Adcisco, I share your pain - and call it quits too

[jhd]

also not totally.
I am in 10th day of heat treatment for ich and my THIRD bach of white spots just showed up on my two sick pearl gouramis.
Funny, clown loaches are not affected.
So, I gave up and poured in a half a dose of nox ich.
But I am keeping the temp up. I have maybe 6 to 8 spots.
What can I say, I did not expect it to show up again after such a long heat exposure.
I wonder if there are more than one variation of ich, you know, like ick and ich, one more heat resistant than the other...
I do not know any more.

 

[Barney]

What is your temp? Maybe it is not at a constant exact temp. to rid the ick. You should be seeing die offs by now, so If I am right, that is prolly your 3rd batch showing up. I had a tank full if ick, including my clowns once and it took almost a month to eliminate because they are what I would like to call them "another type of parasite"...

 

[jhd]

88 F on the dot. Can't get any higher anyway.
I added nox ich and 2 hrs later fish is almost clear. I saw the white burst and white mucous hanging for a few minutes from the gourami. Than the mucous got separated. But I will keep temp up for at least 5 more days plus 3 more times of half a dose of nox ich, one every day.

 

[Barney]

what kind of filter? if you use one of the cartridge ones, they have the charcoal that is going to take the medicine out of the water...

 

[PlatyLady]

Are you sure that your temperature readings are accurate? I have two thermometers for both of my tanks, and when I'm treating ich with heat, I make sure that they both read over 86 degrees. (They always differ by a couple of degrees).

Also, I just finished treating ich about 2 weeks ago, and I used the heat treatment. I had my doubts, but it does work. I was probably at about 90 degrees, but it worked!

Good luck.

 

[Barney]

True.. 2 heaters do better than one...

 

[William]

It worked for me to.


I also had my tank in the neighborhood of 90degrees.

 

[tkos]

Make sure to keep treating the tank for up to 4 weeks after the last signs of ich. Ich has a life cycle and the bit you see is only part of it. You have to wait for the remaining ich spores or eggs to hatch and then get killed. The raised temp is used to speed up the ichs life cycle but you still need something to kill it. That is why heat and salt are supposed to be used together. But the med will do the trick as well.

 

[Allivymar]

Actually, the ich life cycle depends on the temps. Its around 4 days at 75F, 5 weeks at lower then 45F. Generally ich cannot survive at temps over 86F as it cannot reproduce properly, which is why the high temp treatment is usually successful. That being said, there is a rare strain that does not succumb to high temps, and that may be whats happened in your tank jhd.

And just to double be sure, have you double checked the temps with a thermometer? Or just going by the heater setting?

 

[jhd]

Oh no, I am much more accurate than just the heater setting.
Inside (in the water) thermometer shows 88, I have another one that I use on occasion, that one is used to verify the other so I have two showing the same temp.
I do not run carbon in the filters, I take it out, I have penguin 330.
I have also external thermometer, stripe on the glass. This one is useless on high differential temperature between room and tank. I am going to throw it away and never buy it again. It shows 84 F, but, I do not go by this one. Too much of cooling down from the cooler room temperature makes inaccurate reading..
I also have lights on all the time, it does not allow the heat to escape through the top, it brought up the temp in tank by 2 deg F, believe it or not.
This is why I suggested to Adcisco to keep the light on.
Well, wish me luck. This morning fish was clear, fins extended. Good sign
By the way, should I cut back on feeding or give regular doses? They want to eat like crazy.

 

[Fishy]

JHD ... I am in the same boat as you. I have been keeping my temp at 88 degrees for a week now and the ick on the one fish does not seem to be going away (but it doesn't seem to be spreading either to other fish). I am thinking about treating with meds. Is the meds that you used the brand name on it Nox? I am going to be heading to the fish store today. Hope your treatment works.

 

[jhd]

Nox Ich.
1 drop per gallon or half of that if you have loaches.
I heard rid ich + is ok too.
I do not like meds, but what can I do.

 

[Barney]

be warned that clown loaches are scaleless and some ick medicine do more harm on the loaches.

 

[dralarms]

My last ick outbreak had 1 of my Serpae Tetra's covered head to tail, it stayed like that for 10 days I think, then it started falling off and that happened fast. I did use wardleys "ick away" in conjunction with the heat. I did take my snails out but left the plants (didn't hurt them). HTH

 

[Fruitbat]

I'll toss in my two cents worth here too. The med that I've had most success with is called Aquari-Sol. It is a copper sulfate-based medication so it is not something you want to use if you have invertebrates in your tank and I also would not use it for an extended period of time (more than a week or so) because of its potential toxicity to your fish.

That being said, however, I've had a lot of luck using Aquari-Sol at half the recommended strength in conjunction with the heat treatment. Doesn't seem to affect my loaches any more than the other fish either.