Ich Malachite Blue Treatment Has Lost Colour In Tank

[nanirami]

I didn't use the form because I don't think its relevant to my question....

3 days ago I used AquaSun's Whitespot treatment (Malachite green & Formaldehyde) in my 260litre tank. The water went bright blue obviously. The next morning though the water was back to colourless. Directions say to remove any carbon in filter. I had removed the black sponge in my filter (which I assume is the carbon part) but left in the blue and green sponges and the white cottonlike padding. (I assumed they were not carbon)

I retreated last night, and same think happened, this morning the water was colourless. Is this natural that the colours disintegrates on its own, or is my filter removing the product from the water? I did a 40% water change before adding the 2nd treatment.

www.cpv.com.au unfortunately doesn't have a phone number or email address to contact and the fish shop guy didn't know.

Many thanks. (Have lost too many fish already, really don't want to lose anymore :\ )

Oh, have a platy that is about to give birth, do you think ICH effects new fry?

 

[saz326]

Your best bet would be to use a hospital tank for the affected fish and treat the water in there - that way anthing that could be removing the medication (porous rocks, filter media, wood, plants) will not be able to!

Its gonna get expensive to keep using meds like that in the 260 litre tank.

It will lose its colour. The colour is only partially the medicine, but is mainly colouring added to the liquid so it looke like its doing a good job - daft I know! Colours will break down over time and 3 days sounds about right.

ICH will affect anything it can. You have treated the tank - complete the treatment as described on the pack but fish out any fish displaying symptoms a few days before the treatment is complete. This way you can keep treating the remaining sick fish in a hospital tank while the tank etc finishes itself off and gets back to normal.

 

[nanirami]

I dont mind if the colour goes, as long as I have not done something wrong that is preventing my fish from getting any better. More fish are dying, not as many as before, but still maybe 1 every day or 2nd day. Plus now the platys have spots on their fins which they previously didn't have.

As long as I have done the right thing, then I will just keep going as I have been and wait and see.

Just thought it was odd the colour would disappear but the active chemical remain.

 

[Sofia]

Only treat individual fish in a hospital tank for bacterial infections. Parasitic infections like ICH require that the whole tank be treated to kill the parasite during its cycle as you have been doing.

Read the pinned thread on ICH in the emergency section to understand the cycle of ICH and how long it will take before your tank is clear. ICH medicines are very good though so as long as you follow the instrucions and complete the treatment it should all be fine.

Good luck.