heat treatment on ich

[astroboy]

Once ich is in your tank you will never get rid of it....the spots may go away and your fih may seem healthy but there will still be parasites living in the gravel..the filter....wherever they can attach....it is when the fish are stressed or the water conditions are poor that the parasite shows itself as white spots on the fish.....

Thats a myth. Once you kill ick its gone for good. The only way to get it again is to reintroduce it into your tank (no quarantining, cross contamination). People get ick again after treatment because half the time they don't treat all the way (ex. stop treatment once cysts disappear).

Oh yeah, and at high temps ick will die from the temp alone. But there are so many variables that its better to be safe and add salt as well.

 

[BlueIce]

Oh yeah, and at high temps ick will die from the temp alone. But there are so many variables that its better to be safe and add salt as well.

Salt is not always recommended...Many fish can not take the salt or medications and will end up dead from that as well.
Such as my BGK or any other knifefish.I believe cories are also not to be in a tank where salt is used.
On scaleless fish such as the knifefish...high temps is the only SAFE thing to do.Most people do not realize this and treat with meds and then blame the ick for the deaths...

 

[aloaring]

Well ever since having numerous bacterial problems and thus losing fish in a bacterial die out after using meds i decided that i wouldn't use them unless its the last resort. well a few months back i noticed that my baby platys were coming down with ich . So i slowly upped the temperature to 84 degrees and did a 50% water change every other day the fish recovered within a week it did not spread, i kept the bacterial balance in my tank and the fish were very happy! and it will be the method i use in future if i have any more trouble !

And i don't use salt as one time the salt did not dissolve properly and all the fish went slightly funny and had to be quickly rescued. messing with the chemical and bacterial balance of the tank is always dodgy. Just my experience!

 

[Cat]

I found one of my clowns had itch on saturday,ibought interpret dosed the tank,repeated the does after 4 days like it says,but what now?

Do i carry on dosing them,if so when do i give the next one?

Mytanks never had it before so if someone would kindly tell me

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yeh same here cat!!

Should we still be doing water changes through the treatment?

1 of the rams was sadly dead this morning, if the female makes it to Friday I'll take it back to work to be treated with the rest of the batch as I don't want ich in my tank.

Seems to be a lot of contraversy on technics to be used.

 

[Cat]

People me and paul need help

Do we carry on water changes.

Do i dose again after 7 days ,

Help

 

[CathyG]

Oh yeah, and at high temps ick will die from the temp alone. But there are so many variables that its better to be safe and add salt as well.

So long as your fish don't mind the salt. I would not add it to my tank since I have clowns, khulis, cories and an aquatic frog...

 

[CathyG]

Cat and Paul, follow the instructions according to the meds you use, and be sure to half dose if it recommends and you have scaleless fish.

I am of the understanding that once you have ich, it lurks for the next stressed fish. It is in most tanks, and tanks that have poor water qualities, are overstocked, or where the water changes are insufficient, are more vulnerable. Even though an accident like I had (filter failed overnight) might be enough.

Be sure to take any carbon out of your filter, and follow the manufacturers advice. Water changes, IMO, help immensely. Once the ich has reached the vulnerable free swimming stage (the only stage where the meds can kill them) by performing a water change, you are also removing some of the parasites. Water change before the dose though....

Raising the temperature of your tank accelerates the lifecycle of the parasite, thus getting it to the vulnerable free swimming stage sooner.

 

[astroboy]

Salt is not always recommended...Many fish can not take the salt or medications and will end up dead from that as well.
Such as my BGK or any other knifefish.I believe cories are also not to be in a tank where salt is used.
On scaleless fish such as the knifefish...high temps is the only SAFE thing to do.Most people do not realize this and treat with meds and then blame the ick for the deaths...

So long as your fish don't mind the salt. I would not add it to my tank since I have clowns, khulis, cories and an aquatic frog...

I've used salt (not aquarium salt, TABLE SALT, ooooohhhh bad bad) to treat a tank of catfish (pictus, lima shovelnose, bumblebee) and scaleless fish (bichirs, RTBS, clown loach) with great success. I don't know how many times i've written this, but, cats and scaleless fish CAN tolerate salt for short periods of time (ex. treatment). Salt, IMO is much less stressful on fish than meds, especially for cats.

 

[David]

Well I don't know about you guys but no matter how long I keep treating the ich keeps coming back every time I add new fish... I am very desperate to get rid of it at this point. (Currently one of my angels has it)

 

[luxum]

How often (and what percentage) are you doing water changes, David?

 

[David]

50% weekly.

 

[BlueIce]

Well I don't know about you guys but no matter how long I keep treating the ich keeps coming back every time I add new fish... I am very desperate to get rid of it at this point. (Currently one of my angels has it)

key words ......EVERY TIME I ADD NEW FISH....

where ever you are getting your fish is probably to blame...
unless you are not acclimating the fish properly and stressing them to the point that ick sets in....


your best bet is to get a 5 gal hospital tank and keep any new fish there for at least two weeks.

 

[David]

Ummm yes I did that. In my sig you can clearly see that I have a 5 gallon tank which was previously used to quarantine my angels... and my main tank had been ick free for 2 weeks when I added them, and guess what happens. Ick strikes again. I have gotten my fish from a variety of different places, and they ALL and I stress the word ALL got ich and recovered, with the exception of some of my clown loaches. So the LFS can't be the problem. IME there seems to be no way to permanently remove ich from your tank - it just keeps on coming back

 

[luxum]

I think he is using a QT tank, but perhaps is not normalizing the conditions (compared to the main tank) sufficiently before he transfers them.

We have had disagreements before, but i mean the following purely in the spirit of helpfulness. I know it will seem difficult, but try performing daily 20-25% water changes when you have added a new resident or are experiencing ich, along with raising the temp to 86º. After 3 weeks of this, lower the temp back to normal (which is 84º in your tanks iirc) and see if that helps. After the 3 weeks, drop to 20-25% twice weekly since you have discus. I suspect the 50% change weekly may be too much for them, a 20-25% twice would be less stressful and would accomplish the same goal.