How Long To Treat For Ich?

[KellyT1203]

I started treatment on Thursday night. Friday I did a large water change and treated again. I did the same thing on Saturday, Sunday and today. I noticed on the fish that had it the worst, she only had a few spots yesterday, by bed time they were gone.

This morning I did a 12 gallon water change, added some aquarium salt and then added another treatment. How much longer should I be treating for ich to make sure I get it all? None of my fish in this tank have spots any more. I have been watching them like a HAWK.

Also, I was told that my tank will cycle again because the ich treatment kills all the good bacteria. I can't add new rock to my tank from my old tank because the rocks are different colors. Can I clean the gravel in my established tank and add that water and substrate to my tank that is being treated for ich to move the cycle along faster?

 

[DarkEntity]

you generally treat for 24 or 48 hours after the last spots have gone. (dependant on what medication Instructions tell you) You wont need to cycle from start again, you may get a mini cycle.

 

[k.o.d]

Ich follows a cycle, you get the white spots that are cysts for the organisms ( flagellates ) that bury into the skin and then burst out when mature enough, so when the white spots go, the cycle is half way, as the flagellates then swim off to infest other fish ( as they are parasites ), the cycle of ich depends on temp, the higher the temp the quicker the cycle

personally I would not do any water changes when treating whitespot as you are just diluting the medication
Most modern medication will not harm nitrifying bacteria, what are you using ( mehtylene blue will kill any bacteria, a good reason for not using it )

Steve

 

[KellyT1203]

I am using QuICK Cure I think is what it is called. My LFS suggested it for ich treatment. The color of it is blue so I am assuming it has methylene blue in it.

I only did a water change 24 hours after dosing and then added the recommended dose for the ich treatment. The bottle says to use for a couple or a few days. Never gave an amount of days.

Everyone is doing fine. I kind of jumped to the gun adding fish before it completely cycled. The tank has been up and running for almost 3 weeks fish have been in there for a 2 weeks. There has only been one death. I believe that was due to ich and not because of bad water conditions...............well I know the 2 go hand in hand (one causes the other). The fish that died showed signs of ich before I noticed it on the other fish. He was rubbing on an ornament in the tank. I just thought he was being weird. Then when I was reading up on ich that is when I realized that is a sign of it. If I would have known that ahead of time I would have treated him sooner and he probably would have lived.

So far I think I have been pretty lucky. Just keep your fingers crossed that no one else goes tits up.