Ich first timer! help

[ozzypop]

I have one celestial eye, one black moor, a pleco, and 4 African dwarf frogs. I noticed my two goldfish sitting at the bottom of the tank, freaked out, and stared at them for a while until I noticed a few white spots. Ah! Ich! I RAN to Walmart, got malachite green, salt, and a water heater. The heater I got goes to "the optimal temperature" which is about 78 degrees Fahrenheit which I assume is warm enough to speed up the parasites life span? and I added the salt and the malachite green. then the next day did a 20% water change and re-added the chemical and the salt. BUT my black moor just sits at the bottom of the tank and it is stressing me out so much!!! Am I being too harsh? what should I do? Am I doing this right? lol plz help

 

[fishwonder]

Ick help is here, however it could be Epistylis...

 

[ozzypop]

Update: I am sure it is ich because the spots have fallen off my celestial eye. My black moor and pleco still have a couple. I have done daily 20% water changes and reduced the amount of salt and malachite green to half because my frogs seemed to hate it, but they seem fine with half. My fish are swimming a little more, but still look pretty tattered. I'm hoping if I keep up with what I'm doing they'll get better soon.

 

[HannahJo]

That was an interesting read on Ich.
I recently had an outbreak & treated aggressively with salt & raised temp and it knocked it out. But according to the studies referenced in the read- it's just the salt that does the trick- no heat?

 

[ozzypop]

yeah, I hope so because my black moor just died from columnaris! which apparently thrives on heat so I'm thinking about decreasing the temperature and just doing the salt bath/malachite green treatment. It is so hard to tell what to do. How long did it take for the ich in your tank to go away?

 

[HannahJo]

I left the heat + salt in there for about 9 days. After 9 days I was confident it was gone- so lowered the temp back to normal and did a few water changes over the next couple of days to remove the salt. Everything has been fine since.