How do you prevent ICH?

[rbcxpeter]

How do you prevent ich from appearing if you do many water changes? I do weekly 50% water changes in my 60g tank with the fish in my sig. One of my managuenses have ich and I'm guessing that the weekly water changes changed the pH balance and temp. Should I change less water percentage? It says in http/fish.orbust.net/fish-disease.html "Ich can be introduced by rapid changes in water chemistry such as temperature or ph (these weaken the fishes immune system leaving them susceptible to disease), poor water quality, or bullied fish." Any advice would be great. Thanks.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Ich are parasites that live in the water no matter what you do. Lowering the temperature causes stress, which lowers the fishes immunity, thus allowing the parasites to latch on. The same thing happens when they lose scales or if the water quality is poor.

I would to 20-25% changes twice a week. This reduces the stress on the fish, IMO, and is safer if something were to go wrong for some reason (Like forgetting to add dechlorinator or something of that nature). Better quality means less outbreaks.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

, by the way if you're new. If you are, introduce yourself in the newbie section.

By the way, are those plecs common plecs? If so, they will definitely add to the deterioration of water quality.

 

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

I found that if i did a water change every week then the fish were getting really stressed. i changed it all now by having a 20% every two weeks and most of the problems have gone. I just have a re-occuring problem with white spot.

Also if you have a really good filter i found that this will also keep the water freasher for longer.

If you have just guppies add a table spoon of sea salt per twenty litres, only once every 2 months.

WARNING do not add it if you have Plecos as the salt burns the skin.

 

[Lateral Line]

The Ich parasites lie dormant on fish, and can do for years. They wait for soemthing to stress the fish, reduce it's immune response and grab their opportunity. I wrote a piece in this thread about it.

If you are doing very large water changes with water that has a significantly different chemistry or temperature, yes, you can create the conditions for Ich to break out. However, you can do very large water changes as long as the water you are using to replace that you are taking are compatible.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi rbcxpeter and welcome to the forum.

If you take care to match the temperature of the water when you do your changes you should not have to worry about having ich develop from this. It's the SUDDEN change in temperature that's the problem.

If you have adjusted the pH in your tank water, you will have to adjust it in the water being added, too.

Or, do small and frequent water changes rather than large ones spaced further apart.