Ich , Salt, Hurting Pleco, Help!

[Fishalicious]

Well my tank must've decided to hop on the ich-train with you guys and just got ich 3 days ago. I only noticed the spots on my yellow and threadfin rainbows but my gold nugget pleco was breathing very heavily. Other than his normal polka dots, he didn't have any ich spots on him thats why I dont know if he might have something else wrong with him.I think he may have a seperate gill disease or (ectoparasites?) The Danios seemed to be fine, as with the ottos. I did the heat and salt method (1/2 tsp/10gal) (raising the heat 1-2 degrees every 12 hours) and today when I came home from work it appeared that my pleco had been burnt. I didn't add much salt at all. He's pretty pale and his skin looks like its somewhat shredded up and you can see alot of tiny little cuts with blood inside. His stomach area also looks very swollen. As soon as I noticed that he had been burnt, I immediately did a 50% WC and he seems to be doing a little bit better but still really burnt up. Will he heal up naturally or should I QT him when the tank is ready and use something like melafix? Can anyone tell me whats up with the swollen stomach? It doesn't appear to be dropsy....

Also, if I were to use a medication, what would you guys reccomend for my tank setup? I was thinking either RidIch+ or IckGuard II.

Please let me know!
TIA
-Dan

I'm not exactly sure what's going on.

 

[Menagerie]

Some plecos do not handle salt at all. Move the pleco to QT and add melafix. Bring up the temp to the same temp as the main tank and continue to treat for ich. Sometimes ich will settle in the gills and not show on other parts of the fish.

Continue with the salt and heat treatment on the main tank.

Has the condition of the pleco changed?

 

[Menagerie]

For fun, please give the water parameters.

 

[Fishalicious]

I WISH I could put him in the QT tank but it's only on it's 4th day cycling. It's heavily seeded so it shouldn't take more than another week and a half to two weeks (but who really knows). QTing him and adding melafix was my first thought and if I hadn't done a fishless (with ammonia) I would have dropped him in anyway and just done alot of WC's or went out and bought ammolock2.

He's in pretty rough shape. He barely moves and when he does, he'll stay in the same spot for 12 hours at a time. His body has a bunch of tiny little sores on it and I feel SO HORRIBLE!!!! I wish I never added any salt considering I KNEW that pleco's were sensitive but all this reading about how 1/2 tsp/10gal is usually tolerated made me change my mind wanting to kill off the ich.

There is plenty of aeration (since I turned up the heat, I lowered the water level and I have an AC500 and EMP400 running so plenty of surface aggitation.

I checked my water parameters last night and it was Am-0 Ni-0 Na-5 pH-7.4
My usual parameters. I've never have any sort of spike since the cycle.

I haven't added any salt since the 50% WC yesterday and dont plan to as long as the pleco is in there. Will heat be enough to kill these critters off?
It's at 84F now but I plan to bring it up one more degree before I leave for work.
My plan is to reach about 86-87F and leave it there for two more weeks as long as the fish look fine, other wise I'm going to slowly drop the temp again while adding medication to kill it off. The ICH isn't currently visible on the rainbows anymore, I think it's in its second or third stage already. Would I see these guys swimming around? I searched the gravel for the cysts but no luck

Let me know

THANK YOU FOR THE REPLY!
-Dan

 

[Menagerie]

You won't see the ich.

MOVE that pleco asap! With a seeded filter and a few water changes, the QT tank is much better than where he is now. I never keep my QT tanks going or cycled. When I need them, I add tank water and do water changes every other day.