Are Tetras Resistant To Meds?

[smudge_]

After a long cycle I set up my tank the other day. Everything was going well. But I found ich on one of my new ember tetras last night which no doubt means they will all have it when I get home, I am fairly annoyed by this as my tank is spotless and the water levels are spot on (api test kit)
 
Oh well, better deal with it asap, so I  went out and got this, not the most expensive brand but hopefully it will work.
 

 
 
So I will put up the temperature up and treat them with the above. I've dealt with ich in the past and am not massively worried about it but  my main question is how much will this impact tetras? I know some fish don't cope with meds well at all and my tetras are tiny and probably very young.  Is the meds likely to hit them harder than the white spot?
 
 
Thanks for any advice,

 

[LyraGuppi]

Most of the time the box for meds will have warning on what fish may not like the meds.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Tetras are usually fine with meds.  Its fish like loaches, cories, plecos, etc (usually the scaleless fish) that have the most difficulty with meds/salt.
 
 
You should be fine with the ember tetras.
 
 
For my money, I prefer heat and salt to deal with ich - just my personal preference.  It is equally effective, and much cheaper.  Meds expire, so you can't always keep the proper stuff on hand, but salt never does.  

Most of the time the box for meds will have warning on what fish may not like the meds.

 
This is also true.  Although, ironically this one has a picture of one of the fish that is usually sensitive to meds.

 

[smudge_]

Tetras are usually fine with meds.  Its fish like loaches, cories, plecos, etc (usually the scaleless fish) that have the most difficulty with meds/salt.
 
 
You should be fine with the ember tetras.
 
 
For my money, I prefer heat and salt to deal with ich - just my personal preference.  It is equally effective, and much cheaper.  Meds expire, so you can't always keep the proper stuff on hand, but salt never does.  

 
thanks for this!  good news for the Embers, less good news for my Pgymy's.   Ive caught it early so hopefully that will help make it a bit easier

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If you have pygmy cories, the typical directions are to use the med at 'half dose' strength (but check the directions on the package).   If you were using salt, I'd recommend half-dose for treating the tank, but since you have the meds already, just follow their instructions.
 
 
You can help the med treat this better by doing gravel vacs each time that you do a water change (according to directions of meds) during treatment.  You might need to extend the duration of the med because of the decreased dosage, but limiting the amount of free swimmers by removing them while in 'cyst' mode can help keep it under control.

 

[smudge_]

Thanks, I will keep this in mind.
 
Oddly for interpet (a fairly good brand imo) the box simply says:
 
"harmless to plants, harmless to filters and all species of fish, except mormyrids (elephant nose fish)(, DO NOT use with mormyrids ."

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Wow.  The term 'harmless' to me is quite unnerving.  
 
 
To me a term like 'harmless' would mean that even an overdose as high as 2 or even 3 times the recommendation would have to be safe.  I wouldn't suggest that is the case, even for plants, let alone 'all species of fish'.  

 

[TwoTankAmin]

There are different ways to deal with ich (and other paracites). Different methods may have different consequences for the same fish. It comes down to what the ingredients are in the medication. this also will determine how effective it might be.
 
I have had ich only twice. The time it was in a Q tank with new tetras and danios I lost 100% of the tetras. Here is a link to some comprehensive research on ich treatments:
 

 
ASSESSMENT OF CURRENTLY APPLIED CHEMOTHERAPIES

A large number of compounds have been tested for efficacy against I. multifiliis although relatively few of them have been widely deployed to provide effective control under field conditions. Table 1 provides a
detailed list of 116 compounds used to control I. multifiliis under laboratory or field conditions from 1980 onwards. Of the compounds that are listed, all except quinine and some malachite green based formulations have been tested against food fish species. These latter treatments, however, that have been evaluated for the ornamental trade, are included to provide a comprehensive overview of all compounds tested for the treatment of I. multifiliis. Of those given in Table 1, 18 entries listed by their commercial product name are cross-referenced, and details of their activity given, under their specific
compound formulation. Sixteen of the compounds have been assessed by in vitro trials only, while of the remaining 81 compounds tested in vivo, 43 have been tested in-bath challenges and 51 by in-feed
presentation. Of those used under field conditions, the most commonly used treatments are: formaldehyde, sodium chloride, copper sulphate, potassium permanganate, chloramine-T, hydrogen peroxide, metronidazole and toltrazuril (Dickerson, 2006; Noga, 2010).

from https/dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/10147/1/Picon%20Camacho%20et%20al%20Parasitology%20Ich%20chemo%20review.pdf
 
Also here is a lengthy piece on fish parasites in general and how to deal with them. They list 4 meds for ich and 3 different methods one may or may not use effectively for each. 
Introduction to Freshwater Fish Parasites   http/edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa041

 

[LyraGuppi]

I  used salt and heat and it worked like a charm.
 
A easy, inexpensive charm.

 

[smudge_]

Well one tetra lightly infected this morning is now all of them heavily covered as I expected.  But the pygmy's and fighter seem fine so far.  I have started the treatment so hopefully all will be ok

 

[smudge_]

So, 4 days later (the day it said to add the second dose) and the tetras all look MUCH better.  But today the fighter has it, (very lightly)  if he isnt ok i will not be amused  beautiful fish

 

[eaglesaquarium]

"Looking better" is misleading with ich. It just means that the parasite has moved to a new stage of life - reproduction.

 

[smudge_]

"Looking better" is misleading with ich. It just means that the parasite has moved to a new stage of life - reproduction.

 
your certainly not wrong, after they all looked and behaved better, I came home to find 2 tetras dead and my fighter layered in parasites.   
Ew im really annoyed about this, I was really looking forward to getting back into fishkeeping, got the tank nicely settled, first proper fishless cylye ive ever done, perfect water and my lovely new fish are just dieing off because a tetra came in with a bit of white spot

 
Bizarrely the pygmys look fine, not a spot on any of them as far as I can see.   I never see all ten at once, but I counted 8 earlier and they all looked fine,  id be very surprised if the other 2 had died.
 
I ordered a much better brand (and higher priced) treatment today, hopefully that will help if the fighter lasts til then.

 

[smudge_]

now down to one tetra and now the figter is behaving much worse and looks like this.
 
 
heat, treatment. nothing worked and i hate watching them gradually die
 
bizzarely the pgymys still seem untroubled. not a single spec on any of them

 

[LyraGuppi]

HOLY, do you have a separate treatment tank?

You could try to separate the cories into that (and watch them) then treat the tank with heat and salt. Good luck, ich is not easy.