URGENT - Help - ICK

[CheriD]

Hi all!

I am new here are quite a newbie with my fish stuff. I have a 30g tank with guppies, endlers, plecos, catfish, 1 betta and a school of high five tetras. Tetras are the newest, just added this weekend. All natural tank, drift wood and plants. I should also mention that I have a few pregnant guppies and some young fry in the tank as well.

Just noticed tonight that all the tetras are completely riddled with ick and the cory's are going bonkers. These spots on the tetras literally just happened over the last few hours. What do I do? I normally keep the tank at 80 degrees and have added salt to the water as I want to try and avoid medicating if at all possible. Anybody out there that has gone through this that has some advice to offer would be very much appreciated.

I am totally attached to my under water babies and will be devastated if anybody dies.

Thanks in advance!
Cheri

 

[Delapool]

Hi,

Have you looked into the heat treatment method? It's generally quite successful although the quicker you start gradually lifting the temp to 86F the better as it does speed up the ich cycle.


http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php

Edit - it's hard to say but more than a teaspoon of salt per 5 gallons and your plants won't like it.

Salt to kill ich is:

A 3ppT (parts per thousand) salt solution is equivalent to 0.3% salinity, or 3 grams per liter, or ~2.5 teaspoons of salt per gallon (~2.5 tsp = 11.4 gm/gal US). This is the standard recommendation for salt treatment for skin parasites and for Ich. A level tablespoon is equivalent to three level teaspoons US/UK (4 Aust).

 

[dalto]

Yes, if you slowly raise the temp up above 86f the Ich should be gone after ~10-14 days. It is OK to combine the salt and heat treatments.

Make sure the tank stays oxygenated. If you have the type of filter that hangs on the back of the the tank you should be fine here in most cases.

If your fish are already have many Ich spots on them you may be starting treating a little late but cross your fingers and hopefully you will not have any casualties.

 

[CheriD]

THanks! Both my heaters in tank are used and i increased both to their capacities and my tank is only increasing to 82. I followed directions in aqua salt and added 6 tbspn to 30g last night, i also added to my 5g as i just added a huge java moss to 5 from 30 yesterday earlier in the day. Another concern I have is my cory's are acting strange, swimming all crazy, up and down the glass mostly in one corner, almost smashing into things. The one guy looks like he has internal bleeding on the head area just below the black line. Any clue what might be going on with him? Since I just added the school of tetras on Sat/Sun, do you think they were the culprit? I just thought to myself on Tuesday night, that I could finally exhale since everything seemed to be going great, water tests were great and everyone looked happy, and WHAM - this. Hate watching this all unfold. The poor tetras look uncomfortable and my beta is literally just laying around on plants and driftwood. What about the guppy fry? Are they going to be ok with the salt?

 

[MICEY]

swimming around and rubbing on stuff is a simtum of ick
if you get drugs to kill the ick make shore its ok for the corries they don't like salt and some ick treatments are not safe for catfish
I like coppersafe it kills most external parisites so if you are wrong and its not ick but something else it will do the trick (it kills inverts like shrimp, crabs)

 

[Lung Fish]

Get an Ich medication.

 

[dalto]

I am not a huge fan of Ich medications but if you do decide to go this route you should not combine the medication with the heat treatment.

 

[fish wrangler]

Isnt ich medication and salt bad for scale less fish??? I believe the OP said she has catfish which are scale less correct???

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Delapool]

Isnt ich medication and salt bad for scale less fish??? I believe the OP said she has catfish which are scale less correct???

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

More sensitive yes, particularly when young and tank is new it seems to me.

With meds or heat, I find the first night the trickiest. After that the fish seem to adapt to the meds or higher heat.

 

[CheriD]

A huge THANK YOU to all! I decided to medicate with api super ick cure. Was super scary for the first several hours, but all seems to be going well now. I have one more treatment and then I should be done; I hope! I think I caught it early enough and have done all I can. I did keep the tank at 82 as well, which isn't much higher than the 80 I normally keep it at.

Never realized how much I'd worry over my tank babies.

Thanks again to everyone for all your help. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes - keep your fingers and eyeballs crossed for us.

Cheri

 

[Delapool]

A question I have wondered is which is the best method for a badly infected fish. Thoughts?

 

[aqua_holic]

A question I have wondered is which is the best method for a badly infected fish. Thoughts?

I have used just heat on an infested fish (spots all over) and all was well. However, the fishs fins were still erect. I think once the fins clamp and the fish starts sulking, you've really waited too long and at that point any treatment runs the risk of killing the fish.

 

[CheriD]

Hi there! I have ick in my tank right now and applied the first of two doses yesterday and everyone made - THANK GOD! I will have to do the last does tomorrow, so I am still nervous. A few of my guys really scared me during the first few hours of applying the medication; my betta was breathing heavier than normal and was lying on his side in a plant near the surface of water. A few of my plecos were out and acting a little unusual, so I was definitely worried. But as the hours passed they seemed to get through it and were fine when I turned the lights out last night. All the tetras are also doing great, despite the fact that they were the heaviest hit with spots (they were just added to tank last weekend and were the most stressed, I guess). Almost all of them have no spots left today. I'll continue to keep the temp at 82-83 and will drop back to 80 when carbon is place back in tank. I wondered if doing a gravel vac during treatment would help get ick that is falling off fish and into gravel out faster??

 

[MICEY]

remember it takes 2 weeks for complete treatment(some people say 10 days but I like to, add a few more to be shore
vacuuming the gravel helps a little and so does a micro filter , I used to treat most ick with heat and a diatom filter
the best way if you have a large tank is to remove your fish to a quarantine tank and treat them there and after 2 weeks with no fish in it the main tank will be free of ick
plus you use less meds in a smaller quaritenw tank

 

[ppo8820]

Raise the temp to 86 degrees. This kills the parasites and stops them from reproducing. The fish may get more spots at first, but they will drop off. Keep the temp up for 10-12 days, no less. Dont think the ich is gone just because you cant see the spots. Do this, no meds, and it should all go away. Its the best, tested method I have ever used.

 

[Delapool]

I have used just heat on an infested fish (spots all over) and all was well. However, the fishs fins were still erect. I think once the fins clamp and the fish starts sulking, you've really waited too long and at that point any treatment runs the risk of killing the fish.

Yes, that's what I've been thinking on. I've always caught it early so have only been thinking which would be the way to go for a heavily infected fish (basically left too long and ich has badly spread).

Meds could kill off your fish (done that). Heat I find takes time - could well be biased here as the DT is big and slow to change heat on.

I'm actually wondering if in a case like that (theoretically), if a salt dip would be worth trying to kill them where embedded on the fish.

Thoughts?