Ich - Best Med

[MHunt]

I did the silly thing this week. I bought three platys from a LFS attached to a local garden centre, they looked kind of OK. But when i had to tell the assistant how to differentiate between males an females i should have just walked away.

Anyway, to cut a short story even shorter, one has died, and the others are beginning to show the first signs of Whitespot!

What is the best treatment for me. I have a community tank with guppies, cockatoo cichlids, neons and the platy's.

The two options i'm thinking of are a tank med. Waterlife protozin etc.

Or i'm thinking of putting the two Platys in a salt bath for a few hours.

The med is probably the easiest, but i don't want to dose the whole tank at this stage and would like to try the salt if i can get some advice on it.

At the weekend all my stats were ok. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 30, pH 7, Temp 26.

I'm going to test again tonight, to make sure there is nothing nasty in the tank and i'll post the results later.

 

[d3tained]

Hi there.

Well 1st of all if you have Ich in your tank then you will HAVE to treat the whole tank as tthe parasites can stay in the gravel / sand in different parts of there lives.

Your water levels looks good.

As for now do not use any MED.

Up the temp to 28 - 30 degrees C and switch all lights off. ( if your fish can handle it you can go as high as 32 - 33 C ) Remember to up the oxygen in your tank as warm water holds less oxygen than cloder water.

Add some salt to your tank if you have not already done it.I used like 4 Table spoons per 60 liters.According to your SIG your fish should be ok with it.Keep a close I on them for any other problems.If you have plants they will take a knock but wil get better once all salt is out again.

Watch your tank closely for any issues other than Whitespots that could be caused by HIGH TEMP and SALT and if picked up do big water change and switch temp down.If all is cool your whitespots will be gone in about 2 weeks.It will get worse in the 1st 4 days and then start to get better.

If this do not work then turn to meds that you mentioned.

Hope this helped!!

 

[MHunt]

Thanks for the quick reply d3tained.

I have got some of the interpet ich treatment on standby but would like to try the salt route if i can.

I know the guppies and the platies don't mind, even prefer a slight addition of salt every now and again. But can the same be said for my neons and the cichlids?

My main query is what type of salt to use. Should i use marine salt, table salt, rock salt? There is lots of conflicting information out there on ich treatments and i don't want to make a bad situation worse.

 

[MHunt]

I have just tested the water again and all is the same as it was at the weekend. Perhaps slightly higher nitrates, but you'd expect that after a couple of days.

I've done a 25% water change anyway for good measure, and am increasing the temperature to 28 - 29 degrees.

 

[WILDER]

I wouldn't bother with the salt neons can't tolerate to much of it anyway, only had whitespot once with my fish and i used the interpet and it worked, but it took two courses.
Whitespot can kill fast so i would go in with the med, salt dosn't actually clear it up, it just helps the fish with the stress and the gills.
http/cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php
found that link to be very helpful.

 

[MHunt]

Thank's wilder, I wasn't sure about the neons or the cichlids which is why i thought treating just the platy's might be better, but not if the ich has dropped into the tank!

The med i have is interpet white spot treatment. I think looking at the active ingredients it has malachite green and formalin in it.

Will the malachite green stain my bogwood? i don't really want to replace it unless i have to!

 

[WILDER]

Ask in biginners about the staining can't remember to be honest it that long since i've used it.

 

[Liam]

I don't remember it staining anything, the bogwood will be fine.

 

[MHunt]

Ok, things have either started to get worse, or i'm past the worst.

I lost a guppy and the other female platy today. The guppy looked a little off colour this morning, hanging round the top of the tank. The platy was suffering from a fungal infection, so i removed her from the tank to save any further infection of the tank.

I haven't treated the tank for the whitespot yet, just kept the temp high, it's at 29 degrees at the moment. I'm not entirely convinced that it was whitespot now, there was so little of what i thought it was, and it went away quicker than i thought it would too, only to be followed by fungus on the female. All the other fish appear to be fine at the moment.

I am prepared to monitor the situation for the moment, keeping the temp high. If other fish show signs of whitespot, then i'll treat it, or am i just waiting for the inevitable?

This has been a hard lesson in choosing where i get my fish from, and also quarantineing fish i'm not sure of!

 

[WILDER]

Describe the symtoms on the fish, whitespot look like the fish have been sprinkled in salt.
Where is the fungus on the fish, does it look fluffy in appearance, fish with bacterial infection like columnaris can flick and rub on things and labour breath too.
Got to find out what it is as the high temp if it is bacterial will make things worse.

This is what whitespot looks like.
http/www.2cah.com/pandora/ich_tfh.jpg

This is what columnaris looks like.
http/www.2cah.com/pandora/columnaris_elenawong.jpg

 

[MHunt]

The guppy didn't show any signs of disease, apart from being lethargic this morning.

The platy went from what looked like a few small grains, to a fungus type appearance. More like the the picture of the columnaris in the end.

None of the other fish are showing any signs of disease at the moment but we'll see over the next few days.

You think it's safe to drop the temp yet?

 

[WILDER]

Do any other fish have the fungus, if not keep the temp where it is for now and see how they go.
Good luck, fish can get bacterial infections on top of parasites.

 

[MHunt]

No, the other fish look ok, and are acting normally.

A book I have mentioned that fungus can occur after white spot. But we'll see.

I'm going away for two day's and my wife's in charge. So she'll keep a look out for me.

 

[MHunt]

THE ICH IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I guess all you experienced fish keepers knew it would be without proper treatment. I'll put that one down to experience.

I've noticed a couple of my neons with little spots, and one of my guppies has a few, no more are infected for now. The tank has now been treated with interpet whitespot treatment. And i'll treat it again in 7 day's time.

It did mention to dissolve it in warm water before adding to the tank, i missed that direction, the treatment diretions are not that clear to be honest. Do you think that will cause any problems? My tank temp is about 28 degrees at the moment to speed up the ICH lifecycle. I have the venturi on full from my filter to increase the airation of the tank as much as possible. Do you think i'll need to add any air stones too?

I'm also hoping the treatment will have an adverse effect on my snail population too! I must have 50 of the pests in my tank at the moment.

 

[WILDER]

To be honest i would move the snails out, keep an eye on the neon tetra they can be funny with parasite med, as long as there quite abit of movement at the top of the tank they should be ok.
The reason why you get a jug and mix the med in is for you to distribute it evenly over the tank, it should be ok what you did, but next time do it the correct way, good luck.