My rams and tetras have ich!HELP!

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emerald76

emerald76

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Emergency! My rams and rummynose tetras are COVERED in white spots. I'm sure it is ich! Help! From what I remember, turn up temp, salt, I have some old ich meds I believe. I really don't want to lose these fish! I have cories, guppies, rams, and tetras plus some snails and guppy fry. One guppy died yesterday- not ich I don't think. None of the fish are lethargic, everyone is eating and swimming, no shyness. HELP! I have rid ich but it harms inverts.


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This is the worst of them- must have just started today as it wasn't there this morning


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Oh no my biggest male Moscow has it too!


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Omg! I had ick on my coy once. I treated my whole 55 gal I had to turn off the filter for a certain amount of time. It did work eventually and no fish died. It turned the water blue for a while. I think I purchased it at Walmart. My neighbor who is a breeder recommends having a small quarantine tank to isolate the sick fish. Good luck! I hope you don't lose anymore!


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The heat treatment is very effective against ich - raise the temp to at least 86 degrees. In my experience, meds and salt are not necessary when using heat at that temp because it breaks the life cycle. This is different than the salt method, which is used in conjunction with raising the temp (though not that high) because the higher temp speeds up the life cycle. I've administered the treatment at 86-88 on all kinds of fish and haven't found any that couldn't tolerate it.
 
I have a little quarantine but I put my snails on it it's not big enough for all the sick fish. Should I treat with the rid ich or go tom and get stuff? I turned the heat to 82. I think it came from my latest two guppies. I think the rid ich is expired though and I accidentally spilled some it instantly stained marble blue. I don't want my tank like that- should I get salt instead?


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So I can go up to 86? I set it at 82 but it's a small heater on a big tank- the heater is for a ten. Should I go to 88 since it's such a small heater?


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Your fish will be fine at 86-88. I used to use the blue stuff before I learned of the heat method. I hated that it stained the silicone and decor blue. I would never advise treating a show tank with it, for that reason.

Salt is something that has been proven to work, but with some fish, inverts and plants, that's not always a good idea. Since raising the temp a few more degrees eliminates the need for salt, it's not something I ever use.

It's important to treat all the fish, not just the ones that are exhibiting spots. There are two ways to go about doing this. You can move all the fish over to a quarantine tank and treat them there. Without hosts for the parasites in the show tank, they will die out. This may be useful if you have plants and/or inverts that don't handle heat well. The other way is to treat the show tank with all the fish in it.

Admittedly, I do not know how well shrimp and plants can handle the heat. I always treat the new fish while they are in quarantine so I have no experience with that.
 
I have pretty hardy plants and already moved my snails. So raise the temp? Do you think Anubias nana, anarchis, and corkscrew val will be ok with a bit of salt? The fish are showing few signs of flashing but the cories do have a high breathing rate. I'll do a PWC everyday until Monday when school starts again. I feel like such an idiot buying fish from petsmart. This will teach me to quarantine! I hope all my fish come through, I'm quite attached. Surprisingly, all my guppies from the old ten are healthy and happy with no signs of illness.


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It'll take that heater a while to come up. I'd do a 50% WC with fresh water about 3-4° warmer than what's in the tank. It'll only increase the tank water 1° but will allow the heater to not overwork and blowup. Unless you have another tank that all the fish can go in ?


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I don't. Only my big tank. I'll do a very warm PWC ASAP next morning


Emerald76
 
Yup, doing water changes to raise the temp is a great idea.

I don't do water changes during the treatment anymore. I used to, but I've since found it to make no difference.
 
Currently the temp is at 82, heater is set to 88. It should rise gradually. I've seen ich on most of my cories and all my tetras and rams. The five guppies that are recent additions all have it but any fish that grew up in my ten is untouched. The fish seem okay for now, scarfed down the six shrimp pellets I fed at any rate.


Emerald76
 
Okay now that the temp is higher most of the cysts seem to have fallen off. I gravel vacced and all. My cories seem listless but they are peppereds so I'm worried they aren't handling the heat well. Guppies seem alright and the tetras rams are losing a little color but still bright.


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Ich showed up on my rams last week. I upped the temperature to 88 and they were all better in days. My peppered corys didn't seem to mind the heat one bit. Just make sure to keep the heat up for 10 days or so.

Do you have an air stone? If not, definitely get one and pop it in there now. It'll make a big difference with your corys I think.
 
Okay I will pick one up. I lowered the water level when I did my WC and put all my filters on max flow and there seems to be a fair amount of surface movement.


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Up the temp and remove any carbon in filters also increase air circulation then add your methane blue ick mediation next day change half water out and repeat you should see a big difference


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