Ich a devastating experience

[odessadude]

I have had my aquarium set up for about nine years now, please see my pics. My daughter wanted some more fish last week and they wound up getting a pair of Angels. I already had one large Angel along with the Australians, so I told my wife to go ahead and get them. I was out of town on a business trip.

When I got home, I noticed that the two new Angels had ich. I immediately treated the tank with some medicine I always had kept, just in case. Unfortunately it was not the cure. Within a day, all of the fish had the ich. One of the new guys, bit the dust pretty quick. My large Angel bit the dust last night( after it was apparent she wasn't going to make it I put her in the bag and did the deep freeze trick).

After two major water changes and raising the temp (in the process) I will probably lose the last Angel. The Australians seem to be hanging in there, although they still have some ich on them.

I thought I would bring this subject up, due to the fact I never feel great to go and get new fish from any fish store. I should have told my daughter to wait, but I was out of pocket and thought everything would be alright.

My tank is difficult to raise the temperature at a quick rate. 150 gallons plus the 35 gallons in the sump is hard to overcome.

Buyer beware!

These are the only fish I ever lost to any disease.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. It really stinks (to say the least) when you lose fish especially after you desperately try to save them. I hope your remaining fish can pull through for you.

 

[Gillie]

My local breeder told me that she recieved a memo from theMCA(MichiganCichlidAssoc.) that their is a new strain of med resistant ich that spreads real fast.

 

[rich311k]

That stinks I am sorry.

 

[QTOFFER]

That's horrible.

I quarrantine new purchases for three weeks in a separate tank at 86oF whether they have ich or not.

 

[Regen311]

This may be a dumb question, but most tropicals say they should be in like 72-76 maybe 78 degree water. In this case, is it stessful to the fish to raise the temperature to 84 or so to treat ich? Doesn't the stress make it harder on the fish? Can fish naturally overcome ich?

 

[Jarred Darque]

it may make it slightly harder on the fish, but it drastically increaess the life cycle (making them hatch, growand lay eggs much faster, and die much sooner) so that you can get them all with medication that much more quickly to illiviate the stress o nteh fish. The stress caused by ich is more than likely far greater than that caused by 84 degree temps...on that note, I keep ALL my tanks at an even 80 degrees

 

[GouramiFanatic]

A tank at 84° would just make the Ich spread quicker. The temps have to be over 86° (preferably around 88° to be safe) to kill the Ich. Of course warmer water holds much less oxygen so it's important to lower the water level and to add more aeration to help the fish. I've treated Ich using this method a few times now and I've never seen the fish stressed out to where I thought the heat method was a bad treatment. It's much safer than meds in my eyes.

 

[gu2high]

Yes, I agree that the heat treatment is safer than medication.

For hardy fish like platy and guppy, I moved once from 80F tank to 87F tank directly, and also moved back directly without any loss. Without accumulation, the fish maybe stressed a little bit, but if they are healthy, it is ok.

 

[Zagz]

Sorry about your loss. I agree the heat method is the best treatment. Meds are hard on fish as well if not harder than heat IME.