Yay! I get to play with Ich!

[patryuji]

Well it seems two loaches I had in QT have ich. I did not notice until I had moved one into the main tank already...the first one did not have the white spots but the second one most definitely does.

It took quite awhile before it become obvious (plus I don't have any lights on my QT...now I know for future reference to keep my QT lit). Now it has been beyond the normal alotted time frame for returning fish. Next time I will give it 3 weeks instead of just a little over 2 weeks.

As soon as I noticed the second loach had it I tore apart my main tank trying to get the first loach back out and into the QT (don't want to spend the time waiting for it to go into a soda bottle trap since it has parasites). It took an hour...what are the chances it infected my main tank?

Well, I will now begin to raise temps on both (QT and main tank) to 86 degrees...I don't know how the cories will handle that though. I would use salt as well but I have plants in my main tank that won't do well with salt.

 

[patryuji]

...DARN! I just noticed red tailed sharks don't like temps above 79 degrees fahrenheit. Given the 1 degree per 12 hours rule....how long can I expect the red tail to last under these temperature extremes? It seems either way it may be doomed (Ich or heat). Perhaps 86 degrees and small amounts of salt at the same time and then shorten the duration of the treatment?

 

[patryuji]

Allright I have been treating at 87 degrees (well fluctuations put it anywhere from 86.5 to 87.5) for 4 days now. Most of the spots are gone but there are still a few remaining...I had read a link off of the Ich article and it mentioned 88 degrees as the temp to use (as opposed to the 86 degrees listed in the article itself). Do I need to raise my temps by another degree to get rid of these last few "strong" spores of Ich?

 

[Menagerie]

Have you added salt?
I was away earlier in the week and didn't see the post until today. What are you doing with the loaches? Has any of the fish in the main tank shown signs of ich?

 

[patryuji]

The loaches are in my QT but I am treating my main tank as well. I don't see any signs of infection on the fish in the main tank but I'd rather not risk it.

I added very little salt the first day and so far my plants are still growing fine (actually they went into hyper growth mode with the heat). I don't plan to add more salt to the main tank since I have not seen signs of Ich there.

In the QT right now it is at 1 tablespoon for the 10 gallons. I plan to increase it to 2 tablespoons for the 10 gallons over the next few days. The loaches don't appear to have any negative effects from the salt as of yet.

 

[Menagerie]

Sounds good! I'm glad the main tank is not showing signs of ich. More than likely, the loach was not in long enough and the fish in your main tank are "stress free"

 

[patryuji]

Okay, treatment is over and I am beginning to lower my temps at the same 1 degree per 12 hour rate. All ich is gone from my new guys. No ich in the main tank (never developed).

I only had one casualty (I was trying to move my fish around at the end of the treatment and figured I had time to go to the store before anybody would go into my trap...only two fish went into the trap and only one swam out).

 

[Menagerie]

I read about your casualty--sorry about your ram
YEAH the ich is gone!!

 

[Bremadie]

I recommend still treating for a ICH a week after. And you don’t have to raise your temp to treat it. Raising your temp just speeds up the life cycle of the ICH. Check out this site.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

 

[patryuji]

I recommend still treating for a ICH a week after. And you don’t have to raise your temp to treat it. Raising your temp just speeds up the life cycle of the ICH. Check out this site.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

If I dont' raise the temps to kill the ICH then I have two choices:

Kill off my plants with salt.

-or-

Kill off my invertebrates and risk harm to the fish with "poison" meds.

I'd rather kill the Ich with high temps (as is mentioned in the article).

The second approach is to actually destroy the organism with heat, and can be combined with the salt treatment below, but not with meds

I actually treated for as few as 4 days to as many as 7 days too many (it lists either 10 days or 3 days after the last spot disappears).

 

[Bremadie]

Okay good. I am still new at this but i have had ICH for six weeks now and I did not want to see yours come back. I fully understand the frustration of the dieases. I am glad to see you found the link helpful.