Ich: The salt and heat treatment

[Fishyfanatic]

The pleco is as happy as can be. He's swimming around like normal. He is SO cute. He's about an inch and a half big and just watching the itty bitty pleco guy swimming around just makes me laugh.

The fish all look good right now. I'm just praying that it stays this way. I took out the castle the other day. It's a HUGE castle and I wanted to make sure that I could always find all of the fish. The pleco normally hangs out inside of it but I wanted to make sure that he was always visible incase he were to die because of ich or the salt. Was this a mistake to do? They none have hiding places except for the plants. The African Butterfly's still have their floating plants and the eels are still burrowed, but I'm just concerned about the parrots not having a place to hide.

Today one of the eels came out and I didn't see a speck of ich on him. That is VERY promising.

 

[An t-iasg]

I saw the castle in your gallery. It is huge! I would have taken it out too, so you can see and monitor all the fish during this time. Can you go to a lfs (did you say there aren't any right by you?) and get a fake piece of driftwood (so a real one won't mess up your parameters now)? Or go to a place like the Home Depot and get some PVC pipe. I got a very short PVC elbow when I had a small pleco. If the pleco looks stressed, maybe you should get something small to make him feel safe but still be visible so you can monitor him. Hope that made sense and helped!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

There are 3 lfs in the area. The only problem is that they all suck. Ok, I should explain if I am going to say that. Two of them are owned by the same person. The woman is horrid. She refused to guarentee their fish when they died. The reason: The pH was .2 too low for the pleco. They won't guarentee cichlids (even for diseases) because they say that they are too aggressive. But they don't tell you this until you try to bring them back. This place is just across town and they overprice everything. Angels for $20 each, Apple Snails for $8.99, H.O.T. Magnum filter for $150. Backing for $4 per foot.

The other place that she owns has decent prices but they are the ones that gave me the Hexamitosis Disease and refused to replace the fish. I was willing to give them a second shot but then the owner refused to give us the meds to treat the tank where the hexamitosis broke out. She said that she wasn't completly sure that the disease came from fish that was from her store. I showed her receipts and the dead fish, but she still refused. I mean come on, at least she could of given us meds to treat the tank from the disease that her fish brought into my tank. I know I know, I should have QTd them, but they still wouldn't have replaced the fish. The store all around has bad customer service and the people don't know squat. One woman once told me that the snails will detach themselves from their shells when they get too big for them and I needed to put extra empty shells in with them so they would go to the bigger shells. WOW. And at first I actually believed her. Then I posted a thread on this site and was set straight.

The only other place is in the mall and they sell painted/injected/dyed fish and are proud of it. They display them proudly. I went in there to order a Red Non-Injected Parrot and the lady asked me, Which color do you want? Blue? Purple? Green? Red? Yellow? Like she was proud of the fact that they were selling these fish. I gave her the whole schmele about how horrid it is that she sells these fish and promotes the injection and suffering of the parrots. She then threw me out of the store and told me never to come back. HA. At least I got my point across and saw SEVERAL people that were looking at the injected parrots to walk out. I would rather get myself thrown out of the store if it would have saved just 1 more injected parrot.

I think what I might do is put the ship that is in the 150 into the 29. It has more openings so you can see in it. I do have some clay pots that I bought for the tanks, just haven't put them in yet. Maybe I'll just put both of them in there. Do I have to boil them or anything? I bought them brand new from Wal-Mart for the purpose of putting them in the 150. I just havent done it yet. They are being stored in the stand under the 150 for the time being.

 

[An t-iasg]

Angels for $20 each, Apple Snails for $8.99, H.O.T. Magnum filter for $150. Backing for $4 per foot.

8O 8O 8O
That's probably over twice as much money as those things should be!

About the clay pots, I think they are a good idea. I wouldn't worry about boiling them, but I'd soak them in dechlorinated water for about 24 hours.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

One of the employees said that they sell them for at LEAST 3x sometimes 4x what they buy them for (in regards to fish). Their equipment they bump up the price because they bring in people that are new to the hobby that WILL buy their stuff for that price. But most of their stuff sits on the shelves for a VERY long time. I bought a bottle of meds that had expired a year prior. THankfully they let me return it. Even doing that was hard enough to do though. I had to have the owners approval before returning the unopened box. It was still wrapped in plastic.

