Quarantine for treating ich

[Gorwooken]

I bought a bristlenose pleco recently and he appears to have ich, I don't have many other fish in the tank with him and they don't appear to be infected.

I have a 10 gallon that I could set up to treat him using salt, is this the best course of action?

 

[rich311k]

Do not treat a pleco with salt. You might as well leave him in your main tank and raise the heat to 86 degrees F. Your tank is infected with the ich now so no sense taking the sick fish out. Read this article: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=32

 

[Gorwooken]

That article says that plecos do fine with the salt treatment, I don't want to raise the temperature in the tank since I keep a red ear slider in it. I'm also not entirely sure how well the turtle will do with salt in the tank.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I don't want to raise the temperature in the tank since I keep a red ear slider in it.

I know this isn't a comment you were looking for, but just making sure you know of it. RES's and fish do not get along, and the RES will grow well over 10 inches in diameter. Incase you did not know.

I wouldn't add the pleco in with it at all. The turtle would be ok at a temp of 86F...but IMO the pleco would do better QT'ed, since you have the turtle. I agree with Rich too. Ditch the salt. Put the pleco in the 10 gallon and treat with heat.

HTH

 

[Gorwooken]

Thanks, I guess thats what I'll do. I do know how large he'll get, and I am aware of their relationship with fish, he'll generally eat whatever goes in the tank. I feed him rosey red minnows every once and a while but there are three in the tank with him that have been there for about two months. As of now, he and the pleco don't run into eachother as he tends to stay in his log until the lights are out and the RES is sleeping.

I'll see how things go, right now my res is only about 2.5" and the pleco is about 3" long and they're in a 90 gal tank.

I was doing a bit more research on this today and I've noticed that most web sites stated that the ich is primarily visible on the fins of the pleco. I took a look at my pleco and it doesn't seem to be on his fins, only a couple spots on his body.

I took him out of the water in the net to get a closer look at him and i noticed a change in color and size of the white on his body, it sat more flush with his body and became slightly translucent, could what i am seeing on him be a fungal infection?

 

[rich311k]

Does it look cottony? Any other fish?

 

[Guest]

ok.. heres the thing... if you have ich it is in the entire tank. If you take the pleco out and treat it separate, you put it back in the tank and bam.. you have ich again. YOu need to treat the entire tank with a heat of at least 86 for 2 weeks. weather you add fish again or just leave the turtle in there.