African Cichlids and Ich

[jratuszn]

I recently added a pair of Strawberry Peacocks to my 70g Malawi setup. After 1 day, the female had a big ich outbreak (20+ "granules") and the male also had a handful. Should've QT'd.

It has been 2 days since, the pair is now isolated in the QT, with high salt (1 tbsp/5gal) and high temp (88 F). Same for the main tank.

The reason I'm posting this, is all of the fish (including the original infectees) seem to have gotten rid of all of the ich granules. I'm positive it was ich, and it was spread over their bodies. Now, after only 2 days of treatment, it is gone. I'm still treating, but I was just wondering if Africans in particular, or even just larger fish have a better resistance to ich than say, a betta.

Any ideas?

-J

 

[William]

The ich will disappear off the fish with the heat treatment, that does not mean the parasite is gone. They are still there, waiting for a chance for optimal conditions.

Burn it out for 2 weeks at 88+degrees F to make sure its all dead


Personally, I ran my tanks at 90degrees when I did the ich treatment

 

[Enki]

Africans are really heat tolerant so you can let them be at the higher heat for a while with no worries. As far as resistance to ich itself, no idea. :|

 

[jratuszn]

Should I alter feeding frequency/amount to correspond with the high temp? The seem more active than normal, particularly more aggressive towards one another. I'm also concerned about 2 of my females which are currently holding. I can't get them out of the tank to strip the eggs, so I guess they'll just have to tough it out.

Thanks,

-J

 

[Enki]

The heat does boost metabolism, and therefore activity level and aggressiveness, you might increase feeding a TINY amount, but not much. Eggs/fry will mature faster as well, so those females might be ahead of 'schedule'.

 

[Chikadee]

definitely stick with the high temps for 2 weeks. I did mine for only 1 week because i only had a small outbreak of ich, and I didn't see any after 1 week... another week later, lo and behold, it's back.

 

[jratuszn]

You're definitely right about the metabolism boost- both of my holding females have released their fry, and now it looks like another 3 have mouths full of marbles.

-J