Ich Treatment

[jeremyd]

I have a 55 gallon with a mix of 20 Platy and Mollies. I noticed two of the Platy had 1-3 white ich spots on them so I immediately moved them to a quarantine tank. For my main tank, I purchased a general Fungus Guard (see attached photo) treatment rather than just an ich treatment. None of the other fish show any signs of stress, disease, or anything and my water tests show all normal levels. Should this product be enough to maintain my main tank or do I need to do a full ich treatment? Thanks!


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[emerald76]

Raise temp to 88 for 2-3 weeks


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[Fishanatic]

You can put the fish back, once a fish has ich, the whole tank does. As said, medication has never been necessary in my experience with ich. All that is necessary is increasing temperature slowly to 86-88 degrees. Turn off the lights and limit stress.

55 Gallon- Empty
125 Gallon- CKF and Tiger Oscar
220 Gallon- To come...

 

[jeremyd]

The fish in the 20 gallon quarantine tank that have been being treated for 7 days now do not seem to be doing better. They eat but spend all day just laying on the bottom. Would you recommend a complete water change and cleaning on that tank? I did a 40% change yesterday.


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[Delapool]

I have a 55 gallon with a mix of 20 Platy and Mollies. I noticed two of the Platy had 1-3 white ich spots on them so I immediately moved them to a quarantine tank. For my main tank, I purchased a general Fungus Guard (see attached photo) treatment rather than just an ich treatment. None of the other fish show any signs of stress, disease, or anything and my water tests show all normal levels. Should this product be enough to maintain my main tank or do I need to do a full ich treatment? Thanks!View attachment 256441View attachment 256442


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I would of said not. The first two from memory are antibiotics (furan-2) and the other is for fungas. I don't think there is cross-over for treating ich.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[ppo8820]

86 degrees, put the sick fish back as they have a better chance in their known habitat. Keep temp up for 2 weeks and it will kill the ich. No meds needed and you will be back on track.

 

[Matt68005]

Ya, don't use antibiotics/antimicrobials unless your fish show signs of fungus or finrot.
Raising the temp and adding salt are usually used in combination with a anti-ick treatment medicine. There really is no "cure all" medicine, and its important to learn all the diseases and treat with exactly what they need exactly when they need it or else your just wasting money on meds that are innapropritate.

 

[emerald76]

My male ram has really horrible ich, so the temperature is 88 and I did a half dose of Kordon Rid Ich. I'm also feeding garlic and in 24 hours I'm doing a salt treatment with a different brand of meds. I don't want to lose him and he is the only fish with visible ich. Anyone have opinions? I only treat with meds when it is really bad. He looks like this photo- this is the point where personally Id medicate.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ich.htm
Obviously this is an example of concentration of spots lol


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[dalto]

You can put the fish back, once a fish has ich, the whole tank does. As said, medication has never been necessary in my experience with ich. All that is necessary is increasing temperature slowly to 86-88 degrees. Turn off the lights and limit stress.

86 degrees, put the sick fish back as they have a better chance in their known habitat. Keep temp up for 2 weeks and it will kill the ich. No meds needed and you will be back on track.

+1 to both of the above responses.

My male ram has really horrible ich, so the temperature is 88 and I did a half dose of Kordon Rid Ich. I'm also feeding garlic and in 24 hours I'm doing a salt treatment with a different brand of meds. I don't want to lose him and he is the only fish with visible ich. Anyone have opinions?

I am not a huge fan of treating with meds, high heat and salt all at the same time.

I would either just treat with heat and salt or lower the temperature to 80-82 and treat with meds.

 

[Delapool]

My male ram has really horrible ich, so the temperature is 88 and I did a half dose of Kordon Rid Ich. I'm also feeding garlic and in 24 hours I'm doing a salt treatment with a different brand of meds. I don't want to lose him and he is the only fish with visible ich. Anyone have opinions? I only treat with meds when it is really bad. He looks like this photo- this is the point where personally Id medicate.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ich.htm
Obviously this is an example of concentration of spots lol


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It sounds like the Kordon rid ich has not been of use? Did you treat for long with it? I had this noted as a herbal product possibly less harsh but also less effective.

Edit - I may have gotten confused. Does it say what the ingredients are?

 

[emerald76]

Sorry I didn't mean to ask questions- just contributing. But the meds I'm using, I'm using a half dose to knock down the swimming ichs (?) and then treating tom. with heat and salt, then Thursday is getting a herbal treatment and heat. (PWC for the salt) garlic fed all 3 days


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[jetajockey]

Rid ich is just malachite green and formalin, it's a proven combination that encompasses several different brands of ich treatments.

 

[Delapool]

Sorry I didn't mean to ask questions- just contributing. But the meds I'm using, I'm using a half dose to knock down the swimming ichs (?) and then treating tom. with heat and salt, then Thursday is getting a herbal treatment and heat. (PWC for the salt) garlic fed all 3 days


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No worries, all sweet. I just got confused as it seems(?) a complex treatment plan when MG and formalin has worked in all the cases I've had and used it.

Or you could use the 86F heat option where the only trouble I've had there is getting the fish used to the heat as quickly as possible.

Heat and meds I've also done but usually not recommended. I would think you need excessive filtration/aeration and a mature tank/bio filter to attempt that.

Whichever way you go, would be keen to know how it works out?

 

[aqua_holic]

Sorry I didn't mean to ask questions- just contributing. But the meds I'm using, I'm using a half dose to knock down the swimming ichs (?) and then treating tom. with heat and salt, then Thursday is getting a herbal treatment and heat. (PWC for the salt) garlic fed all 3 days

You know I've heard that singing and dancing helps too

All jokes aside, your proposed treatment plan is the most complicated I've ever seen - far more complicated than it needs to be. Ich really is the easiest thing to treat in the hobby. Just pick a treatment and go with it. Combining all the treatments together is quite unnecessary and will add a great deal of unneeded stress to the fish. The infestation, heat, salt, meds - they are all stressful to the fish. Using all available treatments is going to multiply that stress.

 

[emerald76]

Last time my fish got ich, four weeks at heat with salt did nothing.


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[Delapool]

Last time my fish got ich, four weeks at heat with salt did nothing.


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That's interesting. Was that at 86F (sorry if I missed it) and with no cold spots in the tank? On mine as I only had a single heater at the time, I had to run it higher to keep tank temp up overall.

 

[emerald76]

Two heaters, high aeration, at 88 which instantly kills ich supposedly. Lots of water flow


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[aqua_holic]

Last time my fish got ich, four weeks at heat with salt did nothing.


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I don't know anything about how you administered your previous treatments, but there are there possibilities. One - it wasn't ich. Two - the treatment wasn't administered properly. Three - it was some rare super ich that requires more than a standard treatment. If you indeed had some rare super ich, then you must understand that that is an exception - doesn't mean you have to throw everything but the kitchen sink at it each subsequent time you get it.


I've never seen anyone claim that heat instantly kills ich. In fact it's quite the opposite - it takes several days.

 

[Delapool]

Two heaters, high aeration, at 88 which instantly kills ich supposedly. Lots of water flow


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That all sounds fine to me. 4 weeks should be heaps (unless you had the heat resistant strain which I've only heard about). Did it get better or worse over that time?

I think from memory using heat and meds it took 10 days with one last spot hanging around to make it a second week.

Edit - just a thought before bed, were you doing a lot of water changes? Were any water changes of similar water temp to tank?

 

[emerald76]

Sorry about the instant comment- it's the free swimming ones affected by it
It was definitely ich, no doubt about it. It got worse until a few fish died and then about 3.5 weeks in got better.


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