Still cycling, and now ich?!

[BlueAura]

Hi all,

I kept fish as a child, but never seemed to have these many issues.

My tank has been slowly going through its first cycle​. I made the mistake of thinking the tank had already cycled and went and bought fish.

So now I have 4 twin bar platys, One spotted corydoras, and sixth glass catfish. Today I was looking in my tank and I noticed what looked like ich specks on two of my glass catfish.

Here's my tank specifics:

29 gallon, HOB 20 filter w/charcoal removed, Biomax added to filter, airstone.

I'm at 0 ammonia, 3.0 nitrites and 0-20 nitrates.

Not sure how to treat the ich, because of the scaleless glass catfish, and the fact that I have at least eight live plants and 4 snails. I have aquarium salt on hand but I don't want to harm my plants or the snails. I've already raised the temperature to 86 degrees and hopefully that will help but I want to make sure there's nothing else I should be trying.

Any advice is gratefully welcomed!

Christa

 

[Yorg]

Hi Christa:

I would recommend focusing on completing the cycle and its related issues before addressing the ich. Nitrite poisoning is the much more serious threat. How long has your cycle been going? The water conditioner Prime can help protect your fishes from nitrite poisoning until the nitrite zeros out.

When you are sure it's ich, you could start by using one of the milder ich treatments like Ich Attack to see if that gets it under control. It should be fine for the glass cats and the plants (don't know if it has any effect on snails).

 

[BlueAura]

Thank you for your reply, it helped to put things more in focus. ?. The tank has been set up since New Years, and I've tried Tetra Safe Start, top fin ammonia remover, and also Prime.

I added the airstone yesterday to help move and oxygenate the water, especially since I read glass cats like moving water. It seems to have helped -- the nitrites are down to 1.0, the lowest since the cycle started.

Fingers crossed that the nitrites keep dropping. Two of the glass cats have several ich speckles, but they all are still healthy enough to attack my fingers when I squished a pest snail. ?

 

[KFav93]

Thank you for your reply, it helped to put things more in focus. ?. The tank has been set up since New Years, and I've tried Tetra Safe Start, top fin ammonia remover, and also Prime.

I added the airstone yesterday to help move and oxygenate the water, especially since I read glass cats like moving water. It seems to have helped -- the nitrites are down to 1.0, the lowest since the cycle started.

Fingers crossed that the nitrites keep dropping. Two of the glass cats have several ich speckles, but they all are still healthy enough to attack my fingers when I squished a pest snail. ?

I had to do a fish in cycle as well, and it took forever to cycle and I actually had the same scenario with the ich too. I used seachem stability to help the cycle move along, it's an additive bacteria, it worked great actually! The ich, I used kordon I believe it's called. I used the ich medicine even with my plants in because I would rather have the fish alive than the plants.

 

[Bubba643]

Hi all,

I kept fish as a child, but never seemed to have these many issues.

My tank has been slowly going through its first cycle​. I made the mistake of thinking the tank had already cycled and went and bought fish.

So now I have 4 twin bar platys, One spotted corydoras, and sixth glass catfish. Today I was looking in my tank and I noticed what looked like ich specks on two of my glass catfish.

Here's my tank specifics:

29 gallon, HOB 20 filter w/charcoal removed, Biomax added to filter, airstone.

I'm at 0 ammonia, 3.0 nitrites and 0-20 nitrates.

Not sure how to treat the ich, because of the scaleless glass catfish, and the fact that I have at least eight live plants and 4 snails. I have aquarium salt on hand but I don't want to harm my plants or the snails. I've already raised the temperature to 86 degrees and hopefully that will help but I want to make sure there's nothing else I should be trying.

Any advice is gratefully welcomed!

Christa

Had the exact same issue with my 60 gallon Cichlid tank. I did 50% water changes daily for about a week and a half using Prime to neutralize the Nitrites. Then did four day ich treatment but I didn't have snails live plants or scaless fish in the tank. I agree with the above post about a milder ich treatment. Even the stronger ones have instructions on reduced dosage for invertebrates, plants, etc, it just might take longer. Might want to reduce feedings also to once ever two days.

 

[BlueAura]

I'm happy to report that the nitrite levels are down to 0. Two and 1/2 more days at 86 degrees and hopefully we'll be good to go.

Btw those water onion bulbs that are sold in packages REALLY love the warmer water. Mine took off with growth over the past few days.

 

[Yorg]

That's great news!