Pictus Catfish and Ich

[amcody]

My pictus has ich. I've read that you can use aquarium salt and I've read that you can't use aquarium salt for treatment. I've already increased the temp a bit and would like to know if they would tolerate the salt? Also, how much salt for a 20 gallon would be tolerable, if at all? I really do not want to use meds because I don't want to kill off the bb.

 

[Pleco1415]

The best solution is to increase the water temp between 78 and 80 degrees F. The rule with aquarium salt is 1 table spoon for every 5 gallons of aquarium water. Personally when my fish got ich I used API super ick cure. It treated my whole tank within less than a week and it did not affect the water quality. Just remember if you decide to use medication take out only your activated carbon if you have that. Any other kind of filter material is fine when using medication. When your whole tank is ich free do a water change to take out the medication or put in activated carbon.

 

[amcody]

Well I succumbed to meds because when I woke up this morning he was worse. Still active and eating but covered in ick. Sooo I went with Jungle Ick Clear. I removed the filters completely but put them in another empty tank filled with current tank water and a bubbler to keep the bb alive while doing treatment. I know that the meds will probably kill off most of the bb in the substrate and on the decor but atleast I will have the two filters left once treatment is done. He's already looking better. The spots are starting to fall off but I know I need to keep treating because that's when they burrow into the gravel waiting to attack again. I would've waited for a reply but he looked horrible this morning so decided I better not. Thanks for the reply though!

 

[Pleco1415]

You are doing all the right things. I would not worry about the catfish dying because all species of catfish can tolerate unhealthy environments and being sick.

 

[amcody]

That's a good thing to hear! Thanks so much