My Plan for Treating a Small Case of Ich

[Noah0504]

Well, it looks like I've finally had a sighting of ich. At first I wasn't sure, but now I'm fairly positive that's what I'm dealing with. The good news is it currently only looks like one fish is actually being affected.

I've been reading up on the best way to treat the tank and I've see several forms of advice but a few common methods.

I plan on raising the tank temperature to 86 degrees F over the course of a day or two. It's already at 77-78, so it shouldn't take too long. I only have 6 platies, 2 platy fry and 1 pleco in the tank, so I think the temperature will be okay for all of them.

I haven't determined a consensus for using salt with plecos, so I won't attempt it unless absolutely unnecessary. I'm also not going to attempt any medication.

I'll start doing a PWC every day trying to clean the gravel as well as I can. I'm also going to lower the water level just a bit to increase aeration by the filter. I debated turning off my CO2 system, but because of the small size (and that my plants are finally starting to take off), I'm not going to worry about it unless I notice fish struggling for oxygen.

I'm going to keep the temp at 86 with the PWC for AT LEAST a week, but most likely two weeks to make sure the battle is really won.

Does the method above sound safe and effective enough?

Thanks in advance for any advice or comments.

 

[shellieca]

That is how I would start, but you'll want to keep the temp for at least a week AFTER you see the last spot. Keep us posted.

 

[Kwhite]

For what it's worth, we had ich a couple months ago, we lost 10 out of 13 fish in our Fishpocalypse. Our survivors were a Chinese algae eater, a tetra, and a pleco, and I salted the heck out of our tank while fighting ich. I hadn't read anything about not using salt with plecos so I threw it to it, and he did just fine. He never even got ich when everyone else was eaten up with it. Tough little guy. Anyway if it comes to that he may be just fine if you need to use salt

 

[Noah0504]

Well, I've almost got the tank up to 86. It's about 83-84 right now, so by tonight it should be there (of course, I have a 100-watt heater for a 30 gallon. It'll have to work hard to get it almost 14 degrees above room teperature!).

Obviously it's only been day three of starting to raise the temp, so there isn't any improvement, but all of the fish are looking as happy as can be. There's still only one fish with the visual symptoms, but I think my pleco may have a small case of it as well. He's harder to see it on.

I'll do a PWC tomorrow or Sunday to keep things going. Hopefully two-three weeks from now all will be well. I have aquarium salt just in case I need to go that route, by as of now I haven't added any.

 

[Noah0504]

Just another update (for those that are also seeking help in the future). The fish that was infected is clean of all spots now. I've been continuing the PWCs every other day or so. I will keep the temp up for another 1-2 weeks just to make sure I've gotten rid of the problem for sure!

All fish appear to be healthy and fine! Looks like bumping up the temperature with no other methods such as salt or meds has worked wonders once again!