Ich attack. Treatment Q's

[tw0lves]

Hi all. Looks like one of my new fish brought in some ich with it. Now one or two of my yo-yo loaches clearly have it. The one or two are flashing frequently and I can see the spots on the body. No other fish appear to be infected yet. The flashing I noticed the night before last, so this is day 2-3. My temps dropped last week when i turned my smaller heater off, down to 76-78 range, i have it back up to 80 ish, I believe the best treatment for my main tank will be running it at 86 or higher for two weeks. My tank is on its third week of life, no signs of cycling, so my transition from my 37gal (now emtpy) was smooth. Both HOB filters are running on the 75g and this time, plust a sponge filter, so i have lots of extra air to be generated if I raise the temps. I'm wondering if it would be best to use my empty 37g as the quarentine tank? I could just move the loaches to the 37g and keep it at 86F for two weeks, then maybe run the main tank at 86 for a few days as long as none of the other fish show signs. Would that be best? I'm trying to avoid meds, its planted, and my fish include an angel, LF serpeas, dwarf gouramis, rams, oto cat, pleco, and the infected loaches. The loaches can be a bear to catch too, so i don't if it is easier to leave the temp up on the main tank and skip a quarentine all together.

 

[meegosh]

It is up to you if you want to try and net the loaches. I would be tempted to just keep them in the main tank and raise the temps, slowly, to 86*F and keep it there for two weeks after you've seen the last white speck on a fish.

As far as the QT goes, I would get a 10g and leave it bare bottom. Run an extra filter on your other tank and set up the QT whenever you get new fish or a fish gets sick. If you had a QT set up before this you would've never had an issue with your main tank. I am a stickler when it comes to QT'ing new additions.

 

[tw0lves]

Thanks for the advice. Now I have the extra tank for that purpose with out buying extra equipment. I will have to keep that as a quarantine tank for future fish, but treat the whole tank with temp only. I would hate to stress the fish (and myself) trying to net three yo-yo's.

Edit: I'm assuming the new fish brought the ich with them...I never had it in my old tank. And I've added new fish over the past two weeks, with the newest fish being about a week old to the tank. Although none of the new fish have symptoms, yet. Unless ich can self generate in a tank somehow...

 

[tankydreams]

It is quite commen to get ich when adding anything new, even if they didn't appear to have it before. I would raise the temp before I do anything else, then if things don't seem to be getting better use rid ich + but only half a dose at first. I always hate adding chemicals unless it is REALLY needed.

 

[tw0lves]

As far as the QT goes, I would get a 10g and leave it bare bottom. Run an extra filter on your other tank and set up the QT whenever you get new fish or a fish gets sick. If you had a QT set up before this you would've never had an issue with your main tank. I am a stickler when it comes to QT'ing new additions.

Do you run the QT at 86F for the new fish at 2 wks as prevenative, or the same temp as your main, counting on the two week time to show symptoms?

 

[meegosh]

No I keep the QT at the same temp as the main. I only set up the QT when I get fish or one gets sick. If I get fish from an untrusted source then I will keep them in QT for a month or so. I learned my lesson the hard way and lost quite a few fish by just adding fish from a LFS.

 

[dkpate]

Some fish will have ich in their gills, and you won't be able to see it.

 

[jeffwisely]

after you do the treatment for the two weeks make sure you don't add anything for at least eight weeks.