Ick Outbreak

[NatureGirl]

I have a heavily planted 26 gallon aquarium with 14 shrimp, 7 otos, and 6 small female bettas (I just started a sorority). Today I noticed white spots on my alpha betta, so I'm pretty sure my tank is infected with ick. To my knowledge, none of my other fish have ick, but I've read that it lives in the water column, so the whole tank must be treated. I've never had to deal with ick in my aquariums before, and never had to treat an aquarium with such a diverse community for anything either. I have no idea what medications are safe for the biological filter, plants or all my fish and shrimp. I've read that methane blue and malachite green don't sit well with otos (can't imagine what it would do to shrimp), but that they're the base ingredients in ick medications. So I thought maybe I could just raise the temperature and use only aquarium salt to treat my tank. But some people say catfish and plants don't do well with salt. I feel like my hands are tied here. [emoji853] Somebody please help. Thanks.

 

[Chaik]

No meds!!. Raise the temp as high as the heater will go should get to around 83 the fish will be fine but the ich cannot survive in its initial phase at that temp. After a week or so your fish should be ich free and your fish And plants will be spared completely good luck

 

[ahmad.echols]

If the temp will be that high then you should monitor your betta to be sure it isn't showing To many signs of stress they can't be in high Temps for to long. Also u should change the water. http://amzn.to/2vdKFCG

 

[Potluck]

I dont recommend the high temp as I too have ich and just went through 8 days of 86° and still have ich with gravel vacs every day and pwc's every day, if you do go this route you need super high aeration as far as meds you can't use meds with your inverts , and your inverts won't get ich, as far as ich I'm still super new but have been reading on it alot, it does live in the water column and you can't at it in this stage, the only time you can see it is when its attached to a fish, it then goes through its life cycle detaches, falls into the substrate as a cacoon and hatches 300-1000 more with ich it attacks the gills super hard so with that being said with high water temps/ich you must have a lot and I mean a lot of aeration or the fish will pretty much suffocate but you also can't medicate with your inverts and I believe otos are very sensitive to meds as well.

If you go heat route you will have to vac substrate daily, lower water volume so filters splash into the tank to create more aeration add a couple air stones as high heat = less oxygen + plants in night phase consume oxygen which = even less

 

[Chaik]

I dont recommend the high temp as I too have ich and just went through 8 days of 86° and still have ich with gravel vacs every day and pwc's every day, if you do go this route you need super high aeration as far as meds you can't use meds with your inverts , and your inverts won't get ich, as far as ich I'm still super new but have been reading on it alot, it does live in the water column and you can't at it in this stage, the only time you can see it is when its attached to a fish, it then goes through its life cycle detaches, falls into the substrate as a cacoon and hatches 300-1000 more with ich it attacks the gills super hard so with that being said with high water temps/ich you must have a lot and I mean a lot of aeration or the fish will pretty much suffocate but you also can't medicate with your inverts and I believe otos are very sensitive to meds as well.

If you go heat route you will have to vac substrate daily, lower water volume so filters splash into the tank to create more aeration add a couple air stones as high heat = less oxygen + plants in night phase consume oxygen which = even less

I agree[emoji106] good luck keep us updated.

 

[V227]

I don't believe the elevated heat actually kills the parasite. It just speeds up the ick life cycle. The heat coupled with the thorough gravel vacs, which greatly dilutes the parasite population, allows the fish to eventually strenthen and heal. Good luck.

 

[NatureGirl]

So I decided to go the high temperature and salt route. I'm watching all my fish carefully so I can take action if I start seeing bad effects. I'm slowly raising the water temperature and adding half a teaspoon of salt every day. I also but in two air stones on either side of the aquarium so my fishies don't suffocate. Today, all the parasites fell off my fish, so it's the prime time to get at them. Hopefully, the tank will be over this soon and my fish can go back to their normal lives.

 

[Potluck]

Make sure you dissolve the salt in a bucket before adding it to the tank, remember when you do your gravel vacs and water changes you have to resalt the water your putting back into the tank so say you take it 10 gallons you add the amount of salt for the 10 gallons you're putting back into the tank do not salt for the whole tank only what you're putting back in

 

[Potluck]

Oh i forgot to mention that your plants will probably die as well with salt so if you want to keep them put them in a bucket of water for 4 days at 84-86 degrees put a shop light on them reason I say 4 days is a cacoon might be able on a plant and at those Temps in a bucket for 4 days the ich will die cause it couldn't find a host within 3 days the ich dies, the heat and gravel vacs might not work, you will see improvement but a week later it might be back