Ich Problem!!!!! UPDATE (still need help)!!!

[jmon22321]

Ok in my 90 gallon I currently have 4 pictus catfish (3 now), a lima shovelnose cat, an african frog, and a gold striped knifefish (ghost).

I started treatment with Nox-Ich 2 days ago, and thought everything was going to be ok, but today I noticed 1 pictus dead, and the other 3 laying still breathing heavily, all 3 covered with ich. The knife has noticible ich, but seems to be doing ok. Shovel seems ok, no signs (shedding might have something to do with this???). I don't even know if the frog can get ich (he is fine). With the pictus on the edge of death, I realize i need to do more. Beginning now I am going to raise the temperature to 86 (1 degree about every 8 hours), and continue to use the medicine.

Is this enough??? Am I doing everything I can??

 

[kagentx]

siphoning the gravel or the bottom of the tank might help get rid of some ich that might have fallen down there. As i recall, someone told me ich lay eggs and falls onto the bottom, cleanin the bottom of the tank can help getting rid of them. By doing that you can always keep the water clean in further improve the health of your fish. When curing Ick or Ich (is there a difference? i know its white dots) people always recommended "quick cure" or Mardel brands. The temperature will sure help fight the ich but becareful not to go beyond your fish's limit or its going to backfire.

 

[Jchillin]

Have you read this article?

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=32

By far, the heat/salt method is recommended (I've used it in the past with great results). If you have an established tank, gently vacuum the gravel as you don't want to eliminate the nitrifying bacteria that is present there.

Good luck

 

[An t-iasg]

Look over the article that Jchillin linked -- it recommends to get the water temperature over 86 degrees. I'd go for 87 degrees, while watching to make sure no fish are getting stressed. While you use the heat treatment, I wouldn't use any medicine at the same time. The raised heat, plus the med, could be a stressful combination.

Also, as you read the article, it says that the meds are only effective when the parasite is in the free-swimming stage. I would do a water change of about 20-25% each day to eliminate the ich in the free-swimming stage. Gently vaccumm the gravel, as others have suggested, to remove some of the parasite that has fallen to the bottom in its cyst stage.

Higher water temperatures can mean less dissolved oxygen in the water. Try lowering your water level slightly so that the filter makes more of a "splash" or surface agitation. More surface water movement will get some more oxygen into the water. Good luck!

 

[jmon22321]

Well everything in the tank was dead by the 23rd besides the frog. I'm convinced by now he can't catch ich. I know the ich will die away by itself in about 3 days. But even though the frog doesn't catch it, can he be a host for the ich, even though it does not affect him?? (in other words the ich wont go away by itself, and I'll need to do other things??)

THANKS

 

[mooncrow]

Sorry about your fish

I am a complete "novice" but I had to deal with Ich right off the bat - I did everything right -- set up tank, waited 2 weeks, added 3 Orandas - The fish came from PetSmart - and less than a week later --- keep in mind my tank had not cycled yet --- my lovely Aberfeldy had salt-like grains on his tail - well, I went online and did some research - did the salt treatment since good bacteria were not established yet - raised temp to 80 - increased aeration - and Ich disappeared in two days - It's two weeks later, and I'm keeping the salt treatment going for another week - but have inched temp down to 78; also keep lot's of "Stress-Coat" in water changes and have "gently" vacuumed gravel; I am still waiting for my tank to cycle and am doing 1/3 tank water change almost daily because of Nitrite levels; ammonia is still present but not as high - as a matter of note, one of my Orandas had a stubby tail and I thought it was supposed to be that way since it wasn't ragged, but guess what? Her tail is growing and will probably be a full veiltail - I would never have guessed that PetSmart would sell sick fish

 

[Jchillin]

Jmon - I'm sorry things didn't go well. Keep treating the water for a couple of weeks. Although your frog didn't get infected, ich parasites in the cyst stage may still be present. You might as well put temp back up to 86 as well.

 

[AquaBear]

I would never have guessed that PetSmart would sell sick fish

My own personal opinion, based on my earliest experiences in the hobby...NEVER buy fish from a big chain store. Big mega-stores *became* big mega-stores because they turn over huge volumes of stuff quickly, with less emphasis on things like quality, pride in ownership and customer service. Fish are only a marginal percentage of their business...more people have dogs and cats than have fish, but they add the fish as an accessory to support their claim of capturing the "total pet market".

Your local fish store, however, builds the majority of it's business dealing with fish, it's a much larger percentage of their livelihood, so if they want to STAY in business, they have to do BETTER business. Every time I've wandered through the "Aquatics" section of Petsmart, Petco, Walmart, etc., most of the people they have there would look just as comfortable flipping burgers as they do scooping fish out of those tanks. They can't answer simple species care or compatibility questions without asking the 1 "expert" they have to keep on staff so the less-fish-educated folks don't do something stupid like mix piranhas with goldfish.

Even if you're a fan of chain stores, here's another good reason...you walk into a chain store one day and this person helps you, the next day and another person helps you...usually always somebody different. A LFS, however, generally has a smaller staff that you can build a rapport with. I actually did "interviews" with folks from some of my local dealers until I found one I could talk to, who would answer my questions, and now they know me on site. They remember how many tanks I have, they remember (generally) what species I keep, when I go in with a health question on one visit, they ask me how the fish are doing on the next visit, etc. Good dealers know who their good customers are...even when my local LFS is running short of live brine shrimp, they know to hold back some for me because I'll be in to pick it up.

I love Petsmart for things like cat food, and from time to time they even have really good deals on tank setups, but I will never buy live fish from a chain store again...EVER.

--Aquabear

 

[mooncrow]

You are so right!

Over the period of three weeks, I spoke with five PetSmart fish associates ... everything from "no nothing" to some bossy woman who "hated" goldfish and thought I should just bring them back and get something better. Since I'm not in the habit of "tossing" things after committing, I got the message ... "don't come back here for fish."

 

[Jchillin]

No truer words ever spoken. If you look through several of the threads posted about this problem, you will see that the consensus here is "Just don't do it".