Help treating ich

[ecarbon03]

I'm fairly new to fish keeping - just a couple of months in and I recently discovered a bunch of white spots on one of my fish which my LFS told me was ich. My tank is cycled and I do weekly water changes but lost 7 fish in the last 2 weeks. I bought 3 green tiger barbs and 2 died within 2 days of having them and the third ended up with white spots so I took him out of the tank and it eventually died. I turned up the heat and did a 50% water change to be on the safe side however I've lost 4 fish over the last few days. I didn't notice any spots on them but could they have died from the ich? I tested my water and brought to the LFS to be tested here are the readings:
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5
Ph 7.4

I thought they may have died because of my water but the man at the fish store told me it's most likely ich so I bought pay super liquid ich cure - is this helpful? As I said I'm fairly new to this and any insight would be helpful. Thank you.

 

[jlk]

Welcome to AA!!!!

I am sorry your having a bit of a bump in the road here on your new adventure. Can you tell us a bit more on how you have treated ich so far?

Temp (86-88f) is usually sufficient to treat but it needs to be turned up very gradually and extra aeration is also necessary as warmer water holds less oxygen. Water changes should be very frequent along with good gravel vacs. It also takes time to treat via the heat method and it will not be cured quickly. Salinity can also be increased gradually if all your fish are salt tolerant.

Did you quarantine the new fish for a couple of weeks before adding them to your main tank? Qt is the best preventative available and it's also the most cost efficient over the long haul. Please do not hesitate to ask questions!

 

[AquariumBot3000]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Ich is definitely best caught treating as early as detected.

I recently had an ich outbreak. I treated it by cranking up my heater as far as it would go and putting 20 tablespoons of salt in my 55 gallon aquarium (or 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons approximately). It worked like a charm.

What cranking the heater up does is shortens the life cycle of the parasite. Ich has three stages. Im no expert but its something like:
1. Infecting the fish and having visible white spots on it. This is where you notice it, ich may have been present prior to this but this is where you detect it. What the ich is doing is feeding off the tissue of the fish.
2. Ich drops off and falls to the substrate.
3. Ich spreads by exploding in a thousand (insert scientific term for it here) and the thousand little buggers look for new fish.

Ich is highly intolerant to salt and after the ich falls off the fish, it becomes vulnerable to salt in either the 2nd stage or the 3rd, i cant remember. Thats where the salt kills it.

Anyone may correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no scientist and my brain is allergic to big words.

It worked for me, it may not work for you, who knows. How many fish do you have left? Are they severly infected? A few spots here and there? Or hundreds of them? For a more severe infection, medication may be more appropriate.

 

[The Trooper]

If you are medicating make sure that you have removed any carbon from the filter. If i ever get an Ich outbreak i will treat using heat, w/cs and vaccuming. I will only use meds as a LAST resort as i don't want to introduce any chemicals to my tank, and i have corys so salt is not a good idea.

 

[AquariumBot3000]

I have 5 cory's as well, they may not like it but they are doing just fine now. Maybe I just got lucky I guess but I'd rather stress the cory's a little bit and get rid of the ich than not treat it enough and lose everything. I see why you wouldn't want to use salt though.

 

[ecarbon03]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Ich is definitely best caught treating as early as detected.

I recently had an ich outbreak. I treated it by cranking up my heater as far as it would go and putting 20 tablespoons of salt in my 55 gallon aquarium (or 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons approximately). It worked like a charm.

What cranking the heater up does is shortens the life cycle of the parasite. Ich has three stages. Im no expert but its something like:
1. Infecting the fish and having visible white spots on it. This is where you notice it, ich may have been present prior to this but this is where you detect it. What the ich is doing is feeding off the tissue of the fish.
2. Ich drops off and falls to the substrate.
3. Ich spreads by exploding in a thousand (insert scientific term for it here) and the thousand little buggers look for new fish.

Ich is highly intolerant to salt and after the ich falls off the fish, it becomes vulnerable to salt in either the 2nd stage or the 3rd, i cant remember. Thats where the salt kills it.

Anyone may correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no scientist and my brain is allergic to big words.

It worked for me, it may not work for you, who knows. How many fish do you have left? Are they severly infected? A few spots here and there? Or hundreds of them? For a more severe infection, medication may be more appropriate.

Thanks for your help. I have 10 fish left. I notice only a few white spots on a couple of them. I assume that even though the spots aren't present the fish can still be infected by it? How long do I keep the tank temp cranked up to 82? Just until I notice the spots gone from all the fish? Also any idea where this comes from or the best way to avoid this going forward? Thank you again

 

[molliwopp]

Welcome to AA!!!!

I am sorry your having a bit of a bump in the road here on your new adventure. Can you tell us a bit more on how you have treated ich so far?

Temp (86-88f) is usually sufficient to treat but it needs to be turned up very gradually and extra aeration is also necessary as warmer water holds less oxygen. Water changes should be very frequent along with good gravel vacs. It also takes time to treat via the heat method and it will not be cured quickly. Salinity can also be increased gradually if all your fish are salt tolerant.

Did you quarantine the new fish for a couple of weeks before adding them to your main tank? Qt is the best preventative available and it's also the most cost efficient over the long haul. Please do not hesitate to ask questions!

+1 good advice here.

I would like to add that the parasite ich itself shouldnt have been able to kill off 7 of your fish unless severly weaked by something else in my opinion. Cases of ich killing fish on its own arnt heard of very often so there could be another secondary underlying problem that caused this.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/you can even use your browser!

 

[AquariumBot3000]

You are correct. The parasite can be present in the tank after the ich is visibly gone. Some articles say continue treatment for 5 days, some 10 days, some 14 days. Most recommended temperatures say to go anywhere from 82 to 86 or higher. I do know that the lower your temp, the longer you should treat so for you I would treat for no less than two weeks.

You want to do it right the first time and make sure to be patient.

Some preventative measures to prevent ich is to help reduce stress of the fish. When fish are stress, they become more susceptible to infection and parasites. There are a million reasons fish can be stressed. I know mine were stressed due to their initial introduction to the tank and not properly quarantining. I would suggest getting a quarantine tank and cycling it prior to your next fish purchase.

In my short time here I've learned that the more research you do prior to doing something with your tank, the more trouble you save yourself in the long run. I've learned the hard way and I think we all do to some extent.

Anywho, happy new year.