ich

[confusion]

I'm battling ich right now in a 55G tank. I've had the temp at 89F for over a week now, and the ich is in it's 3rd cycle. I've added 6 TBSP of salt and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. I'm starting to notice some ragged fins and whatnot - I think the temp and/or salt is taking a toll on my serpae tetras.

I'm planning on backing off the temp tonight and falling back to coppersafe. I have 19 swordtail fry that are about 2 months old, 5 black molly fry that are about 1 week old, 7 zebra danios, 5 serpae tetras, 5 black neons and 2 plecos. Anyone see a problem with that plan? I have 2 ivory snails that I'm going to re-home for a while during the treatment.

 

[imrandome1]

Hey ya, keep the tank heat up, my tetra's are usually at a temp of 90f this is long term, cant get the dang heat down, they should be fine, its the salt that might be making them unhappy, if you lower the heat, the ich will come back, in my experience they dont mind at all, they are happy at a temp of 96-98f well my tetra's are. keep it around 89-90 and wait 2 weeks from after the last spot has gone before reducing the heat. HTH

 

[confusion]

I guess my concern is that the heat isn't helping...

I first noticed it about a week ago. There were 4 fish that had one spot each. I started raising the temp then to 89F. The ich all fell off and I thought I was good to go. I woke up on Tuesday and about 6 fish had an average of about 5 spots each on them. I'm concerned that they're going to drop again, then I'll have hundreds or thousands of spots, as the heat hasn't seemed to have an effect on the ich lifecycle, other than to speed it up.

 

[imrandome1]

It will help and kill it, but perhaps the heat is dropping in the night?, to around 86, and at that temp it will spread like crazy, it dose best at that temp, so make sure the tank is at 89 perhaps 90-91 to be safe, 24 hours a day, and make sure all the tank is at that temp, for example if there is a place in the tank with little or no current then it will cool, and once again it will spread at start again, so...1) make sure the temp is 89-91 24/7 and 2) make sure all the tank is at that temp HTH

 

[joannde]

I'd suggest getting a second therometer just in case the one you're using isn't registering correctly.

BTW, there seems to be some debate about whether you can return a snail to a tank that ever had copper in it. The main concern seems to be with it binding to the substrate and decor and never really leaving. I can't validate this but thought you might want to look into it further. There's a few threads on www.applesnail.net that I found on the subject. Go to discussions (on the left) then do a search on copper.

I still believe that the heat treatment will work - I'm on my third battle with ick myself. It seems to get reintroduced every time I add new fish !

 

[Jchillin]

You do not need coppersafe, the heat method works and here is why:

I've had the temp at 89F for over a week now, and the ich is in it's 3rd cycle.

Yes, and when you first observed the ich, you had some that was in first stage and others that were in second stage. When the last signs of ich are gone from the fish, you need to keep the temp up for at least two additional weeks. This is to get rid of all the ich in all of it's stages. Three to four weeks in not uncommon.

 

[Zagz]

I definately second what JC says. 3-4 weeks is common and even longer can happen, although not as common. I had a bad case of ich that took 7 weeks start to finish. Be patient, the heat will work. It always gets worse before it gets better. I would not use the coppersafe myself.

 

[confusion]

i would definitely like to stay away from meds. I have a 1 week old black molly fry that has an ich dot square on its head. It just mad me pretty mad and want to take more drastic measures.

I added another tbsp of salt - now at 7tbsp for the 55G. I think I ultimately want to be at 11, for the 2TBSP per 10G level.

I don't believe I have any deadspots in the tank. I have 2 biowheel 350's and a rena xp3 with the discharge in-between the two bio wheel discharges. There's a good bit of water movement in there.

I have an outside, on-the glass strip thermometer that is reading 86F, which accounting for the lower ambient temperature and insulating properties of the glass, is probably about right. I've moved the glass floating thermometer to several places over the past week to make sure I was gettign a consistant reading. I get up at 4am everyday, and the temp is the same when I get home at 6 in the evening, so I'm confident that the heating is consistant. I'm hestitant to bump the temp up any higher. The fish are already on "fast forward" with the temp where it is.

Speaking of that, the increased temp does speed the metabolism of fish (my swordtail fry have grown about 1/8" in the past week on average), and the danios have been trying (and sometimes succeeding) at getting into my breeder box with the molly fry for a fish stick dinner. Should I be feeding them more than normal while they are cooking?

 

[rich311k]

Yes fish grow, eat and live faster with the temp raised, but the few weeks you have it elevated will not adversally effect them.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I had ick once that didn't want to go away at 89 degrees. But after raising it to 92-93 degrees, it slowly disappeared and went away for good.

 

[joannde]

LWB , when you say it didn't go away do you mean you kept seeing spots or it kept reoccuring after the temp was lowered ?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

At 89 degrees, the ick just kept getting more and more. It was on my yoyo loach. Didn't start to disappear til I raised the temp and added a lot of surface aggitation.

 

[confusion]

I've read that at >=90F, sterilization of the fish can occur. Is it safe to go to 90 or 91?

 

[rich311k]

I would not go that high unless you have gone for quite a period and the ich wont quit. 87-88 should be plenty. Keep your water well aireated at those kinds of temps.

 

[confusion]

I have a 1 foot bubble wand at the bottom of the tank throwing off quite a lot of bubbles, in addition to the two biowheel filters, plus it's moderately planted, so I should be ok on o2 for the fish.