Ich? Dagnabbit!

[Monzie]

So, we brought home a dozen Cardinal Tetras from the LFS for our new 27 gal tank. There were already eight Harlequin Rasboras and a Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami living in it, happy and healthy since we got them last month. The tetras seemed fine so, after carefully and slowly acclimating them to the tank, in they went. 12 hours later, we had two floaters. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the school started to come out of hiding so I could get a closer look at them. Several had tiny white spots on them. Crap. Ich? Great. So we scurried to get them in a separate tank and do a HUGE water change on the big tank. Five days later and ALL the tetras in quarantine are dead and I'm now seeing white spots on two of our rasboras.

*deeeeeeeep breath*

So much for trusting the LFS.

Anyway. So it looks like our next move is raising the tank temp and adding some salt. We also have a Vampire Shrimp hiding in the tank someplace. Will he be able to tolerate the salt/heat or should I quarantine him? I assume the rasboras and gourami can tolerate the treatment but is that true? I'm headed to Walmart in a few minutes. Should I buy some ich meds while I'm there? Any recommendations or advice? We are new to this and I'm really frustrated to be dealing with disease after only a month....

 

[Mumma.of.two]

It's best to stick to just heat and see where that gets you. Raise the temp to 86 and increase aeration. The spots will increase in the first few days then slowly disappear. Keep the heat and aeration going at least 1 week after the last spot is seen then slowly decrease. Make sure to do extra gravel vacs and water changes to help remove the ich. Pay special attention to keeping the water conditions pristine to avoid bacterial infections. Then invest in a quarantine tank to avoid issues like this in the future .

 

[Monzie]

Thanks. So, no salt then? I just turned the heat up a little bit. 86 F is the magic number we eventually want to achieve, right?

And yeah, we have a quarantine tank and started a fishless cycle on it about a month ago. But it wasn't ready and then the LFS called to tell me fish we wanted had come in. Since we'd had good luck with the fish we bought last month, we were hoping it would be a problem to skip the QT with the tetras. Derp. Lesson learned....

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Thanks. So, no salt then? I just turned the heat up a little bit. 86 F is the magic number we eventually want to achieve, right?

And yeah, we have a quarantine tank and started a fishless cycle on it about a month ago. But it wasn't ready and then the LFS called to tell me fish we wanted had come in. Since we'd had good luck with the fish we bought last month, we were hoping it would be a problem to skip the QT with the tetras. Derp. Lesson learned....

You can get away without salt because its the heat that ultimately stops it. Yes, 86f is the magic number. They stop reproducing at that temp.

Here is an article that explains the heat treatment.
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php

If you have a cycled, stable main tank you can borrow/steal some of the filter media and pretty much instantly cycle a QT. That's how I start QT and new tanks up. I know others disagree but I don't see the point messing with fishless cycling after you have one tank up and running.

 

[Monzie]

We have a canister filter, so getting at the media is a hassle. So I bought a sponge filter that we're keeping in the main tank so we can "instantly" cycle our QT when we need it. But the sponge has only been in there for a week, so I'm assuming it isn't ready to cycle anything just yet. Not that it matters. Methinks we won't be buying any new fish for a while. This ich thing has me a bit shaken. We've grown pretty attached to our gourami and rasboras. If any of them die because I got impatient about adding those other fish, I'll feel simply awful.