Raising the heat on Ich, any pointers?

[grimlock3000]

One of my Rams has spots on his head, and now there is a suspect spot on another fish. I have been treating with Ick Clear and daily water changes and the spots are still on my Rams head, except they look whiter now. I have seen Ich before, and this time it is not nearly as clear.

I have temp up to 82.5-83F currently, I lowered the water level so my canister is shooting across the top of the water, and my Aquaclear output falls into the tank for surface aggitation.

I was thinking about backing down the heat, and stopping the meds to see if it actually is Ich or not. That might be like shooting myself in the foot though, so I might as well go ahead and get the temp to 88F.

Besides lowering the water surface, and raising the temp slowly, what else should I be doing? Should I leave the light off? Not feed the fish? Anything else?

 

[dralarms]

You can cut back on feeding. But the best by far that I have seen is the heat method. What I normally do is get the temp up to 86-87 and once there start treating with Wardleys ick away, once I can safely see that there are no more spots on the fish I stop with the meds, change my filter and leave the heat for 7 to 10 more days, Just to be on the safe side.

 

[lmw80]

Just one thing to remember with raising the heat, especially for ich, cause they are already sick and more vulnerable. Don't raise the heat more than 2 degrees a day. Any major changes can greatly affect the fish.

 

[dralarms]

Just one thing to remember with raising the heat, especially for ich, cause they are already sick and more vulnerable. Don't raise the heat more than 2 degrees a day. Any major changes can greatly affect the fish.

Yep you caught me. I forgot that. Sorry

 

[Allivymar]

lmw mentions a good point; don't raise it too quickly. I'd say a degree every six hours would be the fastest you could go, and keep a close eye on em for any signs of distress.

Other then that, nothing else you need to do. When I treated my guys, I only raised the temps. Fed em the same, left the lights on, didn't add any meds, nothing else except temp was changed. Took around 5 days or so, and I started seeing a decrease in parasites on the fish, and once they started disappearing they never came back. My guess is, they are able to survive on the fish in those temps, but once they fall off for the next stage of the cycle, the heat kills em. So the fish don't get reinfected. Is why I suggest leaving the temps for 2 weeks; to ensure all the nasty buggers are dead.

 

[William]

I did it Alli's way, and I'm ich free! Only lost one fish, But he was so horribly sick that he died before I even began the temp raising.

 

[grimlock3000]

I have been putting the Visi Therm heater up one click every 8 to 12 hours so the increase has been gradual. It is about 85F in the tank right now, and apparently one of my female Cherry Barbs is getting ready to drop eggs 8O All of the Cherry Barbs are schooling at the bottom of the tank turning around in little circles, which is the same thing they were doing the day before I found some Barb fry in my tank. Hard to tell if they are being normal or not. I left the tank lights off today to help out the female.

I am going to see about getting a powerhead and a sponge filter after work as well. I should have enough surface aggitation now, but when I put the water level back up I am likely pushing the limits...

 

[grimlock3000]

Temp is up to 87.5 now, I am going to run some carbon in my filter to get the Ick Clear out of the water, I am sure the fish will appreciate not swimming around in poison

I picked up a Aquaclear 301 Powerhead too. I have it set very low, and it still puts out an amazing ammount of bubbles to get the water surface moving! I love new toys for the fish tank

 

[dralarms]

Sounds like your on the right track