Tetras and otos infested with ich

[evie_07]

I recently bought some gold neon tetras and out of haste I put them directly into the main tank not realizing they had ich. (I was too excited that they even had the gold neons again and I have never had problems with tropical fish before) Now my tetras (neon and cardinal) and oto cats are definitely infested. I also have guppies and minnows in the tank. I Have had the temp up for almost a week now and I am still seeing spots. I put 1/2 a teaspoon aquarium salt per gallon in and the otos appeared to freak out so i changed out 2 or three gallons of water. Since spots haven't been going away I was planning on adding more salt 1/4 a teaspoon a gallon at a time until I get up to 3 teaspoons. Is this advisable or should I consider a medicine? I have ridich plus by kordon but I am sooo weary of using it since it killed two of my goldfish once.

Any advice? Heat alone does not seem to be working. I have had it at 86 for 3 days and then brought it up to 89.4 now for about 3 days and still spots on the tetras and otos. And I am weary about using salt on my otos. If you can suggested other medicine too I am open to suggestions. BTW I do have an air stone and an aerating ornament going as well as a waterfall affect with the hob filter.

And ps I know I have too many fish in the tank and that minnows are cold water fish but my store sold them to me as tetras and I was going to keep them with some danios in the 20 gallon and move the rest of the fish into a 29 gallon but then this ich mess happened. I also just removed almost all ornaments plants and gravel.

 

[shellieca]

Sorry about the ich. My understanding is that it'll get worse before it gets better & it can take a week or more to completely be gone. Are you doing water changes & vacuuming the substrate? Somebody with more experience with ich will hopefully chime in. Hang in there.

 

[evie_07]

I have only done water changes twice since I started treating almost a week ago. I plan on doing water changes every day till they get better now.

 

[Jesselav1233]

Keep water at 88 degrees F it took me about 3 weeks to see all the spots disappear then keep the water up one more week after last signs of ich. Do big water changes( MAKE SURE WATER TEMP DOESN'T DROP AT ALL) and do heavy gravel vacuuming. Don't ever use rid ich plus in a main tank it will destroy all your beneficial bacteria and u would have to cycle your tank all over again. They should really put a label on that med telling you that it should be used in a quarantine tank only. Hope this helps I successfully killed ich this way I also added salt a couple fish didn't make it it is stressful to the fish unfortunately.