Advice on ich treatment

[jackhorn01]

I am pretty sure my fish have ich. I am leaving this afternoon to go out of town. I was going to go get some meds and dose them before I leave. I wont be back until Sunday afternoon / evening. Everything ive read says to rendose every 24 hours with a partial water change between doses. Should I just dose the tank then ressume the treatments Sunday evening when i get back? Or wait til then to get started and hope it doesnt advance too much and kill them before the ?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Without knowing what fish are involved, I cannot answer any certainty. If your fish can handle it, then the best option here is to use salt and elevated temperature. However, not all FW fish can handle this and some live plants cannot either.

 

[jackhorn01]

Sword plants, anubia, cory catfish, molly, platty, neon tetras, ghost shrimp

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Anubias sould be OK as should the molly and platty. The neons should also, but may be less happy. The corys vary, but the salt is less of a danger than the ich might be. I cannot say anything about the ghosts.

 

[Colin_T]

You don't need chemicals to treat white spot. Just use heat.

Do a huge (80-90%) water change and gravel clean the substrate. Clean the filter too (wash filter media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media). Then raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks, or at least 1 week after all the white dots have gone. Increase aeration/ surface turbulence when raising the temperature.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Byron]

I agree, heat and nothing else. This advice I got from Neale Monks. It certainly worked for me in my 70g with 60 wild caught cories and numerous upper characins, and these fish are known to have issues with any medication so heat (86F/30C) for two weeks did it. Neale did say if it was especially stubborn and the heat didn't work, salt could be included, but normally this is not necessary.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Agree with heat only, as well

Just make sure there is plenty of water surface agitation, to promote gas exchange...warmer water holds less dissolved O2