What do you guys suggest for a serious case of Ich?

[uh.oh...]

(if this ends up being a double post, sorry, i'll fix it.)

What do you guys suggest for a serious case of Ich?

My South American Puffer has suffered from the curse for about 10 days now, but I've cured all the other fish in the aquarium already (i hope). he didn't have Ich from the start, i think he got it about 2 weeks after introducing him to the aquarium. Apparently they're pretty susceptible to Ich, and being scaleless the normal medications aren't suggested in their normal quantities, but I've been doing it anyways. So far I've:

1. removed carbon
2. Malachite-green (as recommended on bottle) (the walmart brand of ich cure)
3. salt baths
4. Tank temp up to 85 F.
5. Aquarium Salt (first as directed 1 tablespoon to every 5g. but now have gone up to 3 TBSP / 1 gallon) gradually of course.
6. Victoria green / nitromersol (full dosages) (ie. Ick Guard)
7. primafix and melafix for secondary bacter
8. done numerous vacuuming and water changes to remove ich cysts. also (not related to ich) switched over to a sand/flourite substrate. I had a combination of pea gravel (from lowes) actual aquarium gravel, and sand, but the pea gravel was too large and harsh on the plant roots, so i used a cat box scooper (unused) to sift out most of the large gravel and then added a 1-2 inch layer of sand on top of that. here's to hoping i took some ich out with the gravel. I also did about a 40% water change during all this.

Lately I've been dosing less of the meds and just sticking to the salt and temp raise. I disinfected my aquarium decorations with potassium permanganate. Which is apparently hard on live plants, but mine seemed to do ok. (The funny part was that the chemical was sold at walmart as a water odor and cloudiness remover).

I think my next step will be a medication/salt/bucket dip with an air stone and heater. I'll probably siphon off two or three gallons of tank water into a bucket, plop in an extra 50 watt heater and air stone, medicate with malachite green and let him chill in there for a few days. I'm still doing research as to the length of time for treatment, but seeing as how I've done all this other stuff I'm pretty sure this is my next step.

BTW my water tests as of 1/19/11, 11 am:
pH 7.4
ammonia .25 ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 5-20 ppm ( all the colors look the same)

my tank:
29 gallon tank, sand / flourite substrate, some shale and driftwood
☺still cycling with 0 nitrite, 7.4pH, 10-20 ppm nitrate, 0 ammonia. up and running for a month now.
☺DIY CO2 thingy
☺Sun Sun HW-303A canister filter 1400/Lph (93g/h)
☺100 Watt heater
☺coralife lighting with 10k and 6.7k blubs
☻1 Dwarf Gourami
☻4 Ballon Mollies 1 male 3 femail
☻1 lyretail Mollie male (clinically insane)
☻1 South American Puffer

 

[jestes]

I'd get the temp above 86, not 85. The increase in temperature actually accelerates ich's life cycle, but since it cannot reproduce above 86, the infection dies out. IMHO, 85 is just making it worse.

Also, are you using test strips to test your water? Those things always seem to show .25 ammonia, but I'd bet you're cycled since you have nitrates, and no nitrites.

 

[uh.oh...]

i've been testing with my master kit. I had strips first, and used those to test for hardness. to get my water above 85 i think i'll have to add a second heater. the 100W I'm using is set at 88, it won't go higher, but the water temp has settled at 85.

 

[BigJim]

I've had luck with this: PETCO.com - Wardley Wellness Ick Out Sensitive customer reviews - product reviews - read top consumer ratings

A couple weeks ago I noticed one of my rainbows had ich all over. Turns out the heater wasn't working and the tank was 65 degrees. I've got a pictus cat in the tank, so the malachite green was out. I fixed the heater, set it to 75 degrees, and dosed the Wardly stuff as directed, but I left it in the tank for three days rather than the 24 hours recommended on the label. The ich cleared up and none of the fish are worse for wear.

 

[tyspot1000]

Parasites (including Ich) needs a host to survive (The fish). If there is no host in the tank, than the parasites will slowly die off (for Ich, wait at least 2 weeks, thats how long their life cycle is). They cant live on fish food.

 

[uscamaro]

Raise the temp a few degrees and add "Aquarium" salt, not table salt. It cured my Ich outbreak.

 

[uh.oh...]

all cured

Hey thanks for the advice guys. All cured now. I guess what it took was just a few more degrees of temperature change. Once I added my second heater the temp bumped up to 87, and a few days later the SAP was cured.

 

[tyspot1000]

Congrats!