Fish with ICH? Please help!

[fddlss]

I've noticed this week that some fish were swimming sideways against rocks, not all the time but occasionally, not all the fish are doing it either, I don't see most of them doing it now, except for my Venustus, which I also noticed today that he is "resting" on the internal overflow intake, right on the plastic bars where the water goes into the overflow, it seems like he likes the waterflow or something. I also noticed that he wants to be alone by himself, more than usual, and I don't know if it's me (because my light is broken) or if it really happened: I think his body is a little bit more pale than a few days ago, but no white spots or other signs of ICH that I know of, I don't have experience with Ich, so I'm not an expert at diagnosing it. He is about 4" - 5" and not fully colored, yet.

Also, another of my fish, did the same "swimming sideways" thing and I see that he has 5 or six single grains of sand spread on each side of him, it looks like sand, but if it was sand it should come off by swimming, but it's not a big white spot like each. It's like when you put salt on your french fries, several grains but separated from each other. I saw some pics online of fish with ICK and they look worse than my fish, but quite similar at the same time.

How can I diagnose if it's ICH?

If you guys think it's ICK for sure, how should I begin treatment? I was reading about treating with heat + salt.

Please help! Thank you!

Is this normal?
Do you think something is wrong?

Water:
Temperature: 80 F
Ammonia: 0 PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Nitrate: Under 10 PPM

Please help! Thanks.

 

[fddlss]

Pictures showing the possible ICH:

 

[HUKIT]

The picture does sort of look like ich, what your looking for is tiny white spots that look like grains of salt. If you see these signs then I would proceed with the heat+salt method.

This is a perfect example of why you should QT your fish for 3-4 weeks before introducing them to the main tank.

 

[jetajockey]

Looks like ICH to me also. Heat+salt as mentioned above is the route I'd go.

 

[roydooms]

What is the maximum temp for your fishes? It is ideal to raise temp to 86F and dose salt. Check this link. I had an ich outbreak and Tim whitley helped me. In this thread are the info on how to treat ich with salt and high temp...


http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/is-this-ich-help-146348.html

 

[discusdude]

It looks like ICH for sure. When I had it in my tank I took out all the media from my filter so that all it did was circulate the water. Adjusted my temp to 86. Added salt and a API ICH attack. Also did 25% water changes daily. Cleared up in about two weeks. If you can, you also can quarantine fish that are really effected and treat them more intensely. Good luck it drove me nutts!

 

[fddlss]

Thanks everyone! Thanks roydooms for the link! Very helpful.

I'm raising the temp. gradually, it was 80.5 last night and it's at 83 F now, will try to raise it to 87 by Friday afternoon, because I'm leaving Friday night and coming back Sunday night. I will leave my dad in charge of adding the salt and feeding the fish.

Nitrates are 10 PPM, so I will do a PWC today and start adding salt tomorrow. I can still add salt while the temp. is still raising right?

One thing I don't fully understand is how to add the salt? Get a cup of aquarium water and dissolve the necessary amount of salt to get to 2-3 tablespoons salt per 5 gallons and add it to the tank (away from the fish and close to the return pipe)? or should I add it gradually? If so, how?

After I finish the first dose of salt, how often should I add salt again? If I'm not planning on doing any water changes during treatment

I think that the parasite is in the free swimming stage now because I see fewer spots on the fish I pictured above.

 

[roydooms]

Thanks everyone! Thanks roydooms for the link! Very helpful.

I'm raising the temp. gradually, it was 80.5 last night and it's at 83 F now, will try to raise it to 87 by Friday afternoon, because I'm leaving Friday night and coming back Sunday night. I will leave my dad in charge of adding the salt and feeding the fish.

Nitrates are 10 PPM, so I will do a PWC today and start adding salt tomorrow. I can still add salt while the temp. is still raising right?

One thing I don't fully understand is how to add the salt? Get a cup of aquarium water and dissolve the necessary amount of salt to get to 2-3 tablespoons salt per 5 gallons and add it to the tank (away from the fish and close to the return pipe)? or should I add it gradually? If so, how?

After I finish the first dose of salt, how often should I add salt again? If I'm not planning on doing any water changes during treatment

I think that the parasite is in the free swimming stage now because I see fewer spots on the fish I pictured above.

