Confusion about treating ICK.

[Scalelover]

Several of my fish got ICK, so I'm treating them with ICK Clear.
Although the instrctions on the bottle caution against overdosing, it says nothing about doing water changes.

The one site I was able to find reguaring water changes, stated that while treating the tank and fich for ICK, water changes should be done every 12 hours.

Also it did not say if the changes should be 20%, 50% .

Anyone have any advice from previous experience?
I have a 10 gallon tank with five Rosies, and one Comet.
Thanks.

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

i am not familiar with that particular product, but most bottles seem to have inadequate instruction on them, i suppose so if it doesn't work quite right, you buy more meds? eeek...anyways, it is important to clean your gravel when changing water to remove the ones that have fallen off--do some reading about the ich life cycle on the net--put in a search for 'ich' and freshwater fish--in short, they grow on the fish, fall off, and reinfest--rate of growth is affected by water temperature mostly, and most medications have methylene blue or ?malachite green?--i had some once with copper products in it, but avoid those for now...not sure about your particular fish, but most infestations of ich can be killed with salt added to water, but you definately should find out about your particular fish's tolerance of salt--and NOT table salt! kosher works just as well as aquarium salt....anyways , the little 'ichlets' are only vulnerable to treatment at the free-swimming stage, so you must continue treatment longer than most bottles say to anyways, longer the cooler your water is of course....aside from calling your particular manufacturer directly or finding their website, you may have difficulty finding specific instructions for that medication--in that case you may have to use your best judgement--research the ingredients in the med and it's effect on your fish, observe your fish carefully after administration of medication for any signs of fish stress, and vacuum the gravel frequently--i usually do it about every other day if i have to deal with the ichies, which thankfully is rare! you should also try to determine the underlying cause that made your fish susceptible to ich in the first place, so you can avoid it in the future, as ich is almost always present in the water, but the fish can naturally fend it off to a point if other conditions are favorable...common causes are swings in water chemistry, high ammonia, high nitrite, new additions to the tank, a bully chasing others, etc--anything that will increase the stress level of your fish...and as methylene and malachite tend to stain seals in tanks, and i try not to use any more chemicals than necessary--i fully recommend the salt treatment when at all possible-- keep that in mind in the future if your fish can tolerate it--much cheaper and easier on the fish ...

[Scalelover]

Thank you.
The product I'm using has malachite green in it, and the site that had said to change the water every 12 hours had also said to ad 3 teaspoons of salt per gallon per day.
I had thaought that was quite a bit of salt for freshwater fish.

As for the cause, I did have high ammonia levels a short time ago, as well as getting two new additions.

So it could have been either or both, I'll follow your advice.
Many thanks.

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

Wait!!!!!!!!! don't put that much salt!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is a lot, and i have only used that much with guppies, they love salt anyway! that is really a lot!
try 1 tablespoon to five gallons, if your fish are salt tolerant you can go a little higher than that, but in my experience it doesn't take a lot of salt to kill ich....and salt does not evaporate, so don't keep adding it everyday, only replace what you remove with water changes....hope you read this in time

[Scalelover]

I haven't used any salt as I could not find the tolerences for the fish I have.

I've been using the blue/green stuff, which has been working well so far.
It's staining some of the tubes and stuff but I've been told that is temporary.

Oddly enough it has also stained all the Ghost shrimp in the tank, it doesn't seem to hurt them, but it makes it easier to see them.

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

LOL, that is so funny, I would love to see those shrimp--you got a cam? interested to see how long they retain the color...and your seals will fade the color out, it takes awhile, but soon you won't really notice it....so i assume your fish are improving eh? Just out of curiousity, what kind of fish are in your tank?

[Scalelover]

I do have a cam, I'll get it back from my daughter and take some pics of the shrimp.

Right now I have 4 Comets and 3 Rosies.