Ich; spreading questions

[Brinny-chan]

Okay, my 5 gallon tank has one betta in it for the moment. I noticed just now that he has one dot of what looks like ich starting on one of his fins. If I take him out now, is it safe to put a different fish in the tank, so I don't lose the cycle? Or will they get ich too?

 

[Mahamotorworks]

They will probably get the Ich aswell. Ich has the free floatig stage and the white dot attached to a fish stage. I would just treat the betta in the 5G tank.

MAHA

 

[GIS Guy]

Yes there is a very good chance of another fish getting ill.
It's best to treat the fish and tank all at the same time.

 

[Fishfantic1985]

alot of people are against it, but i used table salt when i had ich, in 2 days it was gone. Still have the fish i treated, its been 2 yrs and their stii alive.

 

[GIS Guy]

You could just treat w/ heat and skip the salt all together.

 

[Purple]

I'm a fan of using meds on ich - but mostly because by the time i notice it, I don't have time to muck about with the more natural cures. But in this case, salt or heat - or both will have the desired effect in time to save the fish

But as said above - you have to treat the fish and the tank at the same time, or it will simply come back.

Salt treatment is fine with bettas - but it doesn't suit all types of freshwater tropical fish - so for the benefit of anyone else reading this thread - check first before adding salt (Google is your friend)

 

[Brinny-chan]

Alright, well, I put a heater in the five gallon and I'm raising the temp to about 80-ish or 82. I also used a med I had on hands called "Nox-Ich". Anyone ever used this? Drop per gallon, and you're supposed to use it for 3 days. What do I do after those three days?

Will the meds screw up my cycle? My filter is just one of those contained under the canopy, and it has two cartridges that are kind of like floss or fuzzy stuff. I don't have carbon.

I also have taken out a bit of the water so my filter makes a bit of a waterfall for more oxygen. Will this help my fish out at all or is that just me being weird?

Is there anything else I should do?

Just kind of paranoid about ich, because everytime I've had it I've never successfully treated it without losses

Thanks for all the input guys!
Brinny

 

[JWright]

It's probably not really adding more oxygen. Oxygen simply diffuses into the water near the top of the tank, whether the surface of the water is broken or not. All that's needed is to have the water that's on the bottom being pushed to the top, and the regular flow from your filter probably accomplishes that just fine.

~JW

 

[MissFishy]

I'm not familiar with "nox-ich," but you may want to do a search, some meds do screw up your tank cycle. If you want to use heat to kill the ich, the temp needs to be 85-86. Bettas should be at a temp of 78-80 regularly anyways.

 

[JWright]

I misread your post and didn't notice that you had also added meds...

I would go with either salt/heat or the med... mixing treatments is rarely a good idea in aquariums...

 

[Purple]

Unfortunately - Nox-Ich contains malachite green, which will affect the bacteria in your filter.

Meds that affect the filter bacteria are quite rare - you just got unlucky.

The good news is - the company that makes that stuff is out of business ......

 

[Brinny-chan]

Damn. Haha, oh well. I don't want to stop using the meds now, unless it's better for me to just add salt?

The temp is now at 84. Is that alright? Should I use the meds still or tomorrow (when I'm supposed to keep using it) or just switch to salt?

 

[Mahamotorworks]

I would continue useing the med since you have started.

MAHA