Ich....

[ghostknife]

Yes the infamous ich. How do you treat it?

I know to isolate the fish in its own containor with its water, but do you know how hard it is to get a freakin fish out of it tank? When I do finally get the fish in a seperate tank or what ever, thats when they start to croak. It only takes a few hours. So I dont know what to do. To me its like when a fish gets ich, might as well flush it. I can never save them.

 

[pieulla]

I just treated ich a few weeks ago and I didn't remove the fish that were infected. From what I have learned on here, you are supposed to treat the whole tank. Someone can correct me if I am wrong...but you can use a store bought medication (I used Jungle Labs Ich Clear) follow the directions and your tank should clear up. Adding salt works wonders as well. It helps the medication to work a bit better. Hope this helps!

 

[Angelfish]

Yes, I too have heared to treat ich with the fish still in the tank. Even if you do choose to remove the fish, still treat the tank to ensure none of his fishy companions become infected.
Ich can be a tough one to beat, good luck to you

 

[bigfoot150]

Treating Ich really depends on how severe the case is. If the fish has spots all over live a geeky teenager in highschool then the fishes other geeky friends are probably not far behind. In this case the whole tank needs to be treated.

However, in the case of a mild outbreak the best way to treat your fish is to treat the cause. You will want to first check your water chemistry. If you have good readings(ie no ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, a stable PH, and a stable temp) then you will want to proceed to treat the whole tank as you would for a severe case. If something is off in your water chemistry you will want to take care of it first. If you fish don't appear to recovering and are only getting more and more spots then you will want to medicate accordingly.

I just had an instance where my PH fluctuated way too much over the course of a couple of days and my fish started to get some ich. I stablized the PH and my fish have all recovered without any losses or treatment.

 

[anthoeny]

If you experience an outbreak of Ich in your tank, you shouldn't just isolate the infected fish and treat in a quarantine
Ich works in a cycle, and especially during the stage in which "ich-lets", as I like to call them , are free-floating, they can and most likely will attach to new fish if the whole tank is not treated

Good luck

 

[ghostknife]

Awesome responses!

So next time treat the whole tank with the infected fish in it. I thought so but the fish store told me to isolate. Yeah I know, I have really crappy LFS. Anyways, this will be alot easier; I dont have to destroy my tank anymore trying to get one fish out. Thankyou so much.

I started treating the tank today. I dont think its severe yet, but I'm going to treat as if. Once again, thanks!

 

[revfred]

Regardless of the medication you use, make sure you treat it long enough . . . maybe go a day or two beyond what the mfr. recommends. If you cut the treatment short, it may come back.

 

[Lotus]

There is a good article here: http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php to help you understand it better, along with some info on treatment.

Just stick with one type of treatment at a time, don't try to mix them together, and follow all the instructions on the medication packages to the letter.

 

[Purple]

The ich parasite runs a 3 day cycle between being on the fish and in the water - but the meds only kill it when it's off the fish. So a typical med course will be 6 days long in two doses to make sure all the ich gets killed off.

always treat the whole tank

 

[bevans76]

I've treated ich several times with no medication. Someone on this forum insisted I treat my 82 gallon with non-iodized salt and raise the temp to about 84-85 degrees F for a few weeks. I'm glad I listened because it saved 7 clown loaches. I am completely convinced this is the best way to treat ich and I will never attempt to treat it differently in the future. I highly recommend this method.

 

[TurbineSurgeon]

bevans, that's exactly the way I treated ich in my 75 also. That regimen seems to get "poo-pooed" a lot because it seems too old-fashioned or a low-tech approach. Nonetheless, it is effective if the water conditions are otherwise good. It also really helps to catch it early. I only saw about 3 or 4 spots on one rummy nose tetra (out of about 20 fish) when I began treatment.

 

[mudwoman]

The salt treatment seems great, especially if you have a big tank and medicating the whole thing would be expensive. A word of warning to those who haven't tried it yet, don't mix the heat/salt treatment with a medication. Raising the temp in the tank decreases the amount of dissolved Oxygen in the water, as do some medications, so if you combine the two treatments you can suffocate your fish.

 

[Bamabruiser]

Question for those of you have treated with salt...

Is it safe to use with a planted tank? Also, I think corys and tetras are sensitive to salt. Can I safely use salt with these species in my tank?

I just recently introduced some rainbowfish to my show tank (couldn't put them in a holding tank because I had some water issues with it...long story). But the rainbow has just about 3 or 4 ich spots. I need to treat now, I think...but was unsure what to use. I've used coppersafe before, successfully, in a non planted tank...but that won't work in this tank since it is planted. How does clout work? Is it safe?

 

[twoluvcats]

I did salt and a temp increase with my cories and tetras and everyone survived...so I think they'd be ok based on my experience.

I used Jungle's ick clear and it killed my pictus catfish the same day, even tho the box said half a dose would be ok for scaleless fish...I will now always use salt to treat ich.

 

[JWright]

Salt treatment is fine for plants and "salt-sensitive" fish. The dosages used aren't enough to stress the fish and plants out...only the ich...which is the whole idea...

 

[bigredspecial]

so how much salt should be used exactly? I've heard 7tablespoons per ten gallons or something along those lines, but want to know for sure

 

[TurbineSurgeon]

A teaspoon per gallon seems to do the trick for me (which works out to 3 1/3 Tablespoons per 10 gallons), although I have seen as high as 3 teaspoons per gallon (http://www.thekrib.com/Diseases/ich.html)

 

[bigredspecial]

another stupid question - by teaspon, do you mean a level spoon, or heaping whatever will fit on there?

 

[TurbineSurgeon]

When cooking, teaspoon means level teaspoon, so that's what I used to "cook-up" something to kill the ich. Or at least reasonably level...

 

[bigredspecial]

ok thanks.... I went ahead and used a level spoon anyway, seems to be working great!