Need some help and advice!!

[zao]

I need all the advice I can get really fast before everything get out of hand! All of the sudden about two days ago durning the evening when all the lfs are closed of course. I noticed about 6 to 7 little white spots on my two bella sharks. I had a feeling it was ICK. Which I have no clue where it came from. It was just like BOOM there it is. Then I did alot of research that night on ick, I do know about the 3 life cycles it has.

Well on the seconded day, the bella sharks only had about 3 to 4 on them. So I have a feeling it is on the second stage of life. I also noticed that my black fin sharks had a couple too. But the LFS told me to get this quick care and turn the heat up a few degrees. I did a quick research on Quick Care and some people said that quick care is harmfull for scaless fish and some say it is ok. So after that I asked my dad and he said that he always used Maracide when he had an ICK probelm when he was into aquarium's, about my age serval years ago. So I did a quick research on maracide and it said the same thing about quick care. So needless to say I don't trust these two products that I have.

So tonight I noticed that my thrid bella shark as some white spots on it too. I also noticed that alot of people are doing it the natural way, with the salt and heat method. So before this really spreads to all of my other fish, and it gets out of hand. What is the procdure of the salt and heat method? Do I heat the water up slowly to about 86F then add salt, or do I add salt and heat up the tank? I really don't want to use one of these products and take a chance of loosing one of my scaless fish. But if I have to I guess I will.

and is the aquarium salt safe for my two black fin sharks, 4 bella sharks, 1 fire eels, 1 Plecostomus, 2 cory cats, (My Girlsfriends)2 Dalmatian Mollies - Well 4 now, they had baby's a while back , and the Danios?

Thanks Andy

 

[zao]

Sorry I forgot the tell you the water pram's, that I tested today.

Ammonia : 0PPM
Nitrite : 0PPM
pH : about 6.8

Thanks for all of your help!
Andy

 

[Rocket2001]

Andy,
I had one small bout with ick when i started my tank, I was advised to use Maracide...which i did and it took care of the problem. As far as the "natural method" I have never used it but i sure one of the advisors will be able to help out with that. ( I just wanted to share my experience)

 

[TankGirl]

I would definitely try the heat and salt method. This way works very well and the only time I don't recommend it is when there is ich in a cycling tank that already has nitrite present, which is made even more difficult for the fish to tolerate by raising the temp.

Raise your temp up gradually to 86 or so, and add 1 tablespoon/10 gallons of water. You might want to consider skipping the salt because of the cory cats, though I have treated them with salt before with no ill-effects. I have also treated ich very successfully with heat only. Keep the temp up for 4 days after you see the last spot of ich on any fish and that should do it. It will probably take 6-7 days tops.

Your plants will not appreciate the heat (less so the salt, so maybe skip the salt because of corys and plants) but they will come back once the heat goes back down. It is worth it to kill this pest. I would also do daily partial water changes with a bit of a gravel vac to syphon out as much of the organism as you can that may reside in the gravel.

Lower the water level during the heat treatment, and add an air stone or otherwise create splashing, because the raised temps makes it harder for the fish to get oxygen.

Good luck!

 

[Menagerie]

I second TG's advice, but I would leave the heat up longer. There is an article on FW ich in the Articles section, which recommends keeping the heat raised for two weeks after the last ich spot is gone. I have treated rams, bettas, cories and a pleco with heat and salt. All the fish survived the treatment.

 

[FawnN]

I just fought off Ich in 7 days of treatment. I monitored very closely from the very first signs of Ich to the very last and I am still monitoring and going on day 10.

As soon as I saw the white spots, I gradually raised the temp to 84, added some aquarium salt and the proper dose of Coppersafe. I"m not recommending Coppersafe to everyone, I'm only stating that this worked for me.

I watched everyday waiting for the white spots to disappear from the fish, which meant that they have fallen off the fish and into the gravel. Once I saw that I did a good vacumming of my gravel, replaced the water and then added the proper dose of meds. And I am happy to say that I had no casualities and the Ich is gone.

I personally don't think you can successfully fight off ich by doing it naturally if you don't catch it early enough. By raising up your temp this is only speeding up the life cycle of the parasite and is not guaranteed to kill them all off. Because your fish are stressed, aquarium Salt reduces electrolyte loss and promotes gill function. So with that said, I personally would still use meds.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

The idea behind any medication is that it is trying to cause death, and they are considered good if they kill the ich (or parasite or bacteria) before killing the fish I have found medications to be only passably effective (I tied three different one on ich that I got from petco, none worked) and then there are usually recurrences. Since using the heat and salt I have had no recurrences and no ich. My cories did fine, as did my plants.

 

[zao]

Well thank you for all of you help! But I think I am going to try the heat and salt method. Since everyone says it works pretty well. So right now I am going to turn the heat up more more click. and then add the aquarium salt. The temp is about 85 right now. I am currently setting up the QT Tank. Just in casue the cory's don't like the salt. and we will go from there. I will keep you guys posted on what is happoning!

Thanks
Andy

 

[oscarbreeder]

The natural way is the best way to go IMO.
Good luck.

