Prevention of ich?

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McPhenius

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We had a 2 1/2 gallon tank in my son's room with one Goldfish for about 8 months and he was always healthy.

I had purchased a 5 gallon setup and another Goldfish & small pleco. Within one week, all three developed Ich and even with treatment, they died.

A neighbor gave us a 25 gallon setup, which we've had for about a month now. Appears the cycling went good and water levels are getting to normal with some Nitrates.

When I had the small Goldfish tank, I didn't know about testing the water, partial changes, etc. With the big tank I learned about Bio Spiro, cycling, etc.

Now we have about 18 fish in the tank (all Tropical) and they seem to be very healthy.

I'd like to prevent ich. Any tips for preventing the disease? I assume the making sure water conditions are good and partial changes on a regular basis.

I am in South Florida so the tank temp without a heater is about 78-80 degrees, so I don't have a heater. (Should I still have one?)

For all I know, one of the newer fish I bought to put with the original Goldfish may have had it. But I'd like to be safe this time and not loose all the fish in the new tank.
 
The goldfish tank you had were way to small and the stress could of coursed a whitespot outbreak, 20gal for the first goldfish, plus 10gals for every other goldfish added, as they are massive waste producers, whitespot lives in the aquarium only takes a stressed sick fish to cause an outbreak, keep water quality in tip top condition, quarantine new fish and keep temp stable and you should be fine, need a heater just in case always best to have one in case one day the temp drops dramatically.
 
healthy fish = not stressed. stress is the caused in most ich outbreak such as introducing new fish or maybe sudden change of water stats(ph/temperature etc...). Another caused is lag of water change which probably wouldn't be just ich out break it would be more usually do a 25% change every week would give you an healthy aquarium.
 
IMCL85 said:
healthy fish = not stressed. stress is the caused in most ich outbreak such as introducing new fish or maybe sudden change of water stats(ph/temperature etc...). Another caused is lag of water change which probably wouldn't be just ich out break it would be more usually do a 25% change every week would give you an healthy aquarium.
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My wife seemed to remember this and brought it up and I bet this caused the outbreak. The 2.5 gallon was our first tank and was a gift for his birthday. The one Goldfish thrived in it and got big.

However, when we got the 5 gallon replacement tank & filter, I knew nothing about cycling, etc. So we haded the second Goldfish and small Pleco. Not only that, during the first week the water smelled of ammonia and was cloudy.

Unknowingly, I removed the filter and put a clean cartridge in. Thus screwing up the cycling process, which I now know about. The stress of new fish and the changing of the filter instead of letting the tank get established probably caused this.
 
Not sure if goldfish and pl*c's go together as goldfish are cold water -but as you've rightly pointed out you're in florida so cold water to you guys is 80oF!!!

I found ich usually breaks out after the introduction of new fish - best way to prevent this is to put new fish into a quarrantine tank - if this isn't possible then take a good look in the tank (and any others connected to that tank by sump etc...) see if they're all healthy - if so you're 1/2 way there.

Alot of people I know treat the tank after each purchase (a bit excessive but if you're paranoid about ich etc then this could be your answer) - remove any activated carbon in your filter(s), put the recommended dosage of for example interpet no 6 for ich or melafix and follow any repeat instructions.

Some may disagree and as I said I don't personally do this, just those I know who rather the prevention tactic.
 

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