Unusual strain of ich

I don't know, I think ich is ich is ich... I don't think there are different strains of it... are you sure it's ich? Salt-like grains? Definately flashing against stuff is another sign of it. You need to raise the temp higher, you didn't give specifics, but I'd up it to about 88-90, and make sure your salt concentration is 1 table spoon per 5 gallons. Do as many water changes as you can - 2 changes 50% per week wouldn't be too much (though may be too much for you, timewise etc), and remember to replace whatever salt you take out. Keep that up for 3-4 weeks and you should see marked improvement...

Good luck, ich sucks.

~Tara

While there are many different strains of ich, they all respond pretty much the same to salt and heat. One strain was found to survive up to 5ppm salt (I think that was a university of Florida study, but not sure ) so it is always cautioned to go with 1-3 teaspoons per gallon to make sure you have a lethal level. I would suspect a different parasite of some kind. I don't know what it might be, but it seems odd that it's only on the BA's and that heat and salt won't kill it. Heat alone is a risky treatment in my mind, because the temp has to be above 86*F to kill ich, and all you need is one little cool spot somewhere in the tank and it doesn't die. Salt is a more surefire method, and combining the two should always be fatal. There was someone on here a couple of weeks ago that had a tough time killing off ich as well. Maybe they can shed some light.
dave

daveedka said:

...so it is always cautioned to go with 1-3 teaspoons per gallon to make sure you have a lethal level...

Click to expand...

In my first post I said 1 table spoon per 5 gallons, when I meant to say 2 table spoons per 5 gallons (which = ~2 tea spoons per gallon)...

Cat said:

...the tank is very low stocked at the mo, so harder for the them to find a host in the 'free swimming' stage Im gonna pop him in the hospital tank and treat both seperatly as no other fish are showing any signs at the mo.

Click to expand...

Cat, just treat the entire tank... if I remember correctly, ich doesn't need a fish to live and thrive, it can live and thrive in the substrate and water... (if I'm wrong, someone correct me!)... so to treat only the fish who show symptoms could end up reinfecting them once you bring them back into the main tank...

~Tara

Ich absolute, positively, must have a host to survive. If it did not it would not be a parasite, correct?

I had a terrible time trying to treat ich in my tank a few weeks ago. Salt and heat alone were not enough to kill it after 2 weeks and regular water changes and replacing the lost salt. Salt was at a rate of 2 table spoons per 5 gallons of water based on a 30 gallon tank and not even taking into account substrate, rocks, etc.. Temperature was at 86 degrees.

To kill it I had to persist with the heat/salt and a slightly heavier than recommended dosage of ich treatment every 3 days after a water change.

If you are treating with ick meds, make sure you remove the carbon from your filter as this will stop the meds from working properly.

I'm not sure why this was so hard to kill but I'm still suffering the side effects now. I think from all the scraping against rocks and leaves with the ick the fish have damaged themselves and/or removed their protective coating because now I'm battling funal infection and/or pop-eye which I still haven't beaten. Currently treating with pimafix and melafix. I think the only thing that will survive this is the snails and the baby platy that was born after the ick was killed and therefore has no fungal infection from damage.

I can tell you it's tough going when you have to pull out a dead body of one of your little pals every morning for 3 weeks. :thud:

I recently went thru an ich mishap in my 90-gallon tank. I added three swords to my tank and a few days later… After stealing advice posted by Daveedka on someone else’s thread and reading the article he suggested I went with a salt/temp treatment. http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml Over about 48 hours the temp went up to 87* and I added about 70 tablespoons of common table salt. This works out to over 2 teaspoons per gallon and well over one 1kg box of salt. I got to tell you, when I needed to open the second box to continue treatment I was sure I was condemning my fish to death. After a week there was no visual sign of ich in the tank. After two weeks I started slowly dropping the temp and taking out salt with regular water changes. At present (three weeks) I have most of my fish still, three angels, a pleco and a swordtail. I did lose two swords in the ordeal but I don’t think salt was not to blame. I’m pretty sure a swordtail is more salt tolerant then a pleco. I think a lot of people who have no luck with this form of ich treatment use to little salt/heat for to short a period of time. Maybe try uping your dosage.

Gotta aggree with Tara. Ich sucks, good luck.

On a side note, I am now the happy owner of a 10-gallon Q tank.

RTR said:

Ich absolute, positively, must have a host to survive. If it did not it would not be a parasite, correct?

Click to expand...

I think with with a low temp the tomont stage of ich could live for a few weeks without a host. Inevitably it will reach the tomite stage and need to find a host or perish.

About a week ago, I too had a breakout of ich on my new school of Rummy-Nose Tetras. I know everybody around here seems to be opposed to chemical treatments for ich, but after much research, I decided to go with Rid-Ich+. Right now, I am at the last stages of the treatment. All the spots have fallen off my fish, and now, I'm assuming the Rid-Ich+ is killing the free swimmers. Anyway, so far all my fish are doing fine and showing no signs of stress, and no more spots showing up. I've got a couple more days of treatment left, and then I'm done. It looks like Rid-Ich+ is doing the job with no ill effects.
From all the research I did, it looks like the heat and salt treatment, has such varied and unpredictable results, that I wanted to go with something more definite, and I think it's working.