ICH and Molly Fry

[MPehl77]

I read the article posted here regarding Ich.....my problem is I have 1 6 week old platy fry, and 16 molly fry in my tank. Tonight while feeding I noticed my tetras are coated in white spots and my platies have just started with a few spots. Because I have tetras, I don't know if salt is a viable option for me. Is raising the temp. safe for the fry or should I move them to a separate tank, medicate the adult tank, and heat and salt the molly tank??

 

[Biosfear]

I always have Molly fry.... I've treated my aquarium for ich with them in it without any problems. I just do it very slowly!

 

[MPehl77]

But HOW did you treat the ich?? With the temperature raising and salt method? Or by medication?? And if I add salt, what about my tetras?

 

[Biosfear]

Hmmm guess I left that part out lol

I don't know much about the tetras but heres my stock list and treatment

75gal
Densely planted
5 adult female mollies with about 100 fry
6 corydora julii
1 common pleco
1 baby bristlenose pleco
1 peacock eel (I think.... I don't see him often, hope he's still in there)
2 nerite and 2 apple snails and tons of nuisance snails to feed the 6 assassins
2 flying foxes

I raise the temp from 74 to ~84 degrees over the course of a day... Then I use little foaming (alkaseltser) sp? Tabs. Wish I knew their name. I buy them at Petco and they work VERY well in my experiences. They're little, round, blue tablets that foam up in the water.

Anywho, I Only dose about 50-75% of what the instructions say and stretch it out over a whole day, dosing 10-20% at a time (the day after I raise the temp)

This is how I do it.... Some will likely disagree with my method BUUUT I haven't lost a fish to ICH yet, baby or adult

Wish I had the name of that product. I'll look it up and get back to you.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[MPehl77]

First of all, I already have mad respect for you because of your use of the word "Anywho"

I am headed to Petsmart tomorrow anyway, so I think I will pick up the tabs you are talking about....I did give the gravel a good cleaning and added a wee bit o salt. I'm glad I found someone who has experience with ICH AND fry.

Right now in the tank (a 30 gal) I have:
4 dalmatian molly (and their fry)
2 Sunburst Platy
5 Black Neon Tetra
1 Dwarf Gourami

 

[Mumma.of.two]

The fry will be fine with the heat only method. They will be much more sensitive to any medication. Raise it slowly up to 86-88F over a day or so
Increase aeration
Increase gravel vacs
Leave temp up for at least one week after last spot is seen.
Simple!

 

[MPehl77]

I increased my heat and the tank is up to 88 as of this evening. I added a bubble bar and the filter is on full power (usually is anyways). I vacuumed it completely last night and I am going to do it in the morning as well. The tetras are already looking better. I think I must have caught it fairly quickly, the mollys just have a couple spots. The fry are very active and they have no visible spots, but the fry themselves are not very visible lol Thanks for the advice. I think the heat/salt method is working really well.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

That's great

 

[Sake]

I am at the tail end of ich as we speak 4 more days till I start to cool off the water, what I wanted to add to this, is that it may get worse before it gets better. That kind of freaked me out! Basically you are speeding up the cycle so they may have a few more cysts on them in the next few days but don't panic, these people are great and helped me through it and I am sure they will do the same for you.

 

[MPehl77]

Sake you are totally right....they seemed to get better right away, and now one of my tetras in particular is coated in white spots!!! Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Sake]

Sake you are totally right....they seemed to get better right away, and now one of my tetras in particular is coated in white spots!!! Thanks for the heads up!

No problem, I kinda spazzed out when it happened to me, figured it would be nice to warn ya lol (btw I am ALWAYS right! Or at least that what I tell myself )

 

[MPehl77]

I have the same problem....it's a burden people like us have to bear ;-D

Did you have any fish that seem to be particularly affected by the ich?? I have 5 black tetras, they all have it, two pretty severely. Of my three mollies only one has a few spots on her tail...my gourami, fry, and platy have nothing. It's weird.

 

[Sake]

It hit my neon tetras and black neon tetras the worst. Ironically my loaches and cory didn't get it. O.O You'd think that being bottom dwellers, and the parasite falling into the sand they'd get it fairly easy? Or perhaps they had it, but since they are scaleless fish they didn't develope the cysts I dunno.

 

[Biosfear]

It hit my neon tetras and black neon tetras the worst. Ironically my loaches and cory didn't get it. O.O You'd think that being bottom dwellers, and the parasite falling into the sand they'd get it fairly easy? Or perhaps they had it, but since they are scaleless fish they didn't develope the cysts I dunno.

My corys have never been affected by it either... At least not visibly.

 

[MPehl77]

Is it normal for the ich to be everywhere?? I have a tetra that seems to be particularly affected...even has it on his eye.

 

[Biosfear]

Yea it gets pretty much everywhere... Nothing is safe. Not even eyeballs!!

 

[MPehl77]

They seem to be on the upswing today...today the white spots aren't so noticeable and their scales almost look like a funk is coming off them. They are active and eating so hopefully thats a good sign.