Persistant ich? Day 10 of treatment

[roark fishies]

Ok, so I introduced ich to my tank when I added 3 new rams. I know, I should have quarintined and now I'm paying for it. I raised the temp to about 84 and have been treating with Quick Cure. I took the carbon filter out. Since I have Tetras I started off with 20 drops to the whole 46G tank. I'm now up to 25 drops. i also turn off the lights after adding the Quick Cure. The ram doesn't have any more visible signs of ich. Neither do any of the other fish (they look clear unless it's in their gills) except for my Dwarf Gourami. Today will be day 10 of treatment and it seems to be getting worse on him. I would think the meds would kill the free swimmers before they attatched to him. He doesn't seem to be stressed. I can't add salt. I don't know what else to try. Should I continue as is for a little longer? Up the dosage? Switch meds altogether?

 

[brian1973]

seperate the gourami and treat with the full dose, as for you neon in the 10g IMHO it is time to end its suffering I have been without internet for almost a month due to being out of town and i know that neon has been in there for atleast a month.

Maybe try Jay's cure which is coppersafe, I would think leavng the temps that high for so long could be stressful for all the fish, so I would definately remove the one still infected.

 

[roark fishies]

There were actually 2 neons in the 10G. I had to euthanize one last week. The other one has been in there close to 3 months now. he's a fighter. He still looks fairly well and eats good. As long as it still has quality of life I just can't put it down. Even if I did go ahead and do it and then put the gourami in there he could get the ntd. Which is even riskier. Besides, everything that I'm reading about ich says that just cuz you can't see it on other fish doesn't mean they don't have it. It could be in their gills. It could also be in the gravel. I feel like I need to treat that whole tank anyway.
I'm gonna give that coppersafe a try. I have it ordered. Now I just gotta keep everyone alive until it gets here. My tank is already showing secondary problems. The barbs have fin detoriation as well as the cories though not as bad. Which I don't understand because I've been doing extra water changes. I'm afraid things are fixing to get out of hand.....

 

[roark fishies]

Day 13
Quit the Quick Cure on day 11. Not working.
Still waiting on coppersafe to come in.

Added salt even though I have cories and otos. I can't just not do anything while waiting. They don't seem to be irritated by it.

Ammonia is at .25. Guess I'm going through a mini cycle. All the water changes? Skipped feeding them today.

Moved cherry barbs to a Rubbermaid hospital tank. Treating with Maracyn 2. The female had red streaks and spots on body. Acting very stressed. They seem to have perked up some though still not eating.

When it goes bad it goes very bad. I'll be glad when this over. And I'll be sooo happy if we make it through this with no casualties.

 

[roark fishies]

Day 14

Coppersafe came in!! Done a 10% pwc and added the coppersafe. Now the wait begins. Oh, and I lowered the temp down to 83.

 

[Lotus]

If you can, lower the temp slowly back to normal. Meds + Heat = very low oxygen.

 

[roark fishies]

OK, I'll do that. I could tell the QuickCure was sapping oxygen from the tank cuz every time I added it the barbs would go to the top and the neons started gasping alot. I wasn't sure if Coppersafe would do the same thing.

 

[roark fishies]

Day 15

46 is looking pretty good for now.

The cherry barbs in hospital tank don't look so good. The males are very pale and the female has developed dropsy. I done a pwc and added espom salt, coppersafe, and I'm continuing with the Maracyn 2. I'm not feeling very good about them. Especially the female.

 

[roark fishies]

Day 16

46 still looking good but ich is still visible

In the hospital tank the female barb is looking BAD. The Maracyn 2 is not helping at all. She still has red streaks/splotches and the dropsy isn't getting any better. Tomorrow is the last dose of Maracyn.
One of the males died this morn. But the other male started back eating today so he seems better.

 

[brian1973]

If I am reading this right you STILL have ICH??? Maybe it is time to look for a vet that knows something about fish disease and make a visit with one of these fish to make sure it isnt something other than ich. ICH should be gone by now even if the tank was infested unless none of your treatments are working. If I remember correctly there is one strain of ich that is persistant but even it has a short lifecycle.

P.S. I still think you should euthanise the other neon but that just my opinion but with the rate your going you may need that space I hope your luck changes soon.

 

[Sticky Fish]

dang. i would recommend coppersafe. its pretty good. you can add some salt treatment and hopefully your ich should be gone in a few days. when the cysts fall off, some may come back. though when they first fall off, this is the time when you really want your temp up. anything over 80 should kill it(from what i have heard.)

 

[roark fishies]

Day 26

FINALLY! The ich is gone. I lost 2 cherry barbs in the process and still have a german blue ram in a hospital tank because of this. But at least my big tank is ich free. That was a horrible first experience with that mess.

 

[TabMorte]

dang. i would recommend coppersafe. its pretty good. you can add some salt treatment and hopefully your ich should be gone in a few days. when the cysts fall off, some may come back. though when they first fall off, this is the time when you really want your temp up. anything over 80 should kill it(from what i have heard.)

Coppersafe's an uber handy medicine to keep in your fish stuff box. It's easy easy to use and kills a wide range of parasites. I just got loaches that developed velvet I presume cause of stress in moving and it's worked wonderfully.

I recently learned that Ick like Velvet also is more aggressive with a lot of light, some one suggested scaling back the light on your tank or completely blacking it out in combination with the salt and heat when it's free swimming can help a lot too apparently. (I'd never heard of that before!)