this can't be good :(

[Leopardess]

Ok, I have ich-infested dwarf gouramis right now. I have been treating them with Coppersafe and before that Ich Guard. I know some of the symptoms associated with Ich is that the fish will hang around stationary objects or the surface of the water, but two of mine all but refuse to move. One is right at the surface and is actually leaning up against the glass and another one is staying very near the bottom. Is this okay? Should I be more worried?

And while you're here , you fish experts you , shouldn't these darn fish show signs of improving already? Its been over a week of treatment and it looks like it is getting worse!

I know it isn't the water quality either: I have been doing very frequent water changes, I vaccum the gravel everyday( to remove junk and the unhatched little buggers), I have raised the temp, added some more salt and have kept the time the light on to a minimum to help dissuade the ich from swimming up to the surface, i.e. towards the light. I also have no ammonia and about 2.5 nitrate and my pH is 7.1-ish. Any ideas?

 

[catfishmike]

sometimes the cure is worse than the cause.although i see a 2.5 nitrate that makes me wonder as most of the time nitrates should stay under 1.0 although you may have meant nitrites.i'm not sure.have you been sure the fish are eating,without food they don't have the energy to fight off disease.i like to use garlic to help repel ich as well.it's not proven but many signs show that it may be very effective in parasite control,and improves appatite.also i i don't like all those copper base meds.we don't want coper any other time in the tank so why now?well i hope my ideas will help you although i don't have any true anwsers for you as to why your fish are still sick,and i'm no expert just enthusiastic.

 

[Fishman24]

I have had very good success with coppersafe and find that once it has been treated it doesn't seem to come back. Since you have raised the temp, this will shorten the cycles. Ick does seem to look worse before it gets better. The white spots are actually the parasites pushing through. Ick actually starts under the skin of the fish and moves outward. So those parasites were there a little while ago. I have seen it take up to a month however you should see some drastic resutls shortly. In addition the coppersafe will normall induce the fish to create more waste so becareful of amonia spikes. In addition if you haven't added additional aeration I would do so soon. Raising the tempature and the ick treatment reduces the amount of oxygen. By aeration I mean water surface agitation. Good luck leopardess

 

[Coyote]

Coppersafe was pretty effective when I used it to treat parasite in my tank last time. However, some of my plants died during the treatment period.

catfishmike, your garlic treatment sounds interesting. Could you tell us more about it?

 

[Fishman24]

sorry, forgot to mention that- coppersafe will kill plants and is pretty dangerous for cats and a few others- You may just want to check the box, it should tell you

 

[Antwan]

Dang that sucks! I just lost all of my fish to ich recently as you could see below. I've been doing everything you have, but I used Ich Guard II for scaleless fish. I think I caught it too late though and it was very bad. I lost everything but the goldfish and plecos, and I'm barely getting over the disease.

 

[depthC]

Ive had awesome results with raising the temperature and adding maracide. The last time i had ich, this got rid of it and with no deaths so im pretty happy with the results. So try maracide next time if youd like.

- depthC

 

[Antwan]

That Maracide by Mardel looks like it works, thats what I'm using now to finish off the ich. It says that you could even maintain normal filtration too!

 

[catfishmike]

i'll work on the garlic thing in a sperate thread and get a good long bunch of stuff for everyone to read

 

[Leopardess]

okay, first off, yes catfishmike, I am illiterate and meant to type 0 POINT 25, as in 0.25 - sorry. Also, I've heard that maracide works too, but I've just switched to Coppersafe after Ich Guard didn't work and I don't think it would be prudent to switch again. Yeah, I'd also like to know more about the garlic thing...And let's see....oh, the coppersafe works with normal filtration too (which was one of the reasons I picked it to replace the Ich Guard). As for the aeration thing, do I really need to increase it, since the gouramis breath atmospheric air? (the scissortails are acting happy as usual, so they don't seem to want more air) Thanks for all your input guys! And if this whole treatment doesn't work (in another three weeks or so) I might try maracide.

-To those of you who suggested Melafix for my other tank, the one with the cotton mouth, I think that might have been you, Depth C, but I'm not sure, I did get it and am trying that.

-On an unrelated topic- I just bought the two coolest peices of driftwood for the 55 and some great micro swords and amazon swords. It starting to look great!

 

[catfishmike]

the form of garlic i use is garlic extract from kent marine.the trade name is garlic extreme.hey don't feel too bad i'm terrible at typing too as you may have noitced from some of my other posts. like i said i'll try to get a whole thread on garlic up in a day or two.i already have some links with good info and i'm just trying to find some of my old magazines to rob for info.

 

[Paul]

You might want to try adding aquarium salt to the tank with the ICH. The usual dosage is 5mL for every 5 gals of water. I keep it in all my tanks and never have problems with parasites.