Ich

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skiltrip

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Messages
38
Location
Rockland County, NY
first off, here's the deal. 37gallon tank. 6 tiger barbs, 2 rosy barbs, and one firemouth cichlid. just added two of the 6 tigers, and they were apparently infected with ich, cause now it's spreading to some of the other tiger barbs.

I am treating the water with CopperSafe. I also have raised the temperature to around 85F.

couple questions...

How long does it usually take for the ich to be destroyed?

How often does ich evade the cure and end up killing the fish? Or if I treat it correctly, will I have no problem?

I am most worried about the Firemouth Cichlid, but so far, he hasn't even shown any white spots. Only the tiger barbs.
 
Depends on a bunch of things; hard to say how long. It will prob be a bit quicker in your case as you've upped the temps. The life cycle of the parasite speeds up, and it exposes more of the vunerable stage of ich to the meds (there are 3 stages; only the free swimming one can be killed by meds. The ones on your fish are encysted and the meds won't get to them).

Theres an awesome write up on freshwater Ich here: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/fish/notes_ich.html

Btw, I see you're in Rockland *waves across the river* I'm over in Westchester *grin*
 
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