Treating ICH in Goldfish...how WARM is safe?

[mvigor]

I'm beginning tonight to treat ICH in my 20 gallon tank of goldfish. I got the salt added and the temperature is on the rise.

Right now the temp is creeping up to about 79F. How warm is too warm for these Goldfish, sustained for a week or 10 days?

[mvigor]

The tank houses three small goldfish which I just bought about two weeks ago from two separate pet stores. Each fish is 1 1/2 to 2 inches long currently. I have a fancy, a bubble-eye, and a $0.16 comet "feeder" with an unusually long tail and long sleek body. I have another brand new complete 20H setup ready to be put together, filled and cycled for one of these guys and as soon as money permits I'll get still another one for upstairs so they can each have their own space.

I noticed the white "salt grains" last night on Mr. Tail. I decided to try to treat the ICH with salt and speed up its life cycle by raising the tank temp. I've added +-30 teaspoons of salt to the tank, 1.5 - 1.75 t. per gallon of water volume.

So how warm can I go without completely stressing the fish for the week or 10 days it will take?

[OrionGirl]

I'd get to at least 82, and increase surface agitation to improve gas exchange. Monitor the fish--if they are surfacing and gulping, you might need to take it down a notch, but anything less than 85 isn't gauranteed to be lethal to the ich, so you will be relying on the salt. I would maintain conditions for a minimum of 14 days AFTER the last visible sign of ich.

[mvigor]

I can increase surface agitation by adding more air stones or I could add a HOB filter. I'll do that tonight. If 82 doesn't kill ICH, but 85+ does, would simply going up to 85-86 be too harsh for the goldfish then??

[OrionGirl]

It might. The fancies will probably be okay, but the comet might not. 82 will still speed up the parasites lifecycle, making the salt treatment more effective, it just won't kill the parasite. If you try 85, and they start showing stress at 85, though, you'll need to take it down to prevent the increased stress from further weakening them.

[mvigor]

Ok, thank you! When I get home this evening I'll have a good look at them and see how they are acting.

[mvigor]

One more comment...

Before the ICH, about a week ago, just for general "tonic" purposes I added in about 4 level tablespoons of salt, i.e. 1 T. for each 5 gallons or 0.7 teaspoons per gallon.

The ICH article says that 1 t. per gallon should kill most strains of ICH and my level was pretty close to that.

It's just interesting to me that I see ICH now even though there already was a little salt in the tank. Maybe that means the life cycle was moving along slowly at 70 degrees or maybe I have a strain that's going to require a LOT of salt to kill.

[OrionGirl]

Salt--and most chemical treatments--are effective only during the free swimming stage of the parasite. At cooler temps, the parasite was most likely still in the fish, and completely protected from the outside environment. This is why ich treatments must take more than 4-5 days to be effective.

[mvigor]

I didn't have enough time last night to babysit the heater while it brought the temp up and I came home to the tank set at 86. It's a cheap heater with only a dial...no direct number setting so I had to guess at it.

I've been bumping the setting down for 6 hours now and so far I'm still at 86. :rant: I turned it back again so hopefully by morning I'll be back to 82.

I added a filter and turned up the two airlines to maximum...hopefully they are getting enough air. They are moving fast and furious, and do seem a little stressed.

Wish me luck.

[mvigor]

By 6:00 this morning the tank temp was down to 85. I bumped the heater down a little more and I expect it will be 83-84 when I get home from work and I'll adjust it again then.

I thought about what you said, and that I'd be battling the ICH with the salt only and not with the heat so I added enough to make a full 2 t. per gallon.

Thanks again for the help so far and I'll keep posting my progress.

[mvigor]

The tank's temperature leveled this weekend to a constant 83 degrees and the ICH has fallen off the affected fish. I'll keep the heat up for another 10 days or so, then remove the heater. I guess I'll just leave the salt in and gradually let it be removed with 10-20% WCs.

[mvigor]

So it has been about a week and as of last night it looks like my favorite goldfish has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. The $0.16 comet is lying on the gravel and when he does move he flips around like he's very uncomfortable. I dropped the setting on the thermometer a few degrees and added even more bubbles but it looks too late for him. He doesn't have any visible ICH, but I guess the stress got to be too much for him overnight. The temp has been 83 for the last few days.

[NowherMan6]

Just curious - what are your other levels like? ammonia, nitrite, nitrate...?

[mvigor]

I tested last night and came up with a measureable amount of ammonia, perhaps 0.1 and the hardness was even higher than usual, off the scale. I did a good water change and I'll do another one tonight to protect the remaining fish. The tank is still finishing up a cycle apparently. I thought I'd avoided that completely by using water and dirty filter material from my other tank.

[NowherMan6]

I thought I'd avoided that completely by using water and dirty filter material from my other tank.

Well, yes and no. You seeded the filter well using older filter material, but the amount of bacteria on there may not have been enough to keep up with the amount of waste produced by the goldfish. In other words, if there were 3 neon tetras in that tank rather than 2 fancies and a comet, there probably wouldn't be a problem with waste buildup - however, since goldies are particularly dirty fish, it may be that the combination of the ich, ich treatment and ammonia was too much stress for the comet. How do his gills look - are they especially red? What about the others?

If you comet does happen to pass on, it may be best to stick with the two remaining fancies for now. :)

[mvigor]

The comet did die, yesterday, and I did not notice anything that looked really strange about his gills, but I did not look closely.

I have no plans to add anything to the tank. I am setting up another 20H in the wall at the bottom of the stairs and I'll be splitting these two remaining fish up into their own tanks. After that is all settled down I'll find something to be a bottom dweller in each tank and call it stocked.