Oh Ick- it's ick!

[nene]

I purchased and Angel Ram one week ago at a LFS that I totally trust and purchase from regularly and have never had any problems and oh no, I am pretty sure it has ick- little white dots on it. So far none of my other fish are affected. I know about quarantine but this is the only tank I have (55 gallon) and in 6 yrs I have never had any disease in the tank so I guess I was lulled into a false sense of security. Anyway, I also have Cory Cats, Plecos and Neon Tetras, White Cloud Mountain Minnows, Cherry Barbs and Ottos. I called the store and my husband is going today to pick up some medicine to medicate the tank. I took the carbon out of the filter and is there anything else I need to know? I have never treated a fish disease before and I am sure my husband wont remember anything the person the the store tells him. Help and Thanks.

[Lady Friesian]

Have you considered using just heat and salt to treat it? Regular aquarium salt worked for me the one time I had ich, and you could always add harsher meds later if the salt isn't effective for your fish. I think the idea is that the mobile form of the parasite (where it's looking for a fish to attach to) is much more vulnerable to salt than fish are, and it kills the parasites before they can attach to fish.

Some fish, such as your catfish, can be sensitive to medicines, so make sure to check the label before adding it! You might need a smaller dose with these fish present.

If you increase the heat with any treatment for ich, it will speed up the organism's lifecycle and so treat the disease faster. If you heat it up, though, make sure the fish don't suffer from lack of oxygen (sitting at the surface panting), since warm water holds less of it.

Hopefully you caught it soon enough that all your fish will be fine :) Good luck.

[Hurley]

I will second using salt and heat. Its inexpensive and not very stressful on fish. Make sure you continue to treat even after all the white spots are gone. I recommend treating for a week after the spots are gone. This is because, like Lady Friesian said, ich is only vulnerable in its free swimming stage and cannot be killed when its in the other 2 stages of its lifecycle.

Read this sticky on ich.... http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1657382&postcount=2. It will help you understand the disease a little better.

[Star_Rider]

yes, bump temp and use salt.

tho the Ram will prefer the warm water the other fish may not.
rams, especially blue rams, prefer warm water. angel rams are often a balloon morph of the blue ram

add an air stone to help keep the water moving.. this will also help bump the O2 in the tank.


good luck

[grannylvsfish]

really you need to invest in a 10 gallon quarantine tank so this never happens to your big tanks. I learned my lesson fast . fish can get ick from being stressed in shipping or buying from pet store to home. never put a fish in a tank before quarantine. :) good luck.

[nene]

Thank you all so much! I feel much better and I am going to call hubby and tell him to also get Aquarium Salt also and I will try that before the medications. How high can I bump the temp? Right now the tank is at 74 degrees. I am trying to compromise between the tropicals and the White Clouds since the White Clouds actually like cooler water.

[june2000]

I also believe temp should be over 82. (I raised it till 86 in my case before.)
You may raise 2 per day not to stress your fish too much.

You may lower water level down and put more air stone / maximize air pump to increase aeration.

[nene]

Thanks. I have an air pumb and air stone that I will get started today as soon as I get home from work. Again, thanks all.

[Hurley]

You can also just use table salt and not pay a premium for aquarium salt. I use the kind without iodine.

[grannylvsfish]

yeah, just use table salt and with out iodine. cheap!! I think like 59 cents.

[Kuthoht]

Heat and freshwater aquarium salt is the way to go. Use one tablespoon per 5 gallons and crank your heat up to 82-86F and ich will be erradicated.

[dogyluver]

Cover the tank with a towel and keep dark as well as the above, but before adding the salt do a 50% Water change to help rid the free floating ick. The Dosage for salt is 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons. Do frequent water changes to help rid the free floating ich. Once you add the salt don't add any more, unless you vacume the gravel.

[nene]

Well I took all carbon out added the salt, cranked up the heat and added an airstone last night. This morning I swear everyone looks perkier. Corys are fine. The only one with the Ick is my Angel Ram so far and he still has spots on him but I think I now have the upper hand on the Ick. Thanks so much to all of you.

[venarius]

Temp and salt works for most it seems, but if your like me (Heavily planted tank with inverts) many medicines will kill the inverts/plants. I was able to pull the inverts out and into another 'clean' 12 gallon tank.

And salt is not good for many plants in a planted tank.

So, if you have plants/inverts, cross-referance the chemicals in whatever medicine you use to not obliterate your shrimp/snails/and plants!

[Hurley]

I have used salt and heat on planted tanks that contained snails without any problems. However, I do recommend moving the snails to another tank. Ich doesn't attach to them so if they carry any over to the new tank, the ich should die by the time your treatment ends.

[Kashta]

I purchased and Angel Ram one week ago at a LFS that I totally trust and purchase from regularly and have never had any problems and...

Don't hold one small ich outbreak against a perfectly fine LFS. This is quite normal with even healthy fish that have been well cared for. Ich is just one of those latent, always present potentials that will flare up at any time if a fish gets highly stressed. It doesn't take any more than that.

[venarius]

Odd Thing is my only ich outbreak came the same way, when I brought home a German Blue Ram from a trusted lfs. quickly spread to the entire tank except the gouramis and the platy. Weird thing was all the other fish were healthy when I transferred them from my other tank, and I checked the same lfs 2 days later and their tank (with same inhabitants as when I purchased) was ich free too! I have no idea where it came from but have heard as others have said...that ich is like the common cold, always present but one gets it from lowered immune system (stress).

The 'beware of salt' comment was more toward plants as many plants won't do well with any salt in the aquarium. I have a heavily planted aquarium with many types of plants so salt wasn't for me.

And even many plant safe meds are NOT safe for inverts... so just make sure you do your homework or transfer the inverts to another tank during medicating process.

Another natural alternative that helps is freshly minced/diced garlic.

For more info -

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/h_cortes-jorge.html