Ohhh, ich

[BrettMad]

So my tank was set up on the 6th, had fish added the 13th (see other threads, big 155 gallons, planted, tests show only trace amounts of ammonia and nitrites) and I watered seeing ich on the 18th. I called the couple that helped me and they said that the fish could have already been infected at the wholesaler and if not that the stress of moving to the new tank could have played a part. At first, it was all 4 millennial rainbowfish but now others are infected too, although by no means all of the fish.

We started a treatment of medicated fish food on the 19, last Wed evening. Within a few days a thought it was clearing off a couple of the millennials but looking this morning either it returned or I was mistaken.

Has anyone used Metronidazole medicated fish food to treat ich? If so how long did it take? I don't like the idea of second guessing these two, they have been hobbyists and run their store for over 20 years, so not a min wage LFS employee, but I would also like other opinions.

[V227]

I've never heard of treating ick with medicated food. There are several medications specifically made to treat ick that can be found at any LFS or even Wal-Mart. I've rarely had ick outbreaks in my tanks but every once in a while it happens. I treat ick this way:
-raise the water temp. Up to 86 degrees
-gravel vac / 15 % WC every other day for 10 days.
Others use this method but also add aquarium salt.
medicated foods are used to treat internal parasites.
Hope this helps.

[Fresh2o]

I would think that medicated food would have little effect on the free swimming stages (and the other form that has settled into the substrate).
I've used Rid-Ich and Ich-Attack in the past. Smelly but effective. Last outbreak was in 2012 (knock on driftwood).

[Delapool]

Originally Posted by BrettMad

So my tank was set up on the 6th, had fish added the 13th (see other threads, big 155 gallons, planted, tests show only trace amounts of ammonia and nitrites) and I watered seeing ich on the 18th. I called the couple that helped me and they said that the fish could have already been infected at the wholesaler and if not that the stress of moving to the new tank could have played a part. At first, it was all 4 millennial rainbowfish but now others are infected too, although by no means all of the fish.

We started a treatment of medicated fish food on the 19, last Wed evening. Within a few days a thought it was clearing off a couple of the millennials but looking this morning either it returned or I was mistaken.

Has anyone used Metronidazole medicated fish food to treat ich? If so how long did it take? I don't like the idea of second guessing these two, they have been hobbyists and run their store for over 20 years, so not a min wage LFS employee, but I would also like other opinions.

This could of been existing ich "hatching" and present ones becoming large enough to be seen.

I'd really appreciate notes on how the medicated metro goes. Apparently there has been a paper on it's use for ich treatment (was ok from memory but I don't have the paper) and in theory it should work fine and metro itself is quite safe. The use of medicated food is also ideal to get it into the fish.

I'm not sure how quick the treatment would be.

The majority of threads I've seen are either heat treatment or use of the dyes (malachite green, formalin, etc).

[BrettMad]

I found out that the treatment cycle for the medicine would be 2 to 3 weeks in most cases, although they do recommend medicating for 3 to 4 weeks after you no longer see the spots. The way this is supposed to work is that as the organism attacks the fish and feeds from the fish, the organism ends up getting the medicine and dies. This is different from a water tank treatment that tries to attack the organism in the free-floating stage as the other two stages it is basically protected from tank waterborne medicine.

At a week in I see far fewer spots on my rainbowfish where I saw the ich first. However, the tetras now have it, although it is quite possible that they were infected before I started feeding the medicated food. The tetras look far worse than the rainbowfish did, at least some of them. They seem to have 8 to 10 times as many white spots as I saw on the millennial's who started with it. Everything I have read it for most of these treatments is that for a lot of the fish it gets worse before it gets better, so at this point I am just hoping that is the case.

I will update again this weekend. Today marks the end of the first week of the medicated food.

[mimiheart]

It might be better for the tetras as far as treatment goes, honestly. A lot of the medicines aren't good for them. I wonder how it would work in tandem with the raising the temperature method to speed the cycle.

[Delapool]

Originally Posted by mimiheart

It might be better for the tetras as far as treatment goes, honestly. A lot of the medicines aren't good for them. I wonder how it would work in tandem with the raising the temperature method to speed the cycle.

Really good question - I've thought of the same for a planted tank but using triple sulpha (metro not readily available). Would need to be caught early but should work.

[BrettMad]

Well, I can report that the medicated food works really well and not at all.

The rainbow fish look great. There are maybe a half-dozen spots distributed among 16 fish, mostly entails or fins. They are active, very hungry, and doing great.

The gold barbs also look great. They never develop spots and also went after the food.

The tetras, well, that did not go so well. I reported earlier in the week that they had broken out badly, they had been hit hard after not showing anything for the first four or five days I was treating the rainbow fish. The next morning they were lethargic and, unfortunately, that means they were eating. Or at least not eating much. Really hard to have medicated food work when the fish such a small amount of it.

If I had a the quarantine tank I would have moved the tetra to that and started something much harsher and maybe a combo of things. Stuff I do not want to dump into the main tank. I had already decided when I first saw these that it would be a good idea to get a quarantine tank because I did not want to get all my fish through this and then have to go to it again the next time I went to add fish.

As of this morning, I have four of my 13 tetras that were around when the extorted. Three of those four have started eating again, and although they are still covered with spots they are getting more active. Hoping they will pull through. I do not expect the fourth tetra to make it. I honestly at this point will not be surprised if I lose all of the tetra, but I would also be surprised if I lost anything else aside from the tetra.

So if you are not a tetra, the medicated food worked great and you look like you are on the road to recovery. If you are tetra…

[Delapool]

Probably would need to swap to water dosing in QT for these. Not as effective though.

Sorry for your losses.

As a treatment it sounds promising, thank-you for sharing.

[BrettMad]

We are down to one tetra. he is lost part of his tail, whether from being harassed because he was sick by the other fish in the tank or as a result of ich, I do not know, but I expect the last of my tetra will pass in the next 48 hours. I would be thrilled if he recovers, but he did not eat and did not really chase food this morning. When you are trying to cure them with medicated fish food, that is a bad thing. the gold are herbs never seem to of gotten the egg at all, and they are the ones it vigorously when after the last bits of food. The rainbow fish seem to have recovered. When I fed them this morning I could not see any dots, although the 16 of them refuse to line up nicely and let me inspect them ...

I vacuum the tank yesterday for the first time, more about that in another thread. I am hopeful that between weekly water changes of at least some amount so that I can vacuum a bit of the substrate and the fact that one way or another I hope I have no fish with visible spots left within the next 2 to 3 days I can start the one-month countdown. I was strongly advised not to add any more fish or start replacing losses until I am done with the medicated food, which supposed to be at least a month after that the last fish loss or last spots are visible.

Although things could change, aside from the tetra it looks like I will get through this first experience without losing any of my other fish, so it certainly could have been worse.

[Delapool]

I find tetras finicky to keep anyways.

[mimiheart]

Originally Posted by Delapool

I find tetras finicky to keep anyways.

I've had pretty good luck with red eyes (or lamp eyes). Otherwise, they're incredibly delicate, IMO.