some quesitons

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sapphire

Medium Fish
#1
Aug 3, 2005
55
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mississippi
#1
I think some of the fish have ick.......I have treated the tank today with the Rid-Ick recommended at the store and also did a 30% water change. I read in Freshwater Fish for Dummies about salt water baths for the infected fish. Another book recommended raising the temperature a couple degrees. Do any of you do that?
Also, I read no metal should come in contact with the tank water. Accidently I have had a ring on when I reached into the tank to do something......would that affect the fish? ( normally remove all jewelry but I just absolutely forgot to that time!)
I am going to wait the recommended 24 hours to treat the tank again and try to do another partial water change in the morning.
thanks for any help......
 

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GoldLenny

Medium Fish
#2
Jul 21, 2005
84
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New Orleans, LA, USA
lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com
#2
As far as your ring and hands. You should probably remove jewelry and rinse your hands and arms well under warm water real good. Don't use soap, just warm to hot water to remove any oils or contaminates on your skin. If you use lotion on a regular basis, wear the long plastic gloves that you can buy at your LFS.

As far as Ick, it has a 30 day life cycle at mid 70's(F) temps. By raising the temp to 82F, it will speed up the life cycle to around a week. Ick is only affected by the medicine during a portion of it's life cycle so by speeding up the life cycle, the medicine will kill and new Ick. Follow the directions on the Ick medicine and do not over or under dose. I've never used Rid-Ick so do whatever their directions say as far as dosing and PWC's.

One other thing.. you did not seem very sure that your fish have Ick. What makes you think they do?
 

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sapphire

Medium Fish
#3
Aug 3, 2005
55
0
0
mississippi
#3
Some are taking a "water massage" where the filter flows out and some are displaying small salt grain white spots. One does have what appears to be a ragged tail fin. The fish guy told me this is what they use to treat alot of parasite type things.....I do need to read more on the bottle too.....(eyes aren't what they used to be!) I have seen one rubbing itself along the gravel also....thanks for your reply......I did go ahead and raise the temp to 82.
 

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sapphire

Medium Fish
#4
Aug 3, 2005
55
0
0
mississippi
#4
okay, the medication is Rid-Ick Plus and does stain the water a bit. It says it will not harm the biological filters and I did remove the charcol filter before dosing. I have the temp raised as I stated and will do a water change in the morning and possibly dose the tank again in 12 hours as it states you can do.....or 24 hours is another suggestion (says 12 hour dosing could harm weakened fish but only one is acting funny staying in one corner but comes out to eat well)
 

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adagiolove05

Large Fish
#5
Dec 8, 2004
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#5
I'd do a 10-20% water change everyday followed by a dose of the medication. But of course, only medicate for the amount of water that you removed. Don't overdose the amount, but go WAY longer than the instructions say on the bottle. Like GoldLenny said, you have to treat for the entire life cycle of ich. (I know- the bottles always say stuff like "will treat ich in 3 days!") Another way to know when to stop medicating is to medicate 5-7 days after you see the last ich spot. Raising the temperature does help, so that was good. I've never used salt because the medication usually works great, but I've heard it does help. Good luck!
 

NoDeltaH2O

NoDeltaH2O

Superstar Fish
#6
Feb 17, 2005
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#6
Well, if you don;t have any live plants in there, the best way to treat Ich is to raise the water temp to about 82*F and add some aquarium salt. The temp speeds up the lifecycle of the Ich, and when they Ich breaks out of its cyst stage, then the salt hits it and whammo, no more ich.
 

NoDeltaH2O

NoDeltaH2O

Superstar Fish
#10
Feb 17, 2005
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#10
It is generally not good on fish to mix meds and treatment methods, so it might be a good idea to do several large (30% maybe) Water Changes (WCs) over the course of a couple days to dilute the meds out of the water, all the while running fresh clean carbon in your filters to help take out the meds. Then add the salt and raise the temp.

One treatment method at a time is the way to go.
 

revfred

revfred

Superstar Fish
#11
Jun 21, 2003
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St. Paul, MN
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#11
I use Rid-Ich+ exclusively on the rare occasions when I have had ich. (1) You don't need to raise the temp at all, which is one of the benefits of Rid-Ich+. Also, do not add salt. Just follow the mfrs instructions to the letter ... don't add anything ... or do anything different than what they say.

If you are going to use the "stubborn case" dosage...12hrs...I would follow it with a 24 hr. dose. Do, as mentioned, carry on the treatment for about 5-7 days.

Note that Rid-Ich+ is safe for plants, doesn't harm the biological filter, and is OK for scaleless fish. I've never noticed any staining BTW. I dropped the salt treatment years ago.
 

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adagiolove05

Large Fish
#12
Dec 8, 2004
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#12
there's so many ways to treat ich, and they're all pretty good. i use Quick Cure? Is that what it's called? Pretty much same stuff as rid ich. I've never lost a single fish to ich, including the ones i take home from work to treat. (Most of my fish have had ich when i bring them home- i like to rescue my fish- especially from my local walmart who seem to have problems with their fish ALL of the time....)
 

S

sapphire

Medium Fish
#13
Aug 3, 2005
55
0
0
mississippi
#13
I had hesitated from buying fish at my local Walmart for that reason. I have no lfs to rely on and the large pet chain stores are about 30-45 minutes away at the least. I got these at the large pet chain stores.
The fish seem better today but I am still treating the tank and fish as you all recommended.
 

S

sapphire

Medium Fish
#14
Aug 3, 2005
55
0
0
mississippi
#14
fish seem better today...I did do another dose of medication and changed about 40% of the water. They seem to be moving around more and today was fasting day. I did find a baby platy in the tank this afternoon but can't catch it and if I did I have no where to contain it! Maybe it'll survive.
 

matt201985

matt201985

Banned
#17
Nov 3, 2005
443
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39
New York
#17
new to the fish world

Im new to this stuff, only had my new tank for 2 months and getting a 30gal soon, are clown loaches hard to keep? heard they were prone to all sorts of disease
 

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