ICH in a sensitive tank! PLANTS, GLASS CATFISH

[Badfisherman]

In my heavily planted tank I have the following:
45 gallons

1 angelfish
1 German Blue Ram - 1 ICH SPOT
1 German Balloon Ram
1 Electric Blue Acara
1 Glofish Danio - 3 ICH SPOTS
2 Glofish Tetras - 1 ICH SPOT
1 Indian Glassfish
2 Glass Catfish (SCALELESS!)
1 4" Common Pleco? (Tomorrow 11/10 I may return him to the LFS and pick up a Siamese Algae Eater, maybe 2)

I ordered close to $50 worth of plants last week and planted them. I had no ich issues prior. Must've been the plants...

Anyhow, I'm looking for a treatment solution to rid ich without harming the plants or fish, especially my SCALELESS fish who are extra sensitive I presume.

Water is pristine - 20-25% water changes every week.
7.6 PH, 0 N, 0 A

Please help!

P.S. I turned the heat up to 82 degrees early this evening.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Continue to raise temp to 86.

Sometimes heat is all it takes to make ich pass.


Caleb

 

[Badfisherman]

Thanks for the advice Caleb.

Would it also be enough to KILL ich?

And i'm guessing I should GRADUALLY increase temperature. I have a heater that isn't exactly detailed as far as temp goes. It skips from 82 to 86 so I'll do my best to eyeball it.

1-2 degree increase every 24 hours?

also, how long should I keep it at 86 when I get there?

 

[ImACoolguy]

Thanks for the advice Caleb.



Would it also be enough to KILL ich?



And i'm guessing I should GRADUALLY increase temperature. I have a heater that isn't exactly detailed as far as temp goes. It skips from 82 to 86 so I'll do my best to eyeball it.



1-2 degree increase every 24 hours?



also, how long should I keep it at 86 when I get there?

Essentially, heat treatment speeds up the life cycle of ich. So it looks worse before it gets better. After a week of heat if you see no improvements I would move to meds then that are plant safe and for scaleless fish.

You can raise 1 degree every hour and it will be fine.

Daily water changes and vacuuming will greatly help as ich will free float looking for more hosts. vacuuming Substrate can help remove a good portion.

Like said above, keep in mind with heat treatment IT WILL look worse because you are speeding up the life cycle, then it will get better.


Caleb

 

[sinibotia]

Yes, 86 prevents ich from reproducing so it will kill the parasite. Increase your aeration and lower the water level so that any filters you have are splashing to increase aeration. I would just go straight to 86. No time to let it slowly rise; your fish should be ok. Keep it at 86 for at least a week after you no longer see the parasite.

If you don't see improvements within a few days, I suggest a malachite green based medication at half dose. I have had good success treating a heck of a lot of (scaleless) loaches with that and it should be plant-safe. Salt is also a decent treatment but some scaleless fish are less ok with it than others (botiid loaches seem to tolerate it well but I don't know about glass catfish). And plants don't like salt, so you'd have to move them or something.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Yes, 86 prevents ich from reproducing so it will kill the parasite. Increase your aeration and lower the water level so that any filters you have are slashing to increase aeration. I would just go straight to 86. No time to let it slowly rise; your fish should be ok. Keep it at 86 for at least a week after you no longer see the parasite.

Oops thanks Sini! I forgot to mention YES increase aeration as much as possible because of the increased temperature.


Caleb

 

[Badfisherman]

Thanks guys.

And as it looks worse, would all my other fish look worse too or just the infected?

If the non-infected fish start looking worse, does that raise a red flag?

 

[ImACoolguy]

With ich, the whole tank is infected sadly. Once you can visibly see it, it's best to just treat the whole tank.


Caleb

 

[Badfisherman]

And ok, I currently have a 20 inch bubbler. I'll crank that baby up.

 

[Badfisherman]

Again, thank you guys for the quick reply. Stuff like this keeps me up at night.
And to think, all this time I worked so hard to avoid ich filled tanks...the world certainly works mentally.

 

[sinibotia]

Thanks guys.

And as it looks worse, would all my other fish look worse too or just the infected?

If the non-infected fish start looking worse, does that raise a red flag?

Ich has a multi-stage life cycle so as Caleb has said, it'll look worse before it gets better. There are currently lots of little free-swimming ich parasites finding different fish as hosts or infecting them now,m so those will start showing up even as you start the treatment. At 86 degrees the stages of the life cycle should be very short (something like 48 hours for the whole life cycle to complete, although it is interupted because at that temperature they can't reproduce properly) so if after a few days things look worse then I would move to medications and reduce the temp to 82 at that point (medications and 86 degree temps are too much stress). They are rare, but temperature-resistant strains of ich do exist.

 

[ImACoolguy]

In the future they have "dips" you can do for new plants. I'm like you, I just throw them in and been lucky to never get anything. It may be worth your time though to research plant dips for future use.


Caleb

 

[Badfisherman]

plant dips, CHECK.

 

[Badfisherman]

malachite green based meds, CHECK.

do you guys have experience with HIKARI PRAZI PRO PARASITE TREATMENT?

They sell it at the same website I ordered plants from

 

[sinibotia]

Prazipro is for worms. I absolutely swear by it as a prophylactic treatment for new fish, especially new loaches who tend to be wild caught and loaded with worms. I recommend it 100x over; it's effective and very, very easy on fish. That said, it doesn't do anything against ich.

 

[ImACoolguy]

malachite green based meds, CHECK.



do you guys have experience with HIKARI PRAZI PRO PARASITE TREATMENT?



They sell it at the same website I ordered plants from

I've used it for actual parasitic treatments but not for ich.


Caleb

 

[Badfisherman]

Thank you. I'm very grateful.
You two are on fire today.

 

[Potluck]

i read about a med that does not hurt fish that cant be treated with rid ich its called kick ich, anyone ever heard of it , its okay for plants and scaleless fishes, not saying this is what you need because natural is better than medicating in my opinion, but make sure you aerate the heck out of the tank with that heat especially since you have plants cause your plants use oxygen in your night cycle that takes away from the fish.

"KICK-ICH™ is a copper free water treatment for the control and elimination of ich (a.k.a. “whitespot disease”) in marine and freshwater aquaria. It has been scientifically formulated to interrupt the free swimming, infectious stage of the ich lifecycle while being safe for all freshwater and marine aquaria. The product has been on the market for fourteen years, after three years of development and extensive testing, and has been unequivocally proven to be safe for all fish, corals, invertebrates and plants. KICK-ICH™, whether used alone or in combination with RALLY™, has no impact on biological filtration. KICK-ICH™ is the safest and most effective product for treatment of Ich currently available. KICK-ICH™ has a long shelf life at room temperature and is supplied in easy to use, self-dosing bottles."

 

[Badfisherman]

I will look into quick ich if it doesn't cure within the next week.

 

[Badfisherman]

I know you guys told me that it would get worse before it gets better. I just checked and two of the fish, the white spot is gone.

Is it possible I misdiagnosed ICH?

(the Danio I can't really tell right now cuz it keeps moving about, but the one spot on the ram and tetra are gone)