EMERGENCY!! Possible breeding Rams with Ich!!

[pitt420dude]

I am not sure, but my german blue rams (one with pink belly and one brightly colored) have been flirting alot! The females belly is super pink and they rarely leave each other.
In comes the bad news!!! They have the beginning of ich so curing it is very important. I dont want to medicate as they are the only fish in the tank wiht only a few spots of it. I have the temp at 80 and will raise it slowly. I will also add a nother tablespoon of salt tonight.
Any other suggestions? Are they pretty hardy and what have your experiences been with rams beating ich?

ph is at 7.4. They are 4 days established in my tank. They have been fine for the past three, acting normal, but today I just noticed the first sings of ich. PLEASE HELP!!! I want babies!!

 

[Jchillin]

Sorry to hear about this Pitt420dude. You're in the right track. Although I've never treated Rams for ich...I have experience in ich treatment.

Good choice in not going for the meds. The meds can only treat the 2nd phase of ich. By raising the temp and dosing the salt, you speed up the life cycle. Frequent water changes will remove the free swimming baddies and gravel vac's will get the "ready to re-produce" ones.

 

[greenmaji]

did you consider?

did you consider rasing the temperature even more? you would need more O2 going in most likely to get it up to 86-87 degrees. Ive never kept the fish before.. actually I had never seen one before...lol. Ive been out of the hobby for quite some time. but it can handle 80F normaly the extra 6-7 would kill the little buggers in no time.. 6 or 7 days... good luck!

 

[bbrown]

My pair of blue rams developed ich a couple of days after putting them in the tank. They recovered fully although it took the better part of a week. I raised the temp to approx. 82 and added salt. A week after the ich was gone, they spawned! Good luck. I think they are hardier than most people think.

 

[pitt420dude]

They died today. Only one male ram left. My two clown loaches still have it. Tank is at 86 (is this too high or too low?) I guess I should keep it there for how long? I did 30 % pwc today. I will keep updating.

 

[greenmaji]

good luck..

86 is suppose to be high enough.. 87 would be on the safe side... I would stop with the salt because the high temperature is enough.. the ich cant survive the high temperature so why put them through the added stress of salt if you know what I mean... I would make sure there getting alot of air.. the higher temperature will drive the O2 out of the water alot faster than you might think.. sorry to hear about them passing by the way...

 

[greenmaji]

missed the question..

I would keep the temperature up 6 days.. by the way..

 

[greenmaji]

correction

5-6 days and it will go away.. 2 weeks to completely kill the ick.. sorry memory was off.. 8O

 

[greenmaji]

pitt420dude..
I was wondering how that tank was doing.. any news?

 

[pitt420dude]

Rams all died and so did one clown loach. Vicious ich causalties. Temp too late I guess or just stressed weak fish. Oh well I guess it was a sign that my overstocking has its consequences. I will wait a while but I am determined to keep rams. They are soo cool.
I have a question about the temp. At 86 or 87 for two weeks it will all die and I can be sure of it right? Can it easily come back? IF the tank had a period when it dropped down to 80 or 81, does the two week timer start over?

 

[greenmaji]

the two weeks is the complete life-cycle of ick. so the high temperature needs to be for the entire two weeks.. so since your tank has dropped in temperate that time does need to start again.. good luck.. and yes if you can keep the temperature up for the entire two week period the ick will be dead. just qt fish before you put them in the big tank.. sounds like you need another tank.. MTS again?.. I would get a 29 gallon for QT if I were you.