ick battle

[spiketooth]

I been dealing with ick for the past week now. One fish has a clean bill of health and is in my second qt. The meds i have here stinks. I got my shippment in of aquarium salt and quick cure. All i have been doing so far is raised temp and water changes everyday. I never use aquarium salt before so i would like other people opinion on the best way to use it. My Qt is a 10 gal with 4 tanakai lambata oily bitterlings and one gourami. They all had ick from my lfs( theres a 90% chance that a fish will have ick).

 

[EndlersEatGuppies]

Who said "theres a 90% chance that a fish will have ick"?
That is absolutely incorrect if you get your fish from a quality LFS and if your LFS does tell you that stay FAR, FAR, FAR AWAY from them.

As for the ick, I personally don't use salt when I treat ick. I raise the temp to 86*F over a 2 day period and add an air stone since more oxygen will escape since the water is hotter. That will usually kill all of the ick off.

 

[spiketooth]

I say 90% becuase 90% of the fish i have gotten so far has had ick. Like i said, its been over a week sense i been dealing with ick and it wont go away. So i ordered salt and quick cure to end this battle.

 

[Autumnsky]

What is your temp? It should stay high for 10 days AFTER you see the last spots on the fish, some people say 7 days and you can start reducing temp 2 degrees less each day, as long as it is after all white spots are gone.

Ich is a parasite and it will reproduce, you can't see it for awhile then it can be seen on the fish as the white bumps, but it is still there even if you can not see it. The temp if high around 88F the Ich can not reproduce, except for some very strong type, unusual to have that kind. The salt will kill the young ones which fall off of the adult and onto the substrate, until they swim and attach to a fish and start the reproduction process over again.

To get the water to that temp you can raise 2 degrees per day.

Add the salt only in dissolved form into water. And not all at one time, maybe in 1/3 or 1/4 amounts every 12 hours-24 hours. I do not know your type of fish, if they can tolerate salt. So more checking may be necessary to know that.

 

[spiketooth]

The temp has been at 30c, there in my qt so its bare bottom with some fake plants and a airpump. With my water changes i removed the decors and tourch them in steaming hot water.

 

[SKB]

You should keep your temperature up to 86 for up to 2 weeks after you've seen the last sign of ich. Even if you don't see the ich doesn't mean it isn't their. Is has different lifecycles. When I had ich it took me almost a month to be rid of it, but it was without losses. I used I think 2 tablespoons of salt per 5 gallons. Heat speeds their lifecycle and 88 makes it so they cant breed.

Keep in mind, some fish (scaleless fish and invertibrae's) are more sensitive to salt, so youll want to put less in. Also, make sure it dissolves before it is put into the tank.

when you clean the tank daily, are you vacuuming too?

EDIT: When you clean your tank décor and anything else, it needs to be rinsed or scrubbed in non-chlorinated water, if your not already doing so

Good Luck!

 

[spiketooth]

i have read so many articals and forms about ich and methods people have used. Normally i just raise the temp and do water changes every day... problem solved. the spots that the gourami has just wont go away and very slow to fall off, even with raised temp. this is why i am wanting to used salt, i am just looking for people personal experience with the salt and ick

 

[SKB]

i have read so many articals and forms about ich and methods people have used. Normally i just raise the temp and do water changes every day... problem solved. the spots that the gourami has just wont go away and very slow to fall off, even with raised temp. this is why i am wanting to used salt, i am just looking for people personal experience with the salt and ick

I used salt and heat. Like I said 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons. And heat 86-88.

Salt depends on all of the fish you have, and how salt tolerant they are. You may have to use less with scaleless fish or invertibraes

 

[spiketooth]

theirs one gourami and 5 Tanakai Lambata oily bitterlings so salt and temp would not be a problem

 

[rezende]

I have successfully applied treatment with salt in the past, with no loss.
I raised the temperature to 26°C just to speed up the process, since I have some otos in my tank and I didn't want them to stay so long in that salty water... (but this temperature, as you know, isn't enough to eliminate ick)

I used regular kitchen salt, even with some minerals that may raised up my Kh.
I dissolved 2 teaspoons of salt into the water (not directly) after every meal (twice a day) until I reached the proportion of 1 teaspoon per gallon.

In this proportion, for my case at least, even otos reacted very well.