Here's a question on Ich that I don't think I've heard b/4

[saberry]

OK, like what seems to be half of the people here, my fish are having a bout with Ich. Over the past day and a half, I have raised the temp from 79 to 86 degrees F. I understand that to kill all the Ich, I should maintain this temperature for 48 hours.

My question is this, once the 48 hour period is over, should I reduce the heater setting directly back to 79 or should I step it down as well. My thought process is this - Increasing the temperature in the tank is forced, using a heater, while cooling a tank off will occur naturally without any external measures and will therefore be more gradual.

Will this method of getting back to a normal temperature be gradual enough on the fish, or should I use the heater to step the temp down as well?

PS This is a 55 gal tank, so we are talking about a fair amount of water.

 

[Terry]

Saberry

That is a good point, if you step it back down to 79 gradual, it is going to fall at the same pase than if you just turn it down to 79 and let it drop the whole way. I don't think it will make a differance myself.

 

[fire goby]

Re: Here's a question on Ich that I don't think I've heard b

Raising of temperature will kill the itch? hmmm...... will it not at the same time stress the fishes more and invite more itch and maybe white spots later?

please advise

OK, like what seems to be half of the people here, my fish are having a bout with Ich. Over the past day and a half, I have raised the temp from 79 to 86 degrees F. I understand that to kill all the Ich, I should maintain this temperature for 48 hours.

My question is this, once the 48 hour period is over, should I reduce the heater setting directly back to 79 or should I step it down as well. My thought process is this - Increasing the temperature in the tank is forced, using a heater, while cooling a tank off will occur naturally without any external measures and will therefore be more gradual.

Will this method of getting back to a normal temperature be gradual enough on the fish, or should I use the heater to step the temp down as well?

PS This is a 55 gal tank, so we are talking about a fair amount of water.

 

[saberry]

Yes, you are corrrect, this will stress the fish, but from my understanding, it will not cause further incidence. The increase in ich occurs when the temp is raised over a long period of time. This is done if you are medicating the water and want to speed the parasite lifecycle to get them off the fish and into the water where they can be killed by the medicatoin. What I am doing to getting the temp up much quicker than that - maybe too quick (only time will tell) and killing the parasites with heat. Will this stress the fish, absolutely. Will it kill them, hopefully none and doubtfully all. It's a risk for sure, but one I hope will work out OK.

As far as more white spots later, my understanding is that, providing I maintain a temp of 86 for at least 48 hours, all the ich will die as they can not survive at that temerature. I will be keeping a very close eye on my fish to make sure this is the case.

They way I looked at it, I had two choices, treat with meds only which can take time during which the fish suffer and are stressed or go for a quicker method during which time the fish suffer and are stressed. I figured if the fish are going to suffer and be stressed, it might as well be for as short a time as possilble.

If I have made a horrible error, it is really to late to change methods, however; I will keep you all apprise one way or the other. By the way, I am using a 200 watt Ebo-Jagar heater which should be sufficient for my tank and I am told they are extremely accurate, which in this case is very important.

Thank you for your concern - your input and suggestions are always welcome.

 

[Allivymar]

*sniffle* I wrote a whole article on Ich and you didn't even read it did you saberry; I'm hurt *sob*

Heh, the article is listed in the articles here; click on articles (on the left) on the main homepage and check the article list; you'll see it. It pretty much answers all your questions.

On a personal note, I only treat with either salt/high temps or high temps alone. It has ALWAYS been successful and I have never lost a fish to ich or the temps even tho I use temps of between 88F and 89F. I even treated my clowns in my 55g; tank size wasn't a problem and they are fat happy healthy pigs now (and getting bigger all the time!). The main change you might see is the fish will become more active and more hungry. Higher temps means higher metabolism.

 

[saberry]

I can't believe I missed it. I kept checking under the unhealthy fish forum looking for a sticky. Dumb me, I did not even think to look under articles. Glad to hear that though - it also makes me think I would be OK to go up another degree or two.

 

[Allivymar]

*wipes her nose on saberry's sleeve* S'ok.

LOL Actually yeah, you should be able to raise it a degree or 2 more. I've used those temps for my clown loaches, but I have a plec and 5 angelfish in that tank, and when I bought a bunch of cardinals, a couple of otos and a bamboo shrimp, and the cardinals broke out with ich 3 days after I got them (thank god for a QT tank!), they also got the high temp treatment and came thru with flying colors. I did lose 3 cards, one each day after I bought them, then the ich became apparent. Once I upped them temps I didn't lose any others. I'm actually using high temps in my QT tank now as a preventative for some new loaches and they seem fine. Dunno if it will work, but as long as there are no negative effects that I've seen so far, I figure its worth a shot.

 

[saberry]

You know what is really aggravating here is that I have not even had a chance to set up a quarantine tank yet. I was going to use a 2.5 gal Eclipse that I bough for my daughter but that's just too small for my Cichlids. The kicker is that the ich came from my original stock of fish that I added with the Bio-spira in a brand new tank. It just took about a week to show up. I guess that goes to show that a quarantine tank should really be the first one you set up. I'm thinking about setting up an Eclipse 12 gal as a quarantine in the future. I think that would be large enough to house any future inhabitants in the big tank, at least in the short term. I think I noticed that you also had an article on setting up a quarantine tank so I'll look for the answer to my other question there - when you don't have any fish in quarantine, how do you keep the bacteria levels up? Don't worry, I'll consult the article. LOL

PS - I read the article (on Saltwater, but still applies) and now I'll ask my question. IF you want to maintain the quarantine tank without having to tear it down and put it back together every time, what are your other alternatives? I thought about a couple of Goldfish to keep the ammonia in there for the bacteria, and then transplanting the goldfish to another smaller tank during the quarantines - maybe that 2.5 gal I mentioned. Suggestions? Or is this route more trouble than it is worth? By the way, this method would involve fresh water and lots of heat in the quarantine tank before adding the goldfish back to the tank.

How do all you do your quarantines?