Great...my tank has ich!

C

CrashSmAshley

New Member
That's what I get for getting Petco fish :pale: So tomorrow I will be doing a water change before I go out and get some medicine. Any recommendations on what brand? Also, my tank is set at 78°F but I've been told that setting it at 82°F will help speed things up. Will this harm any of my neons, black neons, apple snails, nerite snails, betta or live plants? If you have any more suggestions please let me know!
 
L

lars on

New Member
When my tank had ich all I did was add aquarium salt, and turn up the heat. It wont hurt them!

And girl you didnt quaranteen them? :( Those things are just swimming parasites
 
R

regan24

New Member
Exactly, get your tank up to about 84/86 slowly, and just dump in aquarium salt.

If you're going to treat, use Quick Cure. I've only ever seen it at Petco, but it could be at other LFSs.

If you DO treat, remember to take out the carbon and leave just the filter.

If it doesn't go away within a week or so, do a water change and start the process over.

Once the ich is gone, I'd do about a 50% water change. Your snails should all be fine, aquarium salt CAN affect scaleless fish (like loaches/catfish) but that's if it's in insane (brackish) levels.

I've never had to use quick cure to get rid of ich, the heat usually just fries it right off of them, and if your fish are already healthy then their immune system should be able to fight it off.
 
S

sandnuka

New Member
live an learn.... we all make rookie mistakes... even when we are hella expierenced. Can be fixed though, I always use quick cure, take out filter media, and crank the heat up.... vacume up all the dead stuff a couple days later, put back in filter media your ready to go.... your tank might get died blue at the worst. lol.
 
G

Gosu

New Member
whatthebloody's tank hit 100 on vacation and all his plants are fine, revline is currently chilling at about 82 and loving it my mystery snails are in the 80 gal at 80 with lots of aquarium salt and seem to be fine too so all should be well!
 
C

CrashSmAshley

New Member
Thanks everyone :) Only a couple of the tetras have noticable white spots and none are acting any different of look different other than that.
 
K

Kingstature

New Member
I never let any of my tanks drop below 82 degrees as ich cannot survive this temp and I have never gotten it or even had a sick fish for that matter.. I have brought fish home with ich stuck them in the tank and within three days of salt the ich is gone and none of the other fish ever get it....Good luck Ich is easiest parasite to cure... :king:
 
C

CrashSmAshley

New Member
Kingstature said:
I never let any of my tanks drop below 82 degrees as ich cannot survive this temp and I have never gotten it or even had a sick fish for that matter.. I have brought fish home with ich stuck them in the tank and within three days of salt the ich is gone and none of the other fish ever get it....Good luck Ich is easiest parasite to cure... :king:
Click to expand...
Thanks King! Temps higher than 80 seem to make my bettas lethargic so I usually keep it around 78, but I just want my tank ich free!
 
C

CrashSmAshley

New Member
Update

Well, so far I've lost 1 black neon tetra and 2 neon tetras. Everyone else seems healthy and spot free so I'm hoping for the best! Did about a 25% water change then treated with Rid-Ich+ around 4pm. Got home around 9:45pm and looked at the tank and saw the parasites crawling on the sides of the wall trying to get out of the water. Yuck! Waited til this morning and checked to see that more than half of the parasites were dead :cheers: Did a 50% water change and can't see anymore parasites, but I'm gonna wait a bit longer to make sure. I'm out of meds so I gotta run and get some more so I can treat for at least another 24 hours. My poor snails, frogs and betta sure hate being quarantined though!

50c6793e.jpg
 
C

CrashSmAshley

New Member
Thanks sand :heart:

I only see what looks to be less than around 10 parasites swimming now. I got some aquarium salt today and predissolved 1 1/2 tablespoons of it then added it to the tank. It says 1 tablespoon = 5 gallons so I dosed a little less since the tetras are sensitive. Wish me luck, everything looks great!
 
S

sandnuka

New Member
salt shouldnt do anything to your tetra's..... really, I overdue salt in all my tanks, even one with little guys in there. You gotta worry about chemicals, and doing less meds for the tetras is good... dont worry about the salt, you can add a lil' more if you need to.... otherwise your on top of it chica!
 
C

ceashel

New Member
Glad to hear your tank is doing better! Not so much here. Totally underestimated how fast ich would spread and didn't heat things up fast enough. Last night and today has been very depressing. :arrow:

Found a great general article on ich and parasites, if anybody is interested. Goes into some really good detail on the life cycle and whether they really are dormant in tanks. From what I read, I might be worried that the guys you have quarantined might be carriers and just resistant? Wouldn't it be better to treat the tank with them in it? Just curious.

Particularly resistant fishes can remain asymptomatic through several cycles of infestation and can act as "carriers" of Ich. What happens is, the free-swimming tomites attach most easily to the gills. The rest of the fishes' skin is protected by a sturdier mucus coating that's constantly renewed, sloughing off all kinds of minute organisms that might settle out. Trophonts that are newly-attached to the epidermis are invisibly small. So a "carrier" fish is simply one that is invisibly carrying Ich, perhaps on its gills. There is no "dormant" independent, long-term encysted life stage separate from a host fish for Ichthyophthirius multifiliis.
Click to expand...
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml
 
C

CrashSmAshley

New Member
Thanks for the info! The snails and the frogs can't be in medicine since they are so fragile and the betta is a new fish that hasn't been in the tank yet, so they are quarantined for their own reasons
 
P

protocl

New Member
CrashSmAshley said:
Well, so far I've lost 1 black neon tetra and 2 neon tetras. Everyone else seems healthy and spot free so I'm hoping for the best! Did about a 25% water change then treated with Rid-Ich+ around 4pm. Got home around 9:45pm and looked at the tank and saw the parasites crawling on the sides of the wall trying to get out of the water. Yuck! Waited til this morning and checked to see that more than half of the parasites were dead :cheers: Did a 50% water change and can't see anymore parasites, but I'm gonna wait a bit longer to make sure. I'm out of meds so I gotta run and get some more so I can treat for at least another 24 hours. My poor snails, frogs and betta sure hate being quarantined though!

50c6793e.jpg
Click to expand...
in such a tank - 10G.
i would do the same. As in house the rest in bags til meds. finished applied.
great approach!
 
C

CrashSmAshley

New Member
After treating for a week, the pesky parasite has made itself visible again...but this time I've caught it early! The betta's fins got super spotty overnight, but he's acting no different. Only a couple of the tetras have one or two small spots and they too aren't acting any different. Everyone's colors are super bright too, so at least we're off to a great start! Did about a 30% WC and quarantined the snails and dwarf frogs again. Added about 10ml (enough to treat around 8 gallons) of Coppersafe and about to dose around 7ml of aquarium salt. Everyone just ate a hardy meal of bloodworms and now exploring the tank.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top