Ich attack, 37 gallon tank under seige.

[MattAquaBio]

Alright, this morning i noticed one of my zebra danios had some spots on his tail. Upon closer inspection, his back fin is ichified (for lack of a better word). I looked around the rest of the tank really closely at my itty bitty tetras, which seem to have ich (which probably means they are goners b/c they are so delicate, but hopefully not) and two of the sunbursts have it to.
Rather than panic i started raising the temperature and took out the carbon from my filter and put some ich treatment in the water. Then added a little salt (2 tbsp). And then it struck me that just last night i put in two of hte plecos from that tank into my 55 gallon tank.
so oh @#$%.
What do i do about the other tank? I dont know if its contaminated and i cant get a good look at the plecos from their caves to see fi they have it. And i really dont want to wait around just to find out.
Suggestions?

 

[Devilishturtles]

It's possible. What fish are in the 55 gallon? Is doing the heat treatment in there possible? It would never hurt to elevate temperature for 1-2 weeks just as a precaution.

Just my opinion.

 

[MattAquaBio]

2 angels, a raphael catfish (temporarily, for lack of a better place) and a 2'' pleco.
I have rasied the temperature to 84 degrees and they are all happy so far.

 

[rich311k]

I agree with DT raise the temp over 86 to eliminate any possibility of infection in the tank.

 

[moose9]

you said you used some ich treatment, from what ive heard do not use it with plecos,

 

[MattAquaBio]

Yes, i used it in my 37 gallon, my 37 doesnt have any plecos in it, they are in my 55 (which is the reason i'm worried about ich in my 55) i put them in there before i found the ich on the zebra danio.
They are more susceptable because they dont have scales right?

 

[hc8719]

supposibly, you are suppose to cover up the tank with a cloth, keep it dark, in theory it works well with the heated water, and high salt method, i know its not a popular method but try also

 

[SCFatz]

87 degrees is the key here....getting close but not quite there will have the oppisite effect and cause the ich cycle to happen faster,thus spreading faster.

I've cured ich in both my tanks with just heat.No salt are darkening of the tanks were needed (I've only heard of black outs for algae fwiw)

Keep in mind that my original heaters in each would not get me there and I had to step up the wattage in each (buy new heaters) to reach the target temp.

The heat will bust the ich though..Have no doubt.

 

[Zagz]

Don't use salt with the raphael catfish. Heat will work fine. I don't do blackouts either for ich.

 

[MattAquaBio]

Great, woke up this morning, my entire school of neon tetras were dead. I expected it becasue of how delicate they are. But it still sucks. THe rest of the fish look pretty okay.
I just did a water change. Parameters also look fine.
I do have a problem however with murky water. Its really murky. I took the carbon out of the filter yesterday so its just taking the debri out but isnt polishing the water. Any suggestions?

 

[MattAquaBio]

Update:
Well my tank is officially clear of ick, i'm leaving the temperature up for the next two weeks though. Unfortunatly the ick medication killed my school of neons and my betta. Other than that my fish are okay. I know it was the ick medication because from the minute i introduced it they started acting funny. My long finned zebra danio which was the first one to get ich, and was covered in it by the time the temperature started kicking, is fully healthy again, not a spot to be seen, he no longer has the shimmies and is swimming around like nothing ever happened. The sunbursts are finally sticking their dorsal fins back up, and it looks an awful lot like they are mating. Kind of odd so soon after an illness but hey, why not lol.
Yay my tank is happy again lol.

 

[joannde]

Matt - glad it worked out for you. You're right to keep the heat up for 2 more weeks. I'm on my second ich battle right now so I have about 3 wks of high temps ahead of me.
Good work !

 

[MattAquaBio]

Thanks ^^, good luck with your battle.