Hi everyone, I have an ich breakout in my 55g goldfish tank, there are 6 juvenile fancies (all different breeds, mostly under 1 year old) and i’ve been treating with Seachem paraguard and leaving the aquarium sitting at 78°F (0 ammonia and nitrites, and about 10-20 nitrates since the tank is planted, pH around 7.2) and the ich has since spread to 2 other fish in the tank (visibly). I want to switch to ich x real soon but i’m afraid that the change in medicine will shock the fish and/or may cause fish loss. I would like to know what would be the best and quickest way to switch from paraguard to ich x by reducing the shock as much as possible, please ask questions if you need any more info, i’ll answer the best I can. any help is greatly appreciated!
Hikari ICH-X interact with Seachem Paraguard? Ich Breakout advice/help
- Thread starter ejb
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I would always do a few water changes and run carbon for a couple of days in between different medications to be safe.
Why are you changing? Ich medication only works against the ich parasite while the parasite is in its free swimming stage. At your water temperature that free swimming stage will be 2 or 3 weeks after a visible infection. How long did you give the current medication to work?
Why are you changing? Ich medication only works against the ich parasite while the parasite is in its free swimming stage. At your water temperature that free swimming stage will be 2 or 3 weeks after a visible infection. How long did you give the current medication to work?
Hi Aiken, thank you for your reply. i’m wanting to switch because i’ve used ich x before but the problem is that it stains everything in the tank since it’s such a strong blue. I wanted to give paraguard a try since it doesn’t, but it takes much longer to kill the ich than ich x. and ich only takes a few days to kill the fish which is why i’m wanting to switch asap. i’ve noticed the symptoms about 4 days prior to making this post. in addition, one of my goldfish was lying on the ground covered completely in white spots, not wanting to move. so I just wanted to see what would be the absolute and fastest way to switch to ich x since it’s been more effective in the past. i’ve read that paraguard dissipates into the water by 24 hours, so will running the carbon for 24 hours completely neutralize it?
As said the ich medication cant kill the parasite while the fish is infected. Your fish either dies or survives the infectious stage regardless of medication. Raising the tank temperature will speed up the parasites life cycle, meaning its infected for a shorter period and is more likely to survive through this stage.
After the infected stage the parasite leaves the fish and goes down into the substrate to reproduce. Heavy gravel vacs will remove a lot of the parasites during this stage. After its reproduced the parasite goes back into the water, into whats called a "free swimming" stage looking for a new host fish. Its only during this free swimming stage the parasite can be killed with medication or aquarium salt. Or if there are no fish in the tank the parasite will die because it needs a host fish to survive.
The time taken for this entire life cycle to go from infected, reproducing, free swimming and back to infecting is dependant on temperature. The warmer the water the quicker it takes. At typical tropical temperature, it takes 3 or 4 weeks. At say 30c it takes a week to go through a complete cycle. At temperate water temperature (room temperature) 2 or 3 months. This is why increasing the temperature is important so you arent having to to keep medication in the water for weeks and months. If medication isnt kept in the water for an entire life cycle the parasite wont die off and will reinfect your fish.
Im presuming you have raised the temperature to what you feel your temperate fish are comfortable with.
After the infected stage the parasite leaves the fish and goes down into the substrate to reproduce. Heavy gravel vacs will remove a lot of the parasites during this stage. After its reproduced the parasite goes back into the water, into whats called a "free swimming" stage looking for a new host fish. Its only during this free swimming stage the parasite can be killed with medication or aquarium salt. Or if there are no fish in the tank the parasite will die because it needs a host fish to survive.
The time taken for this entire life cycle to go from infected, reproducing, free swimming and back to infecting is dependant on temperature. The warmer the water the quicker it takes. At typical tropical temperature, it takes 3 or 4 weeks. At say 30c it takes a week to go through a complete cycle. At temperate water temperature (room temperature) 2 or 3 months. This is why increasing the temperature is important so you arent having to to keep medication in the water for weeks and months. If medication isnt kept in the water for an entire life cycle the parasite wont die off and will reinfect your fish.
Im presuming you have raised the temperature to what you feel your temperate fish are comfortable with.
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