ich

[Torrean]

I have several medications that say they treat ich. my stress coat even says it treats ich. So what should I use? my rainbow sharks are the ones with ich. So which medicine should I use. My fish are in my profile.

 

[WILDER]

Could you name them they we can take a look.

 

[Torrean]

yeah I can but I don't have them here so it will be tommorrow afternoon. Melafix maracide and stress coat are the ones i can think of off the top of my head. Any other suggestions for a good ich treatment would be appreciated.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

QuikCure

 

[WILDER]

Maracide
Controls Ich and other common parasites that sounds fine.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You could try whitespot med by Interpet.
If you have carbon in your filter make sure you remove it before you use any meds too.

 

[WILDER]

Tokis don't think they can get an interpet med in the states.

 

[BettaMomma]

Maracide is one of the best meds for ick out there.
If you have some, I would use that. I've had nothing but really good results with it - and it starts working immediately.

Good luck!

 

[Angel Lady]

I would raise the temp. to 85 degrees and try to treat it that way without the medicine. The shark is a scaless fish and the medicine is rough on them. Leave the temp. up for a week or so I have found that this is the best way on scaless fish a lot less stressful. I hope this helps out some...

 

[Torrean]

thanks angel lady, and everybody else too, I actually wasn't aware that the sharks were scaleless. I read a bunch of sites on them and none of them said this??? If I do use the maracide should I half the dose because of the sharks and the kuhli loach or would a full dose be ok. Will increasing the temp really cure the ich. I thought that just sped up the life cycle and helped the meds to work faster. I have heard that heat and salt will work any experience with this. I'm gonna start treatment this tommorrow morning after a water change so any quick advice would be appreciated.

 

[WILDER]

Just half dose the med if is say to for scaless fish, don't add the salt as scaless fish don't tolerate it very well.

 

[Torrean]

thanks. will it still be effective.

 

[Torrean]

My girlfriend was at her dad's this weekend and she got home tonght. We turned up the heat before she left. The sharks look much better. The whitespot is clearing up. was it necessarily ich or could it have been wounds from the aggression?

edit: my plecostomus died over the weekend but he hadn't shown any whitespot? the thread about it is in catfish.

 

[BettaMomma]

The white spots could have been from aggression - but you'll know if it's ick. It grows and multiplies on fish pretty fast - it can appear overnight. It's tons of little teeny white specks that look like someone blew salt all over him. Take a look at them in the morning and see what they look like. Then decide on your course of action. Youl should definitely treat for the ick if that's what you determine it to be. I too would use the half treatment. I have maracide and the disease guide here, and it does say right in the directions that it can have an adverse reaction on sensitive fish, but doesn't say anything more than that.

 

[Torrean]

thanks a lot betta. I am thinking about it now and i saw some pictus in wallmart with really bad ich and that isn't really what this looked like. The ich in wallmart was a WHOLE lot of small white spots. The sharks kinda had clumps here and there, not bumps but smooth white spots (kinda like scars that hadn't healed yet). I'll look at them myself for probably a good 2-3 hours tommorrow while i am sorting out this ph problem i am having so i will be able to tell you first hand whether they look better or not. sorry if i mislead you. I was reporting what my girlfriend told me when I said that it was clearing up.