 

[zao]

all right well I just add the aquarium salt. Do I add the salt ever again, or is it just like add it once and don't worry about it again.

 

[Menagerie]

Salt will not evaporate, so there is no reason to add more salt, unless you do a PWC. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Guest]

I think someone mentioned before that the temp should be 87F in order to kill ich.

Oh and I wanted to ask, how long have you been keeping your black fin shark? Aren't they a brackish fish? I bought one and it seemed happy and active in my QT tank for two weeks until he just died. I read that they are supposed to be kept in a tank with the type of salt that they you use for marine aquariums not aquarium salt for freshwater aquariums. The aquarium had no salt added to it. There were no other reasons I could think of why he died so I thought it was the no salt problem although some websites say they are just fine in freshwater when young.

 

[zao]

I think I have owned by black fin sharks for about 5 months now. They are doing fine, besides the small ick problem. I read that they prefer a tablespoon of aquarium salt ever so offten I guess. Well I ended up using my qt tank. I noticed that my plecostomus(Albert). Had pop-eye. I noticed that his eyes where looking a little bit strange about a week ago. Then today I was looking a some pictures that I took of my fish. I was going to put them up on my aquarium side of my website. That is when I noticed he had pop-eye!!! So I put him in my qt tank and add a maracyn tab. AHHHH!! What am I doing wrong. The tank runs good for a while and then I get a lot of sick fish!! Then it runs good for about 3 months and then boom here we go again!!! I wounder if I over-crowered the tank and all of the fish are stressed becasue of that. I don't know. But I need to head to my friends house. Then get to bed. 9 o'clock class tomarrow. GRRR. Got to love college! But I will still keep ya posted!

Thanks
Andy

 

[zao]

Well I did have 9 Danios, now I only have 4 Danios. I lost five of them to my black fin sharks. I know it was them casue you should see there belly's. They look like Santa clause. Big old fat white bellies. One of my Danios have a battle wound. Which I don't know really what I could do. Hey tired to get him and I guess got away, cause his eye is just hanging there. I know he did not have pop-eye. His eyes looked fine lastnight. I feel really sorry for the poor guy. Do you guys have any idea on what I could do with him?

Well a little update on the ick problem. The temp is currently at 84, but the heater thometor that states what it is going to be heating says 86. I am sure it is going to take a while to get it up to 86. or the thometor is not accurent. A few more spots appeared on my bella today, So I am probably going to do a 5% water chage tonight, and try to get any of the ones that are in the gravel. after the water change add some more salt. Cory's are doing fine with the salt too.

Thanks
Andy

 

[smallfry]

you need to get the Danios out of there, IMO..... :?

 

[Rocket2001]

Smallfry,

with 4 Bala Sharks and 2 Black Fin Sharks in a 37 gal I think the danios are the least of his problems...if you know what i mean

 

[FawnN]

Ok, I just have to say something about how misleading this statement is.

by raising the temperature up to 86 this will kill the ICH.

By raising the temp, your not instantly killing the parasite. Ich has several different stages, and by raising the temp, you are just speeding up the stage, from parasite underneath the skin (which are the white spots and are immune to treatments) to the parasite actually falling off the fish and swimming away into the gravel. This is the time where the meds are most affective.

From the time they fall to the gravel and enclose themselves in a capsule, the cell divides to produce over 1,000 more infective stages.

From there, the capsule then breaks open and releases the free swimming stages. These parasites must find a fish host within about 48 hours to survive.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for going the natural way of healing every chance I get, but not in this case. Even after fish have died, people choose to break their tanks down and cleanse with chlorine just to make sure there dead.

Just my personal opinion.

 

[zao]

Well I think I just figured out why my fish keep getting sick! I have a really high nitrate problem. I got a nitrate test kit today and the results said it is 80ppm. I really don't know what I am doing wrong. I do a 25% water change ever two weeks. By vaccum the gravel, and then clean the filters out. Once a month it is like every two weeks vaccum the gravel do a 25% water change, clean the filter system out, put in a new filter and replace the active carbon. Is there anything I am doing wrong?? I am going to do another nitrate test, just to make sure before I go to bed.

What is a way to lower the nitrate? I thought by doing water changes lowers it?

Thanks
Andy

 

[Menagerie]

You may have nitrates in your tap wayer. PWC will lower the ntrate level. Most fish can handle 40ppm of nitrate.

clean the filter system out

It is not necessary to clean it out so often. When the flow rate is reduced on my tanks, I rise the cartridge in used tank water and put it back in the filter. Also, I have no carbon in my tanks. Unless there is some chemical you are trying to get rid of, you can leave the old carbon in and allow the good bacteria to grow and you will have more of a bio filter.

 

[TankGirl]

You can accumulate debris in the tank and you'll always have a nitrate problem, which can be alleviated by not overfeeding, primarily. I'd do a PWC every week with a thorough gravel vac at the same time as cutting back on feeding, but you have to deal with this very gradually because a sudden reduction in nitrate can stress the fish, believe it or not, as they are now "acclimated" to the higher levels.