More Ick questions

[eastennessee]

On my way to work last night I was shocked to see that about 1/2 of my fish had Ick. I had just done a 15% water change (do those every weekend) and my water parameters are where they should be. My water temp stays around 78 degrees. My ph is a little high (about 7.5) but I have left it alone as suggested by those here and at myfishtank.net. I bought some of the drop in tablets by Jungle and dosed at half the normal dose this morning (as recommended in the instructions) because of my tetras and corys. This after removing the carbon from my filters. My questions are:

1- When should I put the carbon back in to remove the medication?

2- How and when will I know if I need to treat them a second time?

3 - If only one treatment is needed, should I do a partial water change before this next weekend?

This is my first go-round with ick so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[jsoong]

I used Jungle ich tabs when I treated for ich the first time. I had learned a few things from all the advice here & else where.

First - DON'T follow the instructions on the Jungle tabs. They said to treat once, maybe twice. However, the ich parasite is only sensitive to meds during the free swimming phase, and if you treat once, you'll likly miss the cyst stage & have a recurrence.

You may want to read this on ich:
http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/disease-fw.html#parasites

2. Both meds in the Jungle meds are inactivated by light, so you have to turn the lights off during treatment! (I didn't know that & found this info not from Jungle but from a fish vet site! - you think that Jungle would have this on their label!)

3. Formalin + Malachite green is much better at treating ich than Jungle's (Malachite green + acriflavine). My research suggested that Quick Cure is a popular & effective treatment.

4. The treatment schedule I've been given is this:
Treat tank with Quick cure (1/2 dose if you have sensitive fish).
Do water change after 24 (some said 48) Hrs, replace the amount of meds removed with the water change.
Repeat this for at least 3 days (up to 1 week if water temp is low 70's) AFTER all spots disappear from all fish.

This is the schedule I followed with my second bout - the 1 dose of Jungle tab the first time did NOT do the job & I lost a fish as a result.

Another way to treat ich is salt plus high temp. I have no personal experience with this. However Allivymar had treated her tank this way & had quiet a bit of advice on this board. Maybe she'll join in. .... eh Alli?

 

[Allivymar]

LOL How'd you know I'd wander in here jsoong

I've had 2 bouts of ich; one with my clown loaches after having them for 2 months (stress induced) and one with some new cardinals in QT. Temps above 86F are fatal for ich, as are salt levels above 2-3 ppm.

I treated the loaches with high temps and salt; I treated the cardinals with high temps alone. However, all the fish in the tank were able to handle the salt and/or the temps.

For the loach treatment I raised the temps to 88F over 2 days, and raised salt levels to 3 ppm over 3. After 5 days there were no ich parasites visible on the loaches (the angelfish and pleco never showed signs). I kept the temps and salt at those levels for a full 2 weeks to be sure I eradicated the ich.

For the cardinals I also had otos and a bamboo shrimp in the QT tank, so I couldn't use meds or salt. Over 2 days I upped the temps to 88F again, and after 4 days there were no more parasites visible on the fish. Again, 2 weeks at those temps to be sure the ich was gone.

As of today, all my fish are fat n healthy, and ich has not raised its head again.

I prefer salt and high temps as they do not muck up the nitrifying bacterial colonies the way the meds do and are just effective. One needs to be sure all the fish which will be in the tank can handle the salt levels or the temps tho to consider using these methods. I know salt isn't recommended for corys; however all your fish may be ok with high temps; you'll need to do a little research to be sure.

If one decides to go the medication route, Quick Cure as jsoong mentions, or RidIch Plus (+) seem to be the most effective; RidIch Plus also seems to be safer for scaleless fish.

 

[eastennessee]

Thanks for the good info. My fish look much better today, no more visible ick, but I did read the link you sent and some others about the ick life cycle and realize I'm not in the clear yet. Everyone is just as active as ever except for the corys. They are much more sedate than usual, but look ok. No signs of ick, etc. I hope they will tolerate the meds. Hope my plants and bacteria will survive too. Thanks again. Oh, and the lights are going out!