Whoops... ICK!

[Mad Professor]

My bedroom 10 gallon tank has been neglected, and I got the consequences.

Recently I added more plants and did a 20% water change wednesday, for a flame tetra who might have dropsy or a bacterial infection. I'm not sure, but he is a balloon.

I havn't been doing my water change since about a week before christmas.
My birthday and my family forcing me to go up for the holidays and the cold weather has prevent me from doing it. Not only that, the after effect of an New year, and going back to work, I havn't had the time to do any maintence on my tanks.

So Right now I'm starting the heat treatment, I hope my java ferns and moneyworts can handle the 86-87F, I also have two other plants that I can't identify.

Any tips please?

Thanks

~Mp

 

[Zagz]

Extra aeration is preferred for the fish's sake. Also remember to keep the heat up for 2 weeks AFTER the last spot of ich is gone. Good luck.

 

[7Enigma]

Make sure your temperature measurement is accurate. Your plants will be fine (I have treated for Ich twice now and both times had your plants and others). I would recommend going with 87-89F to make sure you are effectively above 86 in all areas of the tank. A good digital thermometer will go along way to guaranteeing your in fact killing the parasite as opposed to giving it its best conditions for metabolism and thus replication (~85-86F).

 

[Mad Professor]

WHAT THE HELL I must have gotten the worst ick ever. I've lost a flame tetra and a serpae. My second flame tetra is suffering the same symptoms as the first one. Starts out as ick then he starts ballooning, then starts a swim bladder problem and finally death. My serpae was fine then after dinner I came home to find him dead.

How is my betta immune to ick? He hatin the heat tho. Hmm...

I have the water low enough for the filter to splash and aerate the water.

 

[7Enigma]

Yeesh that sounds very bad. Please make sure your temp is high enough. The problem with Ich treatment is that there is a very fine line between killing it, and having it as active as possible (speeds up its metabolism and life cycle).

It might be a good idea to get some Jungle Parasite Clear tabs from your LFS. I've heard good things about it. My concern is that you might have more than one problem in your tank and not know it. Ich is a deadly parasite because it creates open sores on/in the fish. This allows a perfect entry point for opportunistic parasites.

You have a 10 gallon tank. I'd do 50% PWC's every or every other day as well. With such a small tank these should only take a couple minutes, so there's no reason not too. That will eliminate any free-swimming Ich and other parasites/disease in the water column as well as giving your fish the cleanest water possible to heal. Just be sure to match temps properly and use dechlor as always.

I'm so sorry for your losses.

 

[Mad Professor]

I lost my last flame tetra.
Damn the holidays!



I went 1 1/2 degree up every 6 hours until I hit 86-88. I can't do 50% PWC might stress my fish more, I can do 25% which is what they are comfortable with. I just did one a few minutes ago, after I cleaned up the dead body.


Keep you updated.

 

[Mad Professor]

TOTAL LOST! The betta has died, leaving me with 2 serpaes. One of them are in a free float *swim bladder gone* so Thats the end of that one. What went so wrong, its only been 4 days since I started the treatment. I maintained 86-88F did 25% water changes with dechlor every other day. None of them exhibit any other problems besides ick. So what killed them?

Wow this sucks!

 

[gu2high]

Well, if all are lost, run the temperature to 90F for 3-4 days to kill the ick and then keep 87F for another 10 days. Total is 2 weeks.

If no fish in the tank, the ick will die in a month by itself at the normal temperature.

 

[Mad Professor]

What about my plants? I can't simply move them to another tank without infecting it with ick.

I'm baffled on what kills a betta in 6 hours that didn't exhibit signs of problems.