Ick Problems Can Anyone Help Me Please?!

[jlara0429]

hey whats going on everyone is very nice to meet you guys , is my first time on here and i actually just found the site through google. I need help on a ongoing ick problem Im currently having is been going on for a while I hope you guys can help.
I have started up a 55 gallon tank its been cycling and running for about 12 days now , I currently have only 8 fish in their 5 cherry barbs and 3 harlequin rasboras and all of them have Ick it started with 1 cherry barb and now all of them do. Day 1 i try treating the Ick by raising the temperature to 86 degrees and adding salt did that for about 3 days nothing was happening they still seemed to have ick. Next I moved on to another method I began treating the tank with rid ich for 2 days and i found that not to be working also, so today i have started treatment with quick cure i heard that was very good meds, i have been keeping track of the water parameters i have a API test kit and everything is well, i have been doing partial water changes also after every application of medication. if you need to know what i have now in the tank its 2 marineland filters the penguin 350 and the penguin 200 running without filter cartridges. Also I have a 75 gallon 250 watt marineland heater, i have an airstone also running a rounded one. can anyone please help me determine what more do I have to do or what steps do i need to take to get rid of Ich.

 

[JoshuaA]

Hi there and welcome to the forum!

I'm hoping someone else will come along with the facts and evidence to prove me right but no medications will "cure" whitespot as fast as you hope. In a nutshell The main reason is because it is a parasitic infections and these parasites are only vulnerable to the medication when they are "swimming" in the water. Which on their life cycle is roughly once 4-7 days if I remember correctly at our "average" tropical fish tank temperature. Turning the temperature speeds up their life cycle and increase the frequency of vulnerability.

The other issue you will be suffering is the whole cycling process. Cycling is the process of forming and maturing a bacterial colony in your filter to deal with the toxins that fish/fish waste/food waste and other rotting organics create. Many new aquarium owners do such a cycle with fish in and expose their fish to toxins initially for a month or two until the cycle is complete with some fish perhaps dying or suffering permanent damage. However on such a large tank I don't think it will be as painful for you as someone with the same stocking levels on a smaller tank, especially if you are monitoring your water quality and changing water frequently to ensure they are in the best conditions you can provide.

You will receive advice on cycling your tank in this section of the forum however for best results you should post or ask this topic to be moved to the emergencies section for advice on your Ich. I wish you the best of luck and hope you stick around once things are sorted!

 

[karin]

My experience with ich was this... I turned heat up to 85 degrees F, increased aeration throwing a bubble wand in the tank, used a malochite/formalin product which is the last one you bought as well. I treated the tank every 48-72 hours 4 full doses of the stuff over 12 days I think. So I dosed, left it for 2 -3 days, water change (30-40 %) and then another full dose and waited 3 days, etc... Ich can take a while... make certain you are treating for 10-14 days.

Oh and make certain the carbon material is not in your filters. Lastly, I agree with the above, you are cycling a tank and this can be a tricky complication if you start getting ammonia and/or nitrite spikes.

Good luck.

This is about the product you bought. Interesting because I don't remember putting the carbon back in after every dosing... in fact I know I didn't.


Directions; Shake well before using. Remove and discard all carbon from filter, but DO NOT discontinue filtration. Typically cures ich in 24 hours, treatment can be repeated in 24-48 hours, if necessary. If fish experience stress, change 50% of the water. Sometimes treatment will take 10 days to fully irradiate infestations. Replace carbon 2 hours after treatment. Quick Cure will temporarily change water color to blue.

 

[jlara0429]

hey karin good afternoon thanks for your help I really do appreciated it i have never been in a forum before first time asking for help because all the pet stores dont really have any idea here i rather contact people who have dealt or know about similar problems. well today i lost 3 more cherry barbs after the medication treatment all i have as of now is 2 cherry barbs and 3 rasboras i decided earlier today to vacuum the gravel and do a 30% water change,as well as returning the filter cartridges to both filters i have. I also added API aquarium salt 11 tsps and i added also dr tims bacteria booster 5 capfuls for the first time of use it said , and also raised the temperature to 86 degrees i have a airstone running just in case the oxygen levels drop down, would you happen to have anymore advice or anymore opinions , they said heat and salt could work i rather treat it that way and not stress out the rest of the fish even though is not a whole lot.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum JLara. You cannot treat ich on fish. The ich parasite is not vulnerable to treatment when it is on the fish. What you can treat is the free swimming phase of the parasite's life cycle. That means that your medication, whether rid-ich or salt, must be present in the right concentrations when the parasites reach that stage in their life cycle. Since you will have prevented a re-infestation, the ich parasites fairly quickly will be controlled completely and will disappear from all of the fish. With their typical life cycle speed in a tank at 86F, the fish should start showing some significant improvement at around 4 days. Once the signs of the disease are gone from all of your fish, continue the treatment for another 4 or so days to be sure you got the last of the free swimming stage.
I have an Ich Info link in my signature area that will give you a far more complete discussion of the subject.
Something to be careful about is the tendency to call something a particular disease just because it sort of looks similar. If you have been treating for ich non-stop, no days missed, for 7 or 8 days, chances are you some some other disease in the tank. If you did water changes to clean out the salt before starting the next medication, you did not treat non-stop. You stopped treatment and started again, which means the time line starts all over again.

 

[jlara0429]

hey oldman47 thanks alot for your advice and reply!! well recently today as i explained on top i began to treat the tank with salt and heat raising the temperature to 86 degrees i only have 3 rasboras and 2 cherry barbs running in the tank do you have any extra advice that i might need or take into consideration i will continue to do partial water changes and adding the salt to the tank also adding bacteria booster if you have anymore insight to share please i would take it into consideration because im just starting out thanks alot everyone for replying.