Ich Treatment- -HELP!

[phoenix01]

I have been out of town for the past couple of days, and when I returned home today, I found that one of four of my kissing Gouramis had died. I immediately tested the nitrates, which were at 10ppm. (I do 20% water changes weekly) I then noticed that my other three kissing gouramis were very lethargic and staying at the bottom of the tank, which is unusual for them, usually they are the most active in my tank. They have a raised white spots all over their bodies. I immediately went to Petsmart and purchased some coppersafe. The employee at petsmart told me I should also raise the temperature in my tank to 82F and add marine salt. I did both of those as they instructed me. But I have one question. On the bottle of Coppersafe, it says one treatment will last for a month. I am a little unsure about that, because I had read that you needed to treat daily for up to 16 days. Do I add the recommended amount of coppersafe daily, or do I just keep what I have already put in.

In a 55 gallon tank, I have 4clown loaches, 1 pleco, 4 congo tetras, 4 red dwarf gouramis, and two blue gouramis. None of them seem to be affected. Also, I have had the same fish in the tank for about 6 weeks, without any new additions or changes? Where could this have come from?

Also, is it recommend that I do daily water changes? I wasn't sure if I should because I had put the medicine and salt in. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[phoenix01]

Oh- I forgot to say..

I have had the tank set up for 6 weeks not. I feed them tropical flakes, and sometimes some frozen brine shrimp. The filters are 2 large Topfin filters that came with my petsmart aquarium tank kit.

I haven't seen one of the remaining 3 kissing gouramis all night, so I am hoping I didn't lose him. Same with the loaches, who usually are out and about all of the time.

 

[Felf]

there's a debate on whether ick comes only with added fish, water, etc or it's always present in our aquarium but only shows up when the fish are stressed. i believe the latter. i dont personally use coppersafe since a lot of fish are sensitive to it so i use ridich+ which has a combination of formaline and malachite green and it works very well. i think you're supposed to dose the tank once every 24hours then change 25%-50%(before dosing again) of the water until several days after the ich disappears because medications will only work when the ich is in it's vulnerable free swimming stage. you're supposed to do one treatment or the other not both at the sametime. raising the temperature speeds up the cycle ich goes through and the salt kills it by osmosis/diffusion. i have both gouramis and loaches as well. loaches are considered scaleless so dosages should be decreased so not to harm them but if you have a QT tank where you can dose the infected fish seperately that shouldnt be a problem. if those kissing gouramis were in the same tank as the other fish i'd suggest treating all of them. only use carbon/chemical filtration(if you have any) to remove medication from the water at the end of the treatment; the carbon will absorb the medication. i hope someone can chime in and back me up

 

[pitt420dude]

Felfs advice is all correct, however I had luck with treating Ich using only the temperature (raise to 86 slowly) and a little extra salt. Loaches and any other scaleless fish are sensitive to medication, so i would just stick with the high temp and salt. You coudl also give your fish a salt bath. This will help kill the ich encysted on them and provide them with electrolytes. Add about 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon in a bowl or bucket or something. IF you fish starts thrashing immediatly remove and dilute some more. Give them a few minutes each and it may help. It also may make them more stressed out, i dont know ive never tried it. I just used the salt and heat, (sorry to tell you but I lost a lot of fish). I think i woudl have had better luck if i started with the salt and heat treatment.

 

[phoenix01]

Thank you so much for the advice. I am going to try the salt and heat only, because if there is a way to cure this without medication (which makes me nervous) I would much rather do that. I am noticing it on all of the fish now except for the congo tetras. I have lost quite a few fish today as well. 3 of 4 gouramis and 3 of 4 loaches. I hope everyone else comes out of this OK though. I will definitely have to get them some more friends though. I have learned one thing though, any fish I buy will be quarantined for at least three weeks to hopefully avoid this in the future. Thanks again. :|