how things go and another tablespoon tomorrow morning (8am). I'll add the final 2.5 over the next 24 hours after that and be at full dosage wednesday morning. Does this sound OK?

My concern is I'm leaving Friday morning and will return Sunday morning. when should I do the water change to remove the salt from the tank? Is Friday too soon? Sorry if I confused anybody, just wanna finish this once and for all.
 
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