Anyways. I am going to go fill up a bucket with dechlorinated water and start soaking right now. I am VERY anxious to get started. I love my fish too much to watch them die.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Quick update:

Today I was standing in the living room talking on the phone and I noticed one of my Africna's swimming to the bottom of the tank and rubbing his side on the sand. He did this several times. It looks like he could have ich. AUGH! Can ich be spread by the python? That is something that I TOTALLY overlooked. Anyway. So I dosed it with 1/3 of the salt and plan on doing 1/3 incriments tomorrow and anothe 1/3 on Wednesday. THe temp is on its way up and I am going to do a pwc right now. I found a patch of fishy poop today that I missed yesterday. This is spreading to the 150! AUGH! None of the other fish are showing ANY signs of it. The one fish that looks like it has it, has a couple spots on each side. At first I just thought that maybe a couple scales were messed up, but it looks kind of like ich. I figure that the salt can't hurt. Does this sound like the spreading of ich or am I overreacting and should QT this 1 fish?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

BTW- The test results, as of yesterday, in the 150 are 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 20 Nitrate, pH 7.6, KH 71.6, and GH 107.4. The results look perfectly normal. AUGH. Off to do a water change.

 

[An t-iasg]

The same python was used in the 29 (with ich) and the 150? I don't have a python (using a python in a 5 gallon tank would be funny! 8O) but I think it's quite possible to spread the ich that way. I don't know how long ich could live in the tubing without a host, but I bet for a few days anyway. The salt in the 150 sounds good -- can you increase the heat too? For a big tank like that, you would probably have to add another heater temporarily.

Can you get more python tubing for each tank? What I'm thinking of is the tubing that goes into the tank. Get each tank its own piece, but then connect it to the bigger piece that runs to the sink. That section doesn't touch the tank itself, correct? Is it possible to disconnect the top section like that to let each tank have its own piece? Once again, hope this helps and makes sense!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The same python is used for all my tanks, even my little 5 gal hex. HAHA. It goes so fast in the 5 gal.

When we do water changes, we do them all at once. I start with the 29 and work my way around the room. It starts with the 29, then the 150, then the QT, then the 10 gal, then the 5 gal. With refilling, it goes the same way, 29, 150, QT, 10, and 5. I do it this way because it goes much faster by taking out water then refilling and I don't have to mess with the water temp. So if some of the ich transfered from the python, it would have gone into the 150. I guess that possible, right?

I tried to increase the temp, but the temp guages on the top of the heaters are stuck. I can't get them to move. I'll have to wait until James gets home. The only way I could get it is if I stick a wrench in the tank and twist them. He can reach in a twist them without a problem.

Right now we have (3) 300 Watt Aquarium Systems heaters in the tank. Is that enough? The temp is always steady and we have a digital thermometer on each end of the tank and they are both the same temp. Every once in a while it will be maybe .2 or .3 degrees different.

I will definately be getting the end tubing for each tank. I never even thought about it spreading ich. That's just one of those things that gets overlooked. AUGH. I hope my fishies are ok.

 

[caribou]

I've got some ich going on in my tank right now. I've started rasing the temp and have ordred meds which should be here on Wed. My water seems good, ammonia is 0 and ph is stable at 7.5. I'm also doing a PWC every week. My tap water is pretty high in nitrates but I blend it out with RO water. My usual temp has been 76. Will a red tailed shark do ok with the ich medications?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm not too sure about the red tail shark. I know that our Bala Sharks died pretty quickly after they got the ich. Have you thought of using the salt and heat treatment?

 

[An t-iasg]

Fishyfanatic, I forgot that a python fills the tank too So maybe getting different gravel vac ends for each tank won't be enough to prevent the spread of an ich outbreak. Sorry -- maybe someone who has a python can help. I was just thinking that if the part that goes in each tank is only used for that tank, then you'd be ok, but I forgot that the flow is reversed and comes back up the same tube to fill. So the water coming from the ich tank and then the new water coming from the faucet will go through the same tube regardless of whether you change the gravel vac end. I know a totally separate python for each tank would be pretty expensive. Sorry I didn't help much.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

You helped more than enough An t-iasg! A couple more of the African's are turning on their sides and rubbing against the sand. They don't have any ich spots on them though. It's odd. One of them has a piece of skin hanging by his mouth. I looked closely at him, and it looks like a layer of skin is coming off of his face. Is that normal with ich? I guess it could have ich on the face, but it is a white fish so I can't tell. My poor fishies. If the hexamitosis wasn't enough, now they have ich.

 

[An t-iasg]

The fish could have rubbed against something and got a scrape wound. Your parameters and temperature are good. Hope the higher temps and salt kick in soon to get rid of the ich!

PS. Neat new avatar!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Thanks! I figure it was time for a change. I'll be gone until late Friday night, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[caribou]

Will the salt addition hurt snails? Is using sea salt o.k.?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

You don't use sea salt. Aquarium Salt for Freshwater tanks. I don't think that it would harm the snails. But I've never had to treat for ich in my snail tank so I'm not exactly certain.

 

[thatmagicguy]

ich remedy

http://billismad.tripod.com
Go to the ich page. It will be helpful. Bill