Yes, you can add salt while the temp is going up. You are right about getting aquarium water and dissolving the salt before adding it in the tank. I would do PWC because once the ich falls off the fish it will go in/on the substrate to mature to find a new host. If you clean the gravel, you will rid of most of the cysts that's in the substrate. Making the treatment a lot faster than not cleaning the substrate.

 

[roydooms]

When I did a PWC I put the new water in a big container first. Then add salt just for how many gallon the container before adding in the tank. That way you are sure that you're adding jut the right amount of salt.

 

[fddlss]

Thanks! Should I add the whole dosis of salt at once or gradually? If so, how?

 

[roydooms]

Thanks! Should I add the whole dosis of salt at once or gradually? If so, how?

Gradually. Divide the dose in to 4. Then add those in 2 days. Morning and night or every 12 hours.

 

[HUKIT]

I would not add 2-3 tlbs per gallon, I would use 1tlbs per 5 gallon treating the entire tank. Add all the salt at once then when performing water changes every other day replenish the salt for only what you removed, if you removed 10g then add 2tbls. I'm not sure what size tank you have but it works out to be 1cup per 100g.

 

[fddlss]

Sounds good. This is my schedule for the treatment:

05/04/2011 Last night:

- Raised temperature from 80 F to 82.5 F


05/05/2011 Today:

- Temperature this morning was 83 F, will raise it to 85 at night so it can be 85 by tomorrow (Friday) morning.

- 40% Partial water change

- Get a bigger air stone and place it in the tank (I currently have a small air stone in the wet/dry sump, next to the submersible return pump.)


05/06/2011 Friday:

- If temperature is 85 F, will raise it to 87 at night so it can be 87 by Saturday morning.
- 8:30 AM = Add aquarium salt (18 TABLEspoons)
- 6:30 PM (before I leave) = Add aquarium salt (18 TABLEspoons)


05/06/2011 Saturday (my dad will take care of it from this point on until Sunday night, when I come back):

- Make sure temperature stays within 86-89 F
- 8:00 AM = Add aquarium salt (18 TABLEspoons)
- 8:00 PM = Add aquarium salt (18 TABLEspoons)

My aquarium is 120 gallons, so I figuered out that if I'm going to add 3 tablespoons for every 5 gallons I need 72 tablespoons of salt. My fish are African cichlids, so I think they should handle it well and I got the dose from an article on a Cichlid forum. Do you guys think it is too much salt?

 

[roydooms]

You can add salt now. I reread the link that I posted and it says 1 TEASPOON for every 2 gallons.

Edit: I think the dose that you researched is a little too much. If you'll follow that one instead, I'd watch my fish's reaction to the salt.

 

[roydooms]

Are you sure that it is tablespoon? 3 tbsp for every 5 gallons. That's 9 teaspoons. Compare to 1 teaspoon per 2g or 5 tsp per 10g.

 

[fddlss]

You can add salt now. I reread the link that I posted and it says 1 TEASPOON for every 2 gallons.

Edit: I think the dose that you researched is a little too much. If you'll follow that one instead, I'd watch my fish's reaction to the salt.

Which is almost 1 TABLEspoon for every 5 gallons, instead of 3 like I planned.

 

[discusdude]

I did 1tsp to every 5 gallons during my water changes, mixing it in the water as I do with the chlorine remover. I good stir and a few seconds and it should dissolve. As for it being less and less on the fish you need to vacuum it out of the gravel. I read that the temp speeds up the parasites life cycle.

 

[roydooms]

Ok. So, it's only 1 tbsp for every 5g and not 3 tbsp. That may only be a teaspoon difference but if you'll compute it for the whole 120g. It's a difference of 24 teaspoons of salt. Observe your fish. You'll be able to tell if you're putting a little too much salt by watching them.

 

[fddlss]

I did 1tsp to every 5 gallons during my water changes, mixing it in the water as I do with the chlorine remover. I good stir and a few seconds and it should dissolve. As for it being less and less on the fish you need to vacuum it out of the gravel. I read that the temp speeds up the parasites life cycle.

Thanks.

All of you guys are being very helpful and I'm not so confused about how to treat Ich.

 

[jetajockey]

I dose 1tsp/gallon when treating for ich, and haven't had any adverse reaction to it.