Ich help

[ArkyLady]

I think I have a couple of mollies with ich. It's hard to tell since one is albino colored and one is white with black specks. They are rubbing on the gravel and filter intake and I can see what looks like a spot or two starting up on them. The albino colored one is also showing definite signs of respiratory stress.

I've bumped up the temp a bit and will be heading to LFS tomorrow to get some treatment. I have 2 cories in the tank with them, so I have to be careful (nowhere else to put them atm).

I did some searching around and it seems that a treatment with both formalin and malachite green is the most recommended. Also adding some salt to the water is recommended. My main concern is not overdoing this for the cories sake, but I also want to be sure to get rid of it now before it becomes a huge problem soon. Any advice how to tackle this with a minimum of problems?

[tamara323]

hi :)
i treated a community tank of neons, cories and other tetras when they had ich. i tried raising the temp and adding salt for 2 weeks, and the ich was still there as possibly getting worse. so i bought Maracyde/Maracide (can't remember how it was spelt) anyhow, that got rid of all the white spots, and the fish were looking healthy and back to normal after 6 days. although i continued the treatment for the full 2 weeks to make sure the ich was gone. since then i've lent this medication to friends to use on bettas, goldfish, whiteclouds, guppies, tetras. etc and all results have been excellent and the ich was gone fater than i expected. all the while the cories didn't seem bothered ;) although they had never shown any white spots when all the other fish had them anyhow. now i'm quite loyal to maracide, and i suggest you give it a try :)

[wetmanNY]

from the Skeptical Aquarist: "Malachite green is quite toxic at the inflated levels recommended by its distributors, especially to fry and to adult tetras, loaches and catfish. Treated fish clear the drug rather slowly; it remains in their livers. That's why a second dosing can be more toxic than the first one. It's also quite toxic to you: a carcinogen. So scrub your fingers before you put them in your mouth, because if you get liver cancer from malachite green and die an agonizing death and they take it off the market, we'll all be so cross... Soft acidic water renders formalin/malachite green medications more effective, that is, more toxic to parasitic invertebrates but also more toxic to fishes. Use extra caution where pH is below 7.0; be prepared to do an emergency 50% water change at the first hint of distress.

In hard water malachite green may go colorless, leading you to think it isn't effective.

Malachite green also increases in toxicity at higher temperatures, according to Kordon.

I think fishkeepers too casually ignore these variables."

(There's more about Ich and also more about malachite green at www.skepticalaquarist.com

[ArkyLady]

Thanks Tamara, I think I'll give the maracide a try and avoid that other nasty stuff :)

Thanks also wetmanNY. I can't get your website to work on this computer (my laptop), haven't tried it yet from the office. The site comes up, but the menu is blank. Does it require a plugin?

[wetmanNY]

Java script. Your laptop just needs to have its Java brewed...

[quick061]

actually its not javascript but a java applet. just make sure that you have java ('JIT complier for virtual machine') enabled and it should work.

[ArkyLady]

Ok, I live in a very small town and my options are limited. Wal-Mart had zero ich medications and my LFS only had this:

Ick Guard which contains: formalin, victoria green, nitromesol and acriflavine. I got Ick Guard II which says it's safe for scaleless fish (maybe my cories will make it through this ok). LFS says he uses this weekly on all his tanks since his stock rotates so often with newly shipped in fish. So chances are all my fish have been exposed to this medication already since they all came from him.

I have water temp bumped up to 80 (normally at 78). I removed my carbon filter, but in order to do so I had to replace the filter and just not pour in the carbon, so I lost a good chunk of bacteria there (I see a higher quality filter in my future heh). I added some "Special Blend" bacteria booster and also one of those little baggies of rocks you can get at Wal-Mart that helps eliminate ammonia in case I get a spike. Will the ammonia baggie bother the ich medication do you think? It contains a natural mineral called Zeolite which absorbs ammonia.

Also, the Ick Guard bottle says I can add a second dose in 24 hours. Won't I need to continue treatment more than just two days? Should I just do a good water change daily and add the Ick Guard each time for what a couple weeks or so?

Phew, anything else I'm missing? Thank you all so much for the input, wouldn't make it through this without ya. I couldn't stand it if I let a fish die :(

[Cichlid Woman]

The Ich Guard granules are all I use to treat ich now, and I've tried several kinds of meds. But I use it half-strength, because I've got cory cats in there.

For me, it works. And the second dose after 24 hours is all I've needed. Just don't do a big water change for a couple days after you put in the second dose. (By the way, you don't have any other meds in there yet, do you? Mixing meds is a Bad Thing.)

Hope this helps and good luck,

-- Pat

[wetmanNY]

Thank you, quick061, for the timely correction.

When to quit medicating? Don't stop until after you no longer see any Ich spots at all. Then continue with one more medicating, to get the last of the swarmers. You don't want a repeat.

[ArkyLady]

Cichlid Woman, the Ick Guard II I got is in liquid form. It has a lower concentration of formalin than the normal bottle did, so I assume that's how it's safer for scaleless fish.

wetmanNY, I definitely do not want a repeat :) I'm not 100% positive that I even have ich really. The two fish that are acting funny are both whitish in color, but I do see a few bumps or what might be bumps (or maybe my imagination hehe). I think I'll just go with the two treatments for now and keep a close eye on these "bumps" to see if they change.

Again, thanks to everyone who helped. I know I've asked a lot of questions lately, but just trying to do my part to rebuild the archives so we can have more searchable information again :lol

[quick061]

Originally posted by wetmanNY
Thank you, quick061, for the timely correction.

hehe sorry, didn't mean to sound rude just thought i'd point it out. i also didn't realize that that was your site, where'd you find that applet anyways? i thought it was pretty cool, was thinking about grabing it and tearing it apart to see how it worked but haven't had time.

anyways nice work on your site, i've read quite a few of the articles and its been pretty informative.

[Sum-X]

hey wetman, I like the Green color :D :D

[Cichlid Woman]

I don't mean to bum you out, Arkylady, but if that Ich Guard II is the one that's "safe for invertebrates," I tried it--and it didn't work. That's when I went to the straight Ich Guard granules at half strength. (My lfs said the liquid "for invertebrates" stuff was too weak to work, and recommended I try the half dose of granular. That worked.)

Hope I'm wrong here ...

-- Pat

[wetmanNY]

(aside) No offense taken: the applet was set up by my tech pal, quick061 . I'm techless, as you have no doubt guessed.

ArkyLady, you posted: I'm not 100% positive that I even have ich really. The two fish that are acting funny are both whitish in color, but I do see a few bumps or what might be bumps... I think I'll just go with the two treatments for now and keep a close eye on these "bumps" to see if they change.

Ich won't change color. It's never good to do a half-measure with parasites. The fish are stressed by treatment, so it might as well be 100% effective. If you treat as for Ich, you'll free them of other ectoparasites, like gill flukes.

[TnCgal]

I'm going to move this thread over to the General FW forum since this is not directly a beginner's question ! :)

[ArkyLady]

I did the treatment for Ich according to the instructions on the bottle. However, I apparently didn't have Ich. The two "bumps" on the whitish colored fish are still there in the exact same spots and it's been a week so they should have dropped off the fish by now right?

I haven't noticed any of the fish flashing themselves onto anything for several days now either. I'm keeping a close eye on them and until I see more signs of a problem, I think I'll just relax and see how it goes from here :)