My Fish Have Ick

[crazeeaziz]

I just got a fishtank from a friend. The fishtank is 55 gallons and has 2 angel fish(orange/black, black/silver 4 inches each), two Plecos(one baby spotted & brown, and one 5 inch albino pleco). I also have 5 mollies and 8 sherpa tetras. I love these fish, ok. And now they have ick. I have elevated the heat to 83 degrees. I have added 5 tablespoons of Epson Salt deluted and poured thru the filters. I have made 25% water changes every day for three days, and now today I took out the little pleco and rubbed some of the parasites off of him. I am scared!!! I don't want to lose any of my fish!!! Any other information will be greatly appreciated!! Please help.

P.S.
Did I do the wrong thing by taking out the pleco and rubbing him down?

 

[MissFishy]

I wouldn't rub any of the fish, that can cause irritation to their skin and leave them open to more infections. Keep the tank temperature up for around 2.5 weeks. Most of the fish should make it (salt isn't really necessary and if you have fish without scales, this can actually be harmful). However, how did you set up this tank? Was the tank cycled by your friend and when it was transported did the rocks and/or filter media stay wet? If you care about your fish, you should definitely read up on cycling a tank and what that involves, otherwise you will soon have bigger problems than ich to deal with. Try the link below in my signature or the stickies in the forums.

 

[Joeyb1731]

I would raise the temp even higher, 85 or 86, if your worried about the fishes reaction to the salt, use aquarisol the small bottle and treat untill its empty. about 60 drops a day. I did the salt and heat on my 50 gallon, my neighbor did the heat and aquarisol on his and we both had similar outcomes, the ich went away in about 4-5 days and we continued treatment for about 4-5 days after. If you use the aquarisol you should do a water change once the ich is off the fish, and do another one after the following 5 days, about 50% both times.aquarisol is cheap too about 4 dollars enough for a good treatment

PS-If you use aquarisol, remove the carbon from the filter

 

[Grumpy_Marine]

Temp to 86 and use aquarium salt available at petco or petsmart. Works every time like a charm. I have had three tanks and had a bout of ich on my clown loach for a while, takes about a week to see improvment in fish but keep temps up for an additional week to allow the floating ich to die off, then the W/C as mentioned above. No need to purchase anything if you have the aquarium salt already.

 

[shuffcard]

What about water changes?

I am dealing with ich right now too in one of my tanks. I am going with the heat/salt method.

I initially did a 50% water change when i diagnosed it and then turned the heat up and added 20 tablespoons of salt (so far).

My questions are do i need to add more salt and do i need to hold off on water changes to keep the salinity levels?

 

[Joeyb1731]

Keep doing the changes and add the salt dose to the new water

 

[shuffcard]

Do they need to be daily water changes at this point?

Also, can aquari-sol be used in combo with salt?

 

[Joeyb1731]

the waterchanges don't need to be everyday. If ur tank is cycled u can probably do 1 during the salt treatment and 1 after and then go back on a normal schedule. I wouldn't use aquarisol and salt. I'd use one or the other. The salt worked good for me but I think if it happens again I'm gonna use aquarisol because it SEEMS easier and the aquarisol can also be used all the time to prevent ich. If ur tank is cycling like mine was u need to find a happy medium with water changes because u need to keep ur ammonia and nitrite down but also allow the treatment to work

 

[MissFishy]

Salt isn't really necessary for ich treatment, just raising the heat is fine. An ich's lifecycle is around 14 days so you want to keep the heat up for that long. Ich can't survive at the higher temps. In order to get rid of all of them, make sure you continue treating for the whole 14 days, just because they disappear from the fish doesn't mean they're out of the tank.

 

[crazeeaziz]

Thanks for the info... we are working on it. Been about 6 days. Fish still have the white spots, but we are hopeful. We do a 20% water change everyday and are medicating with rid ich +. We have raised the temp to 84 deg as well. Signing off hopeful. I am most worried about my baby pleco. He is covered and I hope I haven't hurt him more with the rub down. Thanks again.
Jennifer

 

[Joeyb1731]

Its too late now but I heard rid ich is a big waster of money. Hopefully it works out for you. Good Luck

 

[crazeeaziz]

Ok... the ick is gone and now my orange angel won't eat. What is going on. We are getting frustrated. We didn't get a fishtank to watch our fish suffer. Any Ideas?

 

[MissFishy]

You may have answered this before, but was this tank cycled? Have you taken an ammonia reading? Loss of appetite is a symptom of ammonia poisoning.

 

[FirstTimeFreshie]

:-( my fish have ich again. i have no luck. this is my 3rd ich outbreak! I've treated the water with the Mardel treatment, i've raised the tank temp to 84. Doing water changes every other day. Any other suggestions? (i haven't tried salt yet, but i dont want to mix treatments so i'm not going to add salt at this point)

 

[Joeyb1731]

get the temp to 86. If you wanna do a different treatment, or salt, do a big water change to get the meds out. If i were you I would do a 50 % water change today, go get a bottle of aquarisol keep the temp at 86 and treat the ich for 14 days, do not stop when the ich LOOKS gone, Its not gone trust me. It will come back worse everytime. Also make sure your water parameters are good. I know there is a 1 inch 1 gallon rule, and you are under that, but 2.5 gallon tanks scare me. So small, no way to tell if the fish are stressed. If the water is not perfect, and your fish feel stressed and there is even a hint of ich left in your tank they will get it. My fish got it during the end of my cycle, from stress, I treated for 4 days and right as my cycle ended it came back. I treated for 14 days with salt. Did some waterchanges after treatment and no ich (knocking wood) since. Id get a bigger tank, its much easier

 

[FirstTimeFreshie]

get the temp to 86. If you wanna do a different treatment, or salt, do a big water change to get the meds out. If i were you I would do a 50 % water change today, go get a bottle of aquarisol keep the temp at 86 and treat the ich for 14 days, do not stop when the ich LOOKS gone, Its not gone trust me. It will come back worse everytime. Also make sure your water parameters are good. I know there is a 1 inch 1 gallon rule, and you are under that, but 2.5 gallon tanks scare me. So small, no way to tell if the fish are stressed. If the water is not perfect, and your fish feel stressed and there is even a hint of ich left in your tank they will get it. My fish got it during the end of my cycle, from stress, I treated for 4 days and right as my cycle ended it came back. I treated for 14 days with salt. Did some waterchanges after treatment and no ich (knocking wood) since. Id get a bigger tank, its much easier

I agree with everything you said. I'm getting a bigger tank in May (10 Gal) but until then all I've got is my itty bitty tank. I'll try to get to my LFS and get aquarisol ASAP.

Thanks

 

[MissFishy]

You need to raise the temp and KEEP it there for at LEAST 14 days. Just because ich appears to disappear from the tank doesn't mean it's gone. It has several life cycle changes and in one of them it is invisible and loose in the tank water and gravel.

 

[kalidiscopeyes]

I've been keeping fish for about 8mo and just ordered some snakeskin barbs and rainbow fish for my 55gal. The rainbows are doing great. I cycled my tank for 3mo starting with fishless cycling then added some of my baby mollies to help cycle. Then I got one rainbow fish and continued cycling. Now that I've added the new fish they are getting ich. My original rainbow and my baby mollies are fine with no ich spots and only a few of the new rainbows are showing signs of it. But my poor snake skin barbs are covered. I do regular tank maintance and have increased my water changes and added salt to help gill function for sick fish and increase slime coat for well fish. I'm just afraid that I'll upset the bio filter. I don't want to undo my cycling...