The Dreaded Ich

[Mulder]

I started out with four cardinal tetras and a neon tetra about a week ago, in a cycled 10 gal with a mystery snail. I lost the neon the first night, and one cardinal the next. I've been testing water daily since adding the fish, but my ammonia test kit has gone bad. I ordered another, but I'm still waiting for it to arrive. My nitrites have been 0ppm, and my nitrates have been around 10ppm. The temp varies according to the weather, but it's been hot for the past week. I can't get it below 76, although it's usually closer to 78. The pH is pretty steady around 7.2.

Thursday night, I saw one of the surviving cardinals swimming with a spiral like a perfectly thrown football. I spent most of the night researching, and came up with everything from the tank was too hot, swim bladder ruptured, brainworms, neon tetra disease, overfeeding, stroke, and nearly everything else. He didn't make it through the night, but there were no obvious signs of injury.

Tonight, I noticed the "salt grain" spots of ich. There are a few spots on each of the two remaining tetras. I do have a few live plants and a mystery snail. I can remove the snail if I need to for treatment. What is the recommended treatment? 20 years ago, the last time I had this issue, it was copper sulfate. Is that still the treatment of choice? If not, what have you used that's worked?

 

[OrangeCones]

Heat (with added aeration as warmer water can't hold oxygen as well as cooler water) is the safest treatment for ich. The snail can't harbor it so can be moved out if the temperature needed to kill the ich stresses it. You would not want to put the snail in with other fish until its kept with no fish for 10-14days minimum to prevent any possible ich spores from being transmitted. Ich cannot reproduce in temperatures at or above 86degrees, nor live without a host fish beyond 10-14 days.

 

[FishDad]

OC gave you good advice for Ich. If I understand you correctly, I believe you are making a mistake by trying to lower the temp. 76-78 is about perfect.

 

[FreshyFresh]

FD, healthy neons do best in pretty cool water temps, like 70-72 or so.

Mulder, it's not uncommon to loose a few right after you get them home. Especially neons. That's been my experience when sourcing them from unknown water quality.

I also brought ich into my tank, soon after introducing 15 neons and 5 emerald corys into the tank. Purchased all 20 at the same time from a local Petco. Ughh...

Anyhoo.. I used API's Super Ich Cure, along with cranking up the heat and aeration, so in reality, I dunno if the meds worked or if it was the simple heat/aeration, but eventually, 10 neons and 4 corys pulled through. Also had my female pearl gourami in there at the time, but she never showed signs of ich.

 

[FishDad]

Didn't know that, never kept neons. That seems like it would be pretty difficult to do. Even in the winter with my heaters off my tanks wouldn't get below 75.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yeah, my 20 long, where I keep my neons doesn't go below 76 or so in the summer. They've been OK aside from what ever I went thru in that tank recently. That took a molly and blood-fin tetra before it took 2 neons.

 

[FishDad]

Somewhat off topic but Freshy have you ever seen the green neon tetras at any of your LFS? They have no red in them at all and look more like a sea green than blue. Pretty cool looking I thought.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yes! I have seen them. Very cool. I try not to linger too long on any sale tank given I'm at my paltry 3-tank limit for the time being.

 

[FishDad]

Well what you've gotta do is make that three big tanks.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Ha! Maybe some day. Kind of out of real-estate on the first floor. Would have to be in the basement. After I had the 29g catastrophe on the second floor, 'nothing big is ever going up there! Thankfully I was home and sopped up most of it.

 

[Thyra]

I just narrowly avoided a catastrophe this afternoon. I had a 1 X 6 leaning against the counter as I was measuring for a shelf and I accidentally bumped into it and if fell missing my 26gallon bowfront by less than 2 inches! Lesson learned - I hope!

 

[FreshyFresh]

Phew!! Close one there. Bad is that could be, I could accept it. My tank letting go for no apparent reason really woke me up.

 

[Mulder]

I've removed the snail, added a heater, added an air pump and stone, and I've gradually raised the heat throughout the day. The tetras are still active and responding to feeding time. I don't see any signs the increased heat is stressing them, so I'm hopeful. I didn't see any signs of ich when I bought the fish, and I haven't added anything since them. I hope they pull through.

 

[OrangeCones]

I wish you the best of luck, Mulder. This shows why quarantining is so very important!

 

[Mulder]

I've been reading up on those. Is it essentially just a cycled holding tank with a hardy inhabitant or two to keep it cycled? That's kind of what I have. The snail's my hardy inhabitant, but he's easy enough to keep in a bare bottom plastic enclosure when I need to treat for something.

I lost another one this morning. I'm down to a single tetra. I'm intending on keeping the heat up for the full fourteen days, and if this last one survives, I'd like to see it go a full week after that without developing spots before I bring the temp down slowly and replace the snail.