My first battle with ich

[bud29]

Well, yesterday I discovered a bad case of ich among my entire school of Emperor Tetras. I do not have a LFS in my town, so I ran to walmart to get stuff to treat it. I got aquarium salt, ich guard by jungle, and an air stone and pump. Walmart did not have a heater with an adjustable thermostat, so I did not buy one. I did find a guy on my local classifieds who was selling an adjustable one, though. I called him intending to pick it up that night but he said he is out of town and will get back wednesday. So, I will have to wait to crank up the heat. Last night I put in 1 tablespoon of salt, and the recommended amount of ick guard. Today I will do a 50% water change and redose the ick guard. I will also dose the salt up to 2 tablespoons. Any thoughts? Anything I should be doing differently?

 

[Calypso77]

There's a lot of good thread on ich treatment on here if you do a search. I have seen the best being AQ Salt and heat with no meds. What does your heater sit at that you have?

 

[Christopherlh84]

The best way to kill it is to turn your heat up to 84 and double dose of aquarium salt wait one week and turn heat back down. And do a 50% water change.

 

[shellieca]

Well, yesterday I discovered a bad case of ich among my entire school of Emperor Tetras. I do not have a LFS in my town, so I ran to walmart to get stuff to treat it. I got aquarium salt, ich guard by jungle, and an air stone and pump. Walmart did not have a heater with an adjustable thermostat, so I did not buy one. I did find a guy on my local classifieds who was selling an adjustable one, though. I called him intending to pick it up that night but he said he is out of town and will get back wednesday. So, I will have to wait to crank up the heat. Last night I put in 1 tablespoon of salt, and the recommended amount of ick guard. Today I will do a 50% water change and redose the ick guard. I will also dose the salt up to 2 tablespoons. Any thoughts? Anything I should be doing differently?

What size tank & what kind of fish? I've not dealt with Ich but everything I've read on here says slowly raise the temp to 86, good vacuuming, lots of water changes & continue for at least a week after the last spots are seen. Just keep in mind not all fish can tolerate the heat or the salt. The Ich will get worse before it gets better & if I remember correctly it can take 2-3 weeks to get rid of.

 

[Calypso77]

The best way to kill it is to turn your heat up to 84 and double dose of aquarium salt wait one week and turn heat back down. And do a 50% water change.

Pretty sure you want it between 86-88. And most time longer then a week.

 

[Calypso77]

What size tank & what kind of fish? I've not dealt with Ich but everything I've read on here says slowly raise the temp to 86, good vacuuming, lots of water changes & continue for at least a week after the last spots are seen. Just keep in mind not all fish can tolerate the heat or the salt. The Ich will get worse before it gets better & if I remember correctly it can take 2-3 weeks to get rid of.

+1...........

 

[bud29]

What size tank & what kind of fish? I've not dealt with Ich but everything I've read on here says slowly raise the temp to 86, good vacuuming, lots of water changes & continue for at least a week after the last spots are seen. Just keep in mind not all fish can tolerate the heat or the salt. The Ich will get worse before it gets better & if I remember correctly it can take 2-3 weeks to get rid of.

29 gallon: 8 silvertip tetras, 8 Emperor Tetras, 1 Bolivian Ram, 3 apple snails, one amano shrimp.

I am getting my heater today or tomorrow and will then raise the temp. I am currently just using salt and ich guard, doing daily 50%water changes. I will stop using the ich guard after I get the heater. I moved the inverts to a 5 gallon for right now because of the salt.

 

[justjames76]

I recently had a minor bout with ich too. I tried ich meds to get rid of it, which was not only unsuccessful in getting rid of the ich, but cost me a few of my lovely African cichlids. I then did research (I should have done to begin with) and raised my temps to 86-88 degrees for a little over two weeks ( I already had salt in the water). The ich is gone and the fish seemed to love the higher temps. As others have said here, don't forget the water changes. Best of luck to you. Let us know how it turns out.