Help - Treating ich while on vacation?

[Sati]

I'm leaving on Wednesday for a week and I've got ich in my community tank. I am rushing around the house trying to get things in order. I just moved about a dozen Nothobranchius palmqvisti killies from QT into my community tank. I don't have a light on my QT tank and I only just saw in the light of my community tank (after adding them) that thy have ich. Crap crap crap! I'm raising the temp slowly now and I'm going to add some salt. The fish will not be fed the entire time I'm gone and I'm worried about how this will stress them when they're not already sick. I have a very full, active, beautiful community tank. It is my favorite aquarium and I would be just sick if I lost all these guys (approx 50 fish!). Do you all have any suggestions on what else I can do? Should I attempt to pull the killies out of the tank? I don't know if I can even catch them because this tank is heavily planted and decorated and full of so many other fish. Sigh.. What a stupid mistake.

 

[TankGirl]

I think the best thing to do is to maintain that higher temp while you are gone, and if the fish are robust specimens they won't suffer too much while you are gone. I don't really see much else that you can do. Your plants might suffer a bit with the salt and the temps, but they will likely come back once things return to normal. You might want to add a bubble wand or something to get some additional aeration in the tank - the higher temps make it slightly harder for the fish to get oxygen, so I like to add bubbles while treating with high temps. You may just find that after a week of treatment they will be ich-free!

Good luck and try not to worry too much while you are gone.

 

[Sati]

Thanks, TG, I think I will add a bubble wand

I'm really hesitant to use medications. And as far as feeding I've always been of the mind that those time release feeding cubes don't have a lot of good stuff to eat but do have a lot of flour and god knows what to foul the water. Am I wrong? Or maybe there are some higher quality time release foods?

 

[TankGirl]

I would avoid the vacation feeding blocks if possible. I have heard nothing but trouble coming from their use - mainly green water and an overloaded biofilter, then a mini cycle. The fish can easily go a week or 10 days without feeding, and to me that is a better option than a tank crash.