Ick

[s_leppa]

I've got a 20 gallon tank with 3 oscars in it. The last oscar I bought brought the wonderful disease of ick into my tank. I just started treating them with this quick cure stuff. What are my chances of these fish living through this, and can I have any other tips. Thx a lot.

[Tyler718]

First off, you can't keep the Oscars in a tank that small. There is no room for them at all. I would suggest taking them back unless you have A LOT larger tank to put all 3 in. If not and you decide to keep them all then you will have more problems than ick.

[wetmanNY]

You can't put together the whole score on treating Ich post by post, so check out the stuff plus the links at www.skepticalaquarist.com under Health/Diseases.

Aquaria Central also has a Newbie forum. We check in there all the time!

[OrionGirl]

**Moved to Freshwater Newbie Forum to help provide a wider range of responses in the appropriate fourm **

[NJ Devils Fan]

You would treat them by raising the tempature to around 85-86 degrees, add salt, and if you are going to use the quick cure, take out the carbon that you might have in your filter.

[aquatix02]

also take note that salt means aquarium salt, not normal kitchen salt as kitchen salt contains iodine.

[Faramir]

...which doesn't matter in the slightest. For curing ick, I'd rather use table salt that I know the composition of than aquarium salt, the composition of which is unknown and may affect hardness and pH for all I know.

Most importantly, I'd use the salt I had nearest to hand, not the one the fish have to languish waiting for me to get my paws on.