How Long Should I Medicate For?

[rust81]

I've been treating my tank for white spot with interpets no6 treatment - anti white spot. The tank is on its 8th day, but i was wondering how long i should treat for? The instructions say 7 days, but is this enough to rid the tank of the nasties??

 

[starrynightxxi]

you should treat for the amount of time you're instructed to, never more or less. Should be plenty of time, just do a water change and keep an eye on the tank for a week or so in case it comes back.

 

[rust81]

Thanks for the advice. Would it do any harm leaving the meds in the tank without doing a water change and putting the carbon back in?

 

[JamieBailie]

Ive read of people recommending treating for up to 20 days, Sometimes more. It was a few guys that really know their stuff that said it, I can't remember who.

 

[DarkEntity]

You generally treat for 1 full day after all visible signs of the white spot have vanished.

 

[Bignose]

You generally treat for 1 full day after all visible signs of the white spot have vanished.

Since the life cycle of ich is at least 3 days at tropical temperatures, 1 day is not enough. I also disagree with

you should treat for the amount of time you're instructed to, never more or less.

because if the medication hasn't finished after the 7 days, are you supposed to stop and then let more ich grow back making the infection even harder to get rid of?

The instructions on most ich medications bottles are dead wrong. It is fairly sad, but if you follow the medication instructions directly, usually you will knock down the numbers of ich, but not completely kill the entire population. Which means you'll have to comes back and buy more medicine. Which is good for the companies.

Firstly, medicate until all the white spots and all visible signs of the ich (flicking and scratching) are gone, however many days that is. 7, 14, 20, whatever. If after 20 or so days the medication you have chosen doesn't seem to be doing anything, it is time to up the dosage or change medications. Then, you have to medicate further through at least 1 more life cycle. Again, at tropical temperatures, this is 3 to 4 days. (If it is a coldwater tank, the lifecycle may be as much as 20 or 30 days.) If the fish can handle it, that is, they aren't showing any extreme signs of distress from being in the medication, I would medicate for at least two life cycles after all visible signs are gone. That's around 8 days at tropical temperatures. You want to ensure that you have killed 100% of all ich so that it won't come back. If there is a chance that even one ich survived it could grow back into a full blown infection in a few months. This is one of the primary ways how the "ich is in all water" myths propagate.

 

[starrynightxxi]

i've always followed the instructions and and after the week of treatment, the ich is gone and doesn't come back, so i've no reason to think that wouldn't work unless you get a resistant strain. but the poster didn't mention whether or not the fish are still showing signs of ich, so i assumed not.

 

[Bignose]

Well, even if the spots disappeared after 7 days, you still need to treat for a few days after, like I said at least one complete lifecycle longer, else there is always a chance the ich could come back. If you medicate that extra time, it may mean an extra day or three of stress for the fish, but 100% elimination of ich and thus zero chance of ich coming back is worth it in my opinion. If you just medicate for 7 days because the medicine only says 7 days, but there is still ich, why would you stop? What possible good could that do? If the medication is effective enough, a full course may be done in 7 days -- 3 days of killing during 1 life cycle then another 3 to 4 days or 1 more life cycle after to ensure 100% eradication. But, if the medicine hasn't killed everything off after 7 days, why stop? Just doing it for 7 days and only 7 days doesn't take context into account -- the context that the ich population may still be significant after 7 days. If the ich is gone very quickly, then by all means stop, but if the ich is still around it is just silly to stop just because the bottle said to stop after 7 days.

 

[starrynightxxi]

gotcha

 

[rust81]

Thanks for all the help guys. That definitely makes sense to me to keep on medicating until all signs of the disease have disappeared. Is it possible to see white spot when it isnt on the fish, eg in the gravel or on bogwood?

 

[Bignose]

Thanks for all the help guys. That definitely makes sense to me to keep on medicating until all signs of the disease have disappeared. Is it possible to see white spot when it isnt on the fish, eg in the gravel or on bogwood?

No, whitespot/ich is a fish parasite. It wouldn't latch on to gravel or wood -- no food for it. I know that when you are dealing with ich, you tend to see white spots on everything. It can be maddening. The symptoms you are looking for are the white spots (obviously) and if the fish keep acting irritated by flicking and scratching. The scratching symptom is important because not all spots of the disease are large enough to see.

Also, I just wanted to make sure that you understood to keep medicating for several days after all sign of the disease have disappeared. That way you can be sure to kill 100% of the population and it won't come back.

I'd recommend a read-through of http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml to really get to understand ich. The best thing you can do is arm yourself with knowledge on how ich lives, what it does, when it is vulnerable to medication (which is why you have to medicate for several days after symptoms disappear). If you have any questions after reading that, feel free to ask. That's what we're here for.