Gentian Violet!

[amitnarain]

gentian violet

ever heard of?

for what can i use that?

[toddnbecka]

http://www.answers.com/topic/gentian-violet

[malkore]

never heard of it, so after googling and seeing its used primarily in humans.

the very few references I found for aquatic use suggested it was only good for fin rot.

[amitnarain]

someone told me to use it to treat ich

i will update what happens

[toddnbecka]

Raise the temp to 80, add some salt, maintain for 10 days minimum. Methyl blue is the usual dye used for Ich, but it's not good for scaleless fish.

[amitnarain]

methyl blue and methylene blue are two different things. which one?

is the other harmful?

[tbonem91]

80 degrees will not kill ich, but may make it worse. a temp of 87-88 will speed up their lifecycle and once freefloating, kill them off. Keep it just under 90 for two weeks after the last white spot is gone in order to insure all of the ich has been killed.

as far as chemicals, I would avoid them.

IMO using chemicals to treat ich instead of heat is like if a spider were to crawl on your head, spraying insecticide in your face instead of just flicking off the spider and squashing it with your foot. Sure, both ways will kill the spider and you probably wont die from the insecticide...

[toddnbecka]

Oops, wrong dye, it's been too many years since I treated fish for Ich.

If ich is detected before it becomes too serious, a number of different treatments can be applied. The most recommended method of treatment for ich consists of adding aquarium salt. The salt is to be added gradually until a specific gravity of 1.002 is achieved. This is done because ich is highly intolerant of salt whereas freshwater fish can tolerate small amounts. Also water temperature is to be raised gradually to 82-86F. This reduces the life cycle of the parasite. Other treatments include formalin and malachite green. All target the free-living theronts and tomonts, which only survive about three days in absence of a host fish.

[amitnarain]

methyl blue or methylene blue?

[toddnbecka]

Methylene blue, I didn't realize there was a difference. In any case, it's malachite green dye for Ich, though salt is safer for the fish.

[Devilishturtles]

Crystal Violet (Gentian Violet) is used primarily in human cases, like mentioned. I always used it to dye slides with in Microbiology class. Never heard of it being used in aquaria.


If you are going to treat for ich however, I agree with tbonem91 in that heat is a better way to go, unless you are treating goldfish, then salt would be a better way to go. Malachite Green and Methylene Blue (both also dyes used for staining) are mild irritants to fish. They do work however, but treatment time is much much longer than with simple heat or salt.

Just my opinion.