A Hypothetical Situation Involving Ich, What Would You Do?

[draxis]

You have the following to use in this hypothetical scenario. If it says not allowed you cannot use it in your answer(response).

55 Gallon tank
Fully stocked freshwater plants/fish setup
No extra tanks allowed
No heating above 82 F allowed
No salt allowed
$1,000 in your back left pocket
$250 in your back right pocket
$0.26 in your front right pocket
$0.01 in your front left pocket (lucky penny may not want to risk using)
Medications allowed


What would you do?

 

[misterpro]

I would use 5$ out of your back right pocket and buy some Esha Exit.
 
fish (even cories etc), shrimp, snail and plant safe, and it's biodegradeable so you don't even have to do a water change after treatment

 

[draxis]

Too bad thats a UK product

 

[misterpro]

It's made in The Netherlands/Holland actually.  But it indeed seems you can't really find any in/from the US...  darn
 
Anybody US based with some ideas?

 

[iapple5678]

I'd pull any inverts and amphibians and run copper through the tank. Thats always worked for me in the past.

 

[Wildbetta]

Nitrofuracin Green if there are inverts in the tank and the ICH case was mild
 
Metronidazole Powder if there are no inverts and the ICH case was bad.
 
Both of these medications cost less than $50 for well over the amount you would need to treat that size tank for the recommended amount of time.

 

[draxis]

Ok if you pull fish you stress them out further and risk death.  Plus they will infect whatever tank they sit in... Once they re-arrive in the clean tank, they re-infest it.
 
Is that really the best idea?

 

[Wildbetta]

I'd pull any inverts and amphibians and run copper through the tank. Thats always worked for me in the past.

You have no other tanks to move the inverts/amphibians(as per the rules above) to so they have to stay in the main tank.  Plus you would not be able to return the inverts to the main tank if you run copper through it.  

 

[draxis]

People who move fish for diseases are funny. Forget chemicals.... Think about this:

1) you move all fish to a clean home (they have ich)
2) heat ich infested tank to 90 and purge diseases
*takes at least 5 days if not more
3) clean tank now infected and ich multiplying in it
4) move fish from clean tank leaving behind a population of ich
*heat ich in this tank to purge -
5) your fish still have ich on them, gills, mouth, places you may not see.
6) some ich falls off and multiples in substrate of the FIRST tank you just purged with heat
7) cry because ich-1 you-0


You move fish when there is blooms of toxins such as ammonia, nitrites, nitrates OR fish bullying or oversizing(etc)


You dont go infesting other tanks to clean one which you dump dirty fish back into.

 

[Meeresstille]

And why can't you use salt treatment?

 

[draxis]

Salt can affect plants...

 

[Meeresstille]

I took the risk twice doing the heat salt treatment for ich in my planted tank and the plants were fine! You can also go with a lower dose, you just need to treat longer.

 

[draxis]

I took the risk twice doing the heat salt treatment for ich in my planted tank and the plants were fine! You can also go with a lower dose, you just need to treat longer.

 
What kind of dosing did you do?  1 table spoon per  5 gallon or ?

 

[Meeresstille]

I'd have to look it up but it was given in 3 bursts within 3 days, I believe (did that in March or somewhere there abouts), at 1 tbsp per gallon each time, and I used normal table salt, even though some say you shouldn't because of the iodine, some say it is too minute to do any harm.

 

[iapple5678]

 

I'd pull any inverts and amphibians and run copper through the tank. Thats always worked for me in the past.

You have no other tanks to move the inverts/amphibians(as per the rules above) to so they have to stay in the main tank.  Plus you would not be able to return the inverts to the main tank if you run copper through it.  
 

plastic bucket it what I have always used, since you never transfer anything from an infected tank to a non infected tank. Its not that hard to keep them happy in there. Also every tank I have owned has had copper run through it multiple times and my cherry shrimp colonies are still uninformed of why that should matter once plenty of water has been changed. If they were that sensitive to copper it wouldn't be in their food.