Help, possible Ich....

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sparky2335r

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 29, 2015
Messages
38
Location
Chicago, IL
Noticed spots on my Tiger Barb this morning, quite a few of them. I've been reading up on this but don't seem to be getting any consistent answers on how to address this. Need confirmation that this is in fact ICH and what to do about it.

I have a 35g setup and no other tanks, so quarantining/moving the fish out is not an option. My tank is salted with 1TBSP per 5 gallons (7Tbsp total).

Is my best bet to start slowing upping the temp like a lot of the advice says to do?

Looking for any advice I can get, I've had aquariums for years in the past and never had this problem.

20150329_142100.jpg
 
Hi sparky2335r:

It certainly looks like ich in the photo, especially the spots on the tail fin.

The last time I had an ich outbreak in my community tank I used a product by Kordon call Ich Attack. It's a broad-sprectrum antiparasitic, but it's much milder than Rid Ich and similar formulas (I have a lot of catfish). It worked, but it took about three weeks. If you have no vulnerable fish then you may want to go directly to something like Rid Ich.

There's no point in quarantining your barb; for ich you really have to treat the entire tank even if only one fish looks infected.

Good luck in getting rid of the infection.

-Yorg

Noticed spots on my Tiger Barb this morning, quite a few of them. I've been reading up on this but don't seem to be getting any consistent answers on how to address this. Need confirmation that this is in fact ICH and what to do about it.

I have a 35g setup and no other tanks, so quarantining/moving the fish out is not an option. My tank is salted with 1TBSP per 5 gallons (7Tbsp total).

Is my best bet to start slowing upping the temp like a lot of the advice says to do?

Looking for any advice I can get, I've had aquariums for years in the past and never had this problem.

20150329_142100.jpg
 
yeah it is ich. what else is in the tank with the tiger barbs? did you have recent additions to the tank? how long has it been running? is it cycled? what is the current temp?

i would stick with the slowly raising temps and go that route, keeping the temps high for a week after signs of ich are gone. you may consider adding an air stone if you have one. if you decide to use a med like rid ich, keep in mind it can be harmful to some fish, and will also stain decor and the seams of your tank blue.

important to determine what triggered the outbreak, whether it's a new addition or the fish are stressed for some other reason.

good luck
 
Beware that most advice falls into two directions that are sometimes confused.

Warm water (low 80's F) and medication, -- OR --

Hot water (> 86F, better 88-89F) alone, or optionally with salt

Do NOT mix up the temperatures. Using hotter water (> 86F) with medication will often cause insufficient oxygen as both reduce oxygen availability.

And using warm water alone, without medication, will make Ich worse. The lifecycle speed increases as temperate increases up to the mid 80's at which point a bit higher (> 86) ich cannot reproduce and die trying. When using medication they want to make it worse (i.e. cycle faster) so it will be in the medicated water and vulnerable quicker.

Warm + medicine -OR-

Hot +/- salt (for about two weeks!) Do not stop early even if it all disappears.

I've treated successfully twice at 88F for two weeks - no deaths of either plants, inverts or fish.
 
yeah it is ich. what else is in the tank with the tiger barbs? did you have recent additions to the tank? how long has it been running? is it cycled? what is the current temp?

i would stick with the slowly raising temps and go that route, keeping the temps high for a week after signs of ich are gone. you may consider adding an air stone if you have one. if you decide to use a med like rid ich, keep in mind it can be harmful to some fish, and will also stain decor and the seams of your tank blue.

important to determine what triggered the outbreak, whether it's a new addition or the fish are stressed for some other reason.

good luck

I have a couple gourami's in the tank and the recent additions were the Tiger Barbs, about a week ago. The tank's cycled, been so for about 1.5 mos. and I've got the temp at 78.

I'm gonna try and go with raising the temp as opposed to chemicals, seems that 3 weeks is the safest bet to make sure everything's killed off.

I have one airstone in tank now, but the tank is plumbed with bulkheads with a canister, because of that the outflow doesn't disturb the surface much, would it be a good idea to add another airstone?

Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone!
 
More rarely hurts but you can also usually tell if they start to lack oxygen by them going to the surface and gasping. It doesn't take a whole lot of surface disturbance, it is more about keeping a flow of water moving across the surface (bringing low o2 water to be infused with o2, and keeping it in circulation).
 
Update

So I lost the Tiger Barb in the pics I originally posted, and another of mine has show signs of Ich, but not as bad. My other fish don't seem to be showing any spots, so I guess that's good news. I've got the temp. set at 88 now. I'm wondering how long it would be before I should see any improvement on the affected fish? I know that the spots being gone doesn't mean the tank is Ich free, but I figure the spots going away would be a sign of progress? Or am I wrong?
 
When I did it, for the first 2-3 days the ich got worst, and by about day 6 (I'm going on old memory but about that) it was gone. My case (both times) were pretty mild, so it may not be typical.

Do expect it to get worse at first as the lifecycle speeds up.
 
Update

Well, I lost 2 Tiger barbs to the ich, but I think I've got it beat. The other 4 fish in the tank are showing no signs at all of any illness for a couple weeks now with the water temp around 89. I'm going to start dialing back the temp to a more normal range and hope to add some new tank members soon!

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful advice, it took some patience, but nothing good happens quickly in a tank, right?
 
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