Ich not going away :(

[Fishyboi]

Hey everyone! Last week, my male Santa swordtail got ich. So, I just turned the temperature up to 30°C. I also did a 25% water change every other day. Today, I noticed that my male Santa swordtail has gotten much better (still have 3-4 spots) but my female swordtail's whole body is covered by ich! What should I do?

I have a 20 gallon tank with-

2 male swordtails
(Santa and red)
5 female swordtails
(2x Santa, 1 Mickey mouse and 2x green)

2 live plants
Pearlweed, jungle Val

Thanks...

 

[NatureGirl]

I'm not sure if your fish would tolerate salt in their water, but it's effective for getting rid of ick. My fish came down with it yesterday, and because I can't use medications in my community tank, I'm raising the temperature and adding a half-dose of aquarium salt for my sensitive critters. (Hopefully this will work, but I've never done it before, so maybe not best to follow my advice) I've been reading up on ick, and it seems like going the heat-only route, it can take up to three weeks to get rid of the parasite. Perhaps that's why your fish still have white spots. What kind of thermometer are you using? The adhesive strips tend to be inaccurate. I recently switched from them to a digital thermometer, and it's the best $10.00 I've ever spent! Anyway, if you have a less accurate thermometer it's possible that the temperature isn't truly high enough to kill off the ick.

Hope this helps and that your fish get well soon.

 

[Fishyboi]

Hmm..I don't currently have a thermometer but I am getting it soon ( tommorow maybe).
Don't know what to do until then :|

 

[Potluck]

Digital thermometers well the one I bought is very inaccurate, it's a marina and is off by 2° compared to an old school glass one (tested it against 2 other glass ones and always 2° higher)

 

[V227]

I think naturegirl's aquarium salt suggestion might help. I don't believe that the high temperature actually kills the ick it just speeds up the life cycle. At some point in the cycle the parasite let's go of the host fish and falls to the bottom of the tank. That's why a thorough gravel vac. And WC is needed every other day. It greatly reduces the ick population. That allows the affected fishes immune systems time to recover enough to heal. I don't think the addition of A. Salt actually kills the ick either. It's just one more factor that possibly weakens the bug. Remember just like in our environment, the aquarium environment is populated with bacteria, viruses, fungus and parasites at all times. Even when your fish heal up, there will likely be a small population of ick remaining along with every other kind of bug that can kill your fish. The key to to all of this is a clean well kept tank, good nutrition and luck. Hope this helps.

 

[Fishyboi]

I think naturegirl's aquarium salt suggestion might help. I don't believe that the high temperature actually kills the ick it just speeds up the life cycle. At some point in the cycle the parasite let's go of the host fish and falls to the bottom of the tank. That's why a thorough gravel vac. And WC is needed every other day. It greatly reduces the ick population. That allows the affected fishes immune systems time to recover enough to heal. I don't think the addition of A. Salt actually kills the ick either. It's just one more factor that possibly weakens the bug. Remember just like in our environment, the aquarium environment is populated with bacteria, viruses, fungus and parasites at all times. Even when your fish heal up, there will likely be a small population of ick remaining along with every other kind of bug that can kill your fish. The key to to all of this is a clean well kept tank, good nutrition and luck. Hope this helps.

Sorry that I didn't mention earlier but I do have an apple snail too ;(
So, if I want to do the salt thing, then I'll have to move my female swordtail to my 2 gallon tank. The worst thing is that she is pregnant. I read some articles that said sometimes the mother dies cause of stress, So I think moving her then adding salt etc will stress her too much, But I think I'll do that if she doesn't show any improvement in next 2 days...

I just saw her and she was shaking [emoji21]

 

[idol1]

If you are going to get the salt to take care of the fresh water ick, you will be converting your tank to true brackish water.

You need to take out your plants and snails.

You need marine salt that they use for saltwater fish.

You will need a hydrometer to measure salt. Coralife deep six hydrometer will do.

You need to get your salt content up to between 1.010 and 1.012 .

your temp 82 to 83. Heavy aeration. the salt has to be added slowly over days.

you are converting your fish to saltwater fish.

I have swordtails breeding in 1.012 salt. this is a slow process.

mollies I can convert right away swordtails take time.

I use copper safe. not recommended in your case. No good for plants and inverts.

that requires a copper test kit.