My fish have Ich

[jerky032512]

I have a 90 gallon fish tank, and my fish have Ich. I am currently trying to sell my tank, but I want to cure my fish first. I set up my old 20 gallon tank, and put aquarium salt in both and raised the temp to 80ºF. I put some fish that didnt seem to have ich or a little in the 20 gallon.I was wondering how long I should do this for, if i'm going about it right, and how/when I take the aquarium salt out. Any help wpuld be apprecaited!

 

[Aqua crew]

Keep it up until all signs of ich have vanished. Then wait another couple days to make sure there is nothing internal and anything in the water/filter can die out.
Aquarium salt does not evaporate, so you will have to do water changes to remove it. My suggestion is to simply do a 30% change once a week and that will take care of maintenance + salt removal. Keep in mind that some salt is beneficial.
Hope I could help.
Crew.

 

[jerky032512]

You did, Thank you!

 

[jerky032512]

Would you happen to know how long I should keep the temperature up?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

To treat ich: Raise the temp to 86-88f. No less than 86. 90 is too high. Increase aeration. The higher the temp the less oxygen the water holds. Increase water change and gravel vacs. Leave the temp up for at least one week after the last spot is seen. Medication and salt is not usually needed. http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php

To treat.

 

[Fishfur]

Just fyi, your main tank now has ich in it. It has to be treated as well. The parasites may not be showing yet on other fish, but they are in the water and will be seeking hosts.

If you treat only the fish that look infected, and not the main tank, all the fish will get ick. If not treated, it is fatal eventually, as it feeds on the host fishes. If you have species that can't take temps that high, salt does help, as ich are more sensitive to salt than most fish are.

Even raising the temp to 80 will hasten the life cycle of the ich, and make it quicker to treat.

One possible alternative might be to take all fish from the main tank, treat in another and let the ick die out in the main one from lack of hosts. Raise the temp to 80 and starvation plus speeding up the life cycle is all that you'd need. Don't return any fish until they are clear as Mumma said.

 

[jerky032512]

The ich did start in my main tank. I took the ones out that didnt look as infected and put them into my 20 gallon & raised the temperature & added salt. I did the same with the 90 gallon. I have fish that are agressive & too big for the 20 gallon.

 

[Fishfur]

That's good then. I was concerned you were only treating fish that were obviously infected but not the rest of the water. Glad to hear it's all being done.

 

[jerky032512]

Thank you

 

[jerky032512]

My one fish still has ich anyone know why? All the other fish are cured.

 

[Tuck]

My one fish still has ich anyone know why? All the other fish are cured.

He either had it worse than the others or he is just taking longer to recover, just keep up the treatment for them all.

 

[jerky032512]

Okay thank you!

 

[Fishfur]

There is a strain of 'super ick' out there. It's become resistant to some of the medications used to treat it, and it takes much longer to kill these ick parasites off than it does with the usual ick parasites. It may be you have some of this more resistant ick.
I sincerely hope not, but it's possible. If that's what it is, you just have to keep treating it until it all disappears.

I've seen a few posts on one or two other forums concerning the resistant ick form, I'll see if I can find any of them again. So far I have been spared having Ick, for which I am very thankful.

It might also be that the one fish had a particularly heavy infestation and is just taking longer to get cleaned up. If so, it will eventually be ick free, though I am sure it must seem like it is taking forever.