Ich getting worse

[swifty]

Last sunday I raised the temp on my tank to 88 degrees. I've been doing water changes every 1-2 days since then. It's only really effected my newest pickups, a BNP and blue acara which I purchased late july/early august.

I can't use salt or meds because my tank is planted. I read a lot of different opinions and most said that heat alone at 86 f + was good enough.

After the first few days it seemed to disappear, however on the 3-4th day it started showing up on my blue acara. It got even worse in the past few days, and this morning he is almost completely covered. My BNP also hasn't shown any difference, she has just about the same amount of spots on her.

The other inhabitants, are 10 black skirt tetras and 1 firemouth. They're just perfectly fine. They've been handling the raise in temperature quite well; eating and moving around like normal.

So does ich really get worse before it gets better? It's been about 11 days since I've rasied the temp and increased water changes. I read that sometimes it takes up to 2-4 weeks for some strains of ich, but the blue acara and BNP not getting better concern me.

I'm not sure if I should try 90 degrees or just keep them at 88 for another week or 2.

Here are the pics:

 

[Angelsong777]

If you have a bad strain of ich that temperature won't kill, look into getting a Vortex diatom filter. I had to buy one last summer thanks to the local Petco and my horrible decision to bring home 3 fish from there.

 

[George9]

It will get worse before it gets better because you're speeding the life cycle of the parasite. It should begin to decrease soon. The heat method has worked great for me

 

[swifty]

Photo Album - Imgur

Here are some pictures, sorry forgot to post them.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

As a last resort you can attempt to do a salt bath on the badly infected fish. I would only do one if it appears they are not recovering because it can be stressful. As said above, it will get worse before it gets better but if its harming the fish too much then something needs to be done.

Edit: Just looked at the pics. Definitely pull him from the tank and try the salt.

 

[Darkseid76]

Actually you can do the salt method with a planted tank. You'll just to have to do daily water changes so the salinity doesn't build up. But with that fish I would do isolation.

 

[bob mccoy]

look into paraguard by seachem

 

[swifty]

Well, I got home a bit ago and noticed he's occasionally swimming upside down now.

I'm pretty annoyed, because I kept reading the same things on a lot of the articles/posts online about ich regarding it'd get worse before it got better and figured it was part of the process. Him being the only one with spots and still eating like a pig I figured he was fine. I'm just going to euthanize with vodka/frozen water because he's not looking like he'll get through it.

I feel bad but now I understand why everyone stresses a quarantine tank. The last 8 months I've had no deaths or water issues, other than a temperamental firemouth killing 2 tetras. The blue acara and bnp being the only ones affected lead me to believe the LFS must have just had a bad shipment, since they were both from that same shipment.

How do I go about setting up a quarantine tank? Just a standard filter to cycle the tank, bare bottom/no decor and a heater set at 80+?

 

[Brookelynnb]

I know you said your tank was planted, but medication is the best way. I've dealt with horrible ich numerous amounts of times, and this does the trick every time, alone with raising the temp to about 89F.

It's also really cheap. $5 for an 8 pack.
Remove your filter media while medicating. Repeat once a day for about a week, and walla, ich free

 

[Brookelynnb]

Can you remove the fish, and put them into a hospital tank?? There I'd raise the temp, add a teaspoon of aquarium salt, and use an ich guard tablet. It's 1tab/1gallon, so make sure you dose it right.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Well, I got home a bit ago and noticed he's occasionally swimming upside down now.

I'm pretty annoyed, because I kept reading the same things on a lot of the articles/posts online about ich regarding it'd get worse before it got better and figured it was part of the process. Him being the only one with spots and still eating like a pig I figured he was fine. I'm just going to euthanize with vodka/frozen water because he's not looking like he'll get through it.

I feel bad but now I understand why everyone stresses a quarantine tank. The last 8 months I've had no deaths or water issues, other than a temperamental firemouth killing 2 tetras. The blue acara and bnp being the only ones affected lead me to believe the LFS must have just had a bad shipment, since they were both from that same shipment.

How do I go about setting up a quarantine tank? Just a standard filter to cycle the tank, bare bottom/no decor and a heater set at 80+?

Sometimes they are just too weak to fight it off. Happens sometimes. No matter what you try, if he's flipping over then there's not much hope IMO. Euthanasia sounds like the best route. Sorry.

To set up a QT all you need to do is run a second filter in the main tank and move it over when needed or take some seeded media from your established filter and add it to the QT one. Bare bottom is best and so is easily sterilized plastic decor. A spare heater, syphon and net is needed also. It doesn't even need to be a glass tank. A storage tub works jut as well and is easy to store.

 

[swifty]

Can you remove the fish, and put them into a hospital tank?? There I'd raise the temp, add a teaspoon of aquarium salt, and use an ich guard tablet. It's 1tab/1gallon, so make sure you dose it right.

Thanks, I may do this for my BNP. She still has some spots and I don't want what happened with the BA to happen to her.

Sometimes they are just too weak to fight it off. Happens sometimes. No matter what you try, if he's flipping over then there's not much hope IMO. Euthanasia sounds like the best route. Sorry.

To set up a QT all you need to do is run a second filter in the main tank and move it over when needed or take some seeded media from your established filter and add it to the QT one. Bare bottom is best and so is easily sterilized plastic decor. A spare heater, syphon and net is needed also. It doesn't even need to be a glass tank. A storage tub works jut as well and is easy to store.

That would make sense, since he was brand new from the day before shipment. I admit it was a impulse buy, but it was the first time I'd seen blue acaras at my LFS in months and wanted one for my firemouth.

Would a bucket work as well, with an air pump+heater? I have a 18g sterlite tub that could work, but the bucket would be a bit easier I'd think.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

A bucket would work for smaller fish but anything with some size would get stressed swimming round and round a bucket for too long IMO.

 

[swifty]

A bucket would work for smaller fish but anything with some size would get stressed swimming round and round a bucket for too long IMO.

Ok thanks, I'll look into setting one up for my pleco now.

 

[Angelsong777]

Vortex diatom filters physically remove parasites like ich from the water. If you combine that with raised temperature to speed up the life cycle, it really really works and gets rid of the infestation before it can do much damage to the fish.