Bah! Bought Fish With Ich By Accident - How Long To Medicate?

[Brette]

Hi guys,

I bought 3 diamond tetras over the weekend and one has a 2 tiny ich spots that I didn't see at the store. I had them quarantined in a new tank anyways (before i knew one had ich). They are extremely active and healthy otherwise. I'm treating with maracyn and overnight the ich spot dissapeared.

As I'm not a fan of meds, I would like to know if I can add them to my tank now and discontinue treatment now that the spots have gone. I heard the anti parasite meds can be tough on fish. Is the parasite still there despite the spots having gone?

 

[raptorrex]

Hi guys,

I bought 3 diamond tetras over the weekend and one has a 2 tiny ich spots that I didn't see at the store. I had them quarantined in a new tank anyways (before i knew one had ich). They are extremely active and healthy otherwise. I'm treating with maracyn and overnight the ich spot dissapeared.

As I'm not a fan of meds, I would like to know if I can add them to my tank now and discontinue treatment now that the spots have gone. I heard the anti parasite meds can be tough on fish. Is the parasite still there despite the spots having gone?

you will need to medicate twice, at least, to remove all the nasties! pop the temp up to 88 or so and do the treatment over a week.

 

[Colin_T]

I thought maracyn was for bacterial infections. In which case it won't do anything to whitespot which is a parasite.

Keep treating the fish for a week after the spots have gone. The whitespot parasite has 3 stages to its lifecycle.
1) the white spots on the fish
2) the spots fall off the fish and the parasite multiplies inside a cyst while it is in the gravel.
3) the cysts in the gravel rupture open releasing thousands of new parasites to re-infect the fish.
The parasite can only be killed during the 3rd stage when they are free swimming and before they attach to a fish.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Before you treat the tank do a 50% water change and complete gravel clean. This will reduce the gunk in the tank and allow the medication to work more effectively. It will also lower the pathogen count in the water and mean there are less nasties around to infect the fish.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating otherwise it will absorb the medication out of the water.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine and has a similar temperature & PH to the tank.

 

[Brette]

I thought maracyn was for bacterial infections. In which case it won't do anything to whitespot which is a parasite.

Woops, my mistake I have been treating with MARACIDE (for parasites)

Thanks guys. I'll keep in there for a week. It's so tempting to get them into the nice big tank immediately.

 

[raptorrex]

I thought maracyn was for bacterial infections. In which case it won't do anything to whitespot which is a parasite.

Woops, my mistake I have been treating with MARACIDE (for parasites)

Thanks guys. I'll keep in there for a week. It's so tempting to get them into the nice big tank immediately.

no need to keep it in any longer than a day, and then do a big water change and put carbon in your filter. but you will need to re dose after two-four days dependent on the water temp. remember to remove the carbon, before you re dose. it may be worth doing a forum search. there are some excellent threads, that detail the life cycle of the parasite ( and the changes it goes through). there is some detailed methods of treatment too.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

I found King British WS3 whitespot eradicator to be the best. 2 to 3 doses over a fortnight works wonders. Its very concentrated though and very blue!

 

[Cdarmychi]

I found King British WS3 whitespot eradicator to be the best. 2 to 3 doses over a fortnight works wonders. Its very concentrated though and very blue!

Umm hate to be off topic...but what IS a fortnight?? I keep hearing it and its driving me crazy not knowing..

*and I would treat at least twice to be safe...*

 

[Colin_T]

fortnight = 2 weeks