2nd treatment and fish still have ich

[belmont0182]

ok so a few fish got ich a while back. i went and bought some mardel medicine, after a few days the fish were not improving so i removed them. the problem is not with the removed fish, but witht the fish that were left in the tank. i have a very sick guppy and a mollly that has been acting weird. the molly goes in between a rock and a plant and sits on the bottom. i bumped her witht the net to see if she was ok, then she startd to swim around again. anyway so i put my carbon filter in and let it go overnight, then took it out and reapplied the medicine. the fishh arent showing any signs of improvement and in some cases are getting worse, i think that ich is still spreading.

[Leopardess]

Do those fish still have ich? Are you sure it is ich? Are there little white spots covering them?

Also, ich has a life cycle that needs to be taken into account. Ich medications that say they will cure ich in one or two days are not accurate. Ich medications should remain in the tank for about one month to ensure that they kill the remaining ich that is still hatching in the water. Just because you no longer see ich does not mean it is gone.

Did you dose accurately? What was the active ingredient that you used? copper, malachite green, acriflavine, methylene blue?
Raising the temperature, gradually, also helps to speed up the ich life cycle. There is also some evidence that suggest keeping the tank lights out as much as possible helps reduce ich because it prevents the hatching ones from swimming upwards towards the light.


Don't despair...if it is ich, it is pretty darn treatable! It just takes some doing...

[yhbae]

I recently treated ich on my community tank with 16 fishes in it. I've lost none to ich (did loose one at the end, but she had another disease before ich). I've not used any medicine, only using high temperature.

Basically, I raised the tank temperature to 87F gradually over 2 days and kept it there for two full weeks. None of the fishes behaved as if they were sick despite all of them had ich on their body. After 1 week, most of the visible ich were gone, and by the end of the second week, completely non-detectable.

I did have to lower the water level by an inch to ensure there's enough oxygen in the water (higher temp means less oxygen).

It's been over a week now since the temperature is back at 77F and all fishes are very healthy.

The tank had the following fishes:
- Platies
- Harlequin Rasboras
- Blue rams
- Panda cories
- Bristlenose pl*cos
- Otos

All of them had ich, and all of them survived.

[belmont0182]

I use the medicine Mardel. the active ingredient is Chelated Copper Sulfate. my water temp has been at 75, i am in the process of raising it up to around 85.

i am pretty sure that it is ich. the fish have these tiny white spots all over them,

thanks, i will keep you updated

[belmont0182]

yeah so the water is about 83 right now. I flushed the guppy with ich, and the next morning i woke up and my guppy that was perfectly healthy the day before was covered in ich.

[Leopardess]

Was teh guppy dead? If not, flushing is NOT a proper way to euthanise a fish.

[belmont0182]

dont worry the guppy was dead at the time. i heard that the best way to put a fish down was to wrap it in a wet towel and freeze it, is this right?

[Leopardess]

The BEST way is to get a euthanasia solution from your vet, BUT, more realistically, there are several ways, some "grosser" than others.

I've always heard to put it ina cup of water, then freeze it. Or, (this is gross) to take the fish and throw it as hard as you possibly can against the shower wall/floor, or if you can get it to sit still, to decapitate it with one quick cut with a knife.

I use the freezer method. Fish are cold blooded and there is no 'struggle' as we think of it as far as maintaining body temperature. Eventually, the temp will drop to the point where the fish's organs slow down, at which point the fish "passes out" if you will, and then dies.