Ick problem

Chickieepooh2u

Chickieepooh2u

Ooo, Ooo! Pick me pick me!!
Jan 12, 2006
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Norfolk, NE
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Hi.
Ok, I have a 30 gallon tank and I've got ICK. That I'm positive of. I went to Wally World yesterday and got 'Ick Clear'. I treated the fish and the tank turned blue. It was supposed to I guess. I removed my filter cartridge because it has charcoal and that was reccomended. So, this morning when I got up the tank wasn't blue anymore, but it was cloudy. I did a 25% water change yesterday also. Oh and there is a buncha slimy-like bubbles on the top of the tank. I put the filter back in but the cloudy and slimy is still there. My fish are skimming the top of the tank like they are trying to breathe. I'v got plenty of air blowing in there. The goldfish don't seem to be too interested in food either, which is odd, they're usually pigs.

They Ick Clear didn't have very good instructions on the package and I'm worried I did something wrong. I was thinking about adding salt to the tank 1 TBS to 5 Gallons of water. Not sure if thats the right thing to do though. I've had the tank since the middle of October so I'm kinda new here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!!

8 goldfish
4 white clouds
2 golden apple snails
1 mystery snail
7 assorted Danios
15-20 Ghost Shrimp
 
I had the same problem as you when I first set up my 20 gallon tank. I bought 'QuickCure' stuff, and after removing the charcoal out of the filter, put in one drop of the stuff per gallon of water in the tank. It turned the whole thing blue, and a little cloudy (though I never had the problem with slime).
The best thing you can do is to just continue to medicate the fish as described on the bottle. I added salt, too, but it seemed to do more harm than good; the majority of my fish all died.
But after I cleaned the water out and continued adding medication, the two surviving fish got much better after a few days, and ick was gone from my tank.
 
Water change, water change, water change.
 
Thanks for the quick response.

The Ick clear are fizzy tablets, and the box doesn't tell me how long I need to run without a charcoal filter. It says to repeat every 24 hours is necessary. Is the cloudy stuff still the medicine maybe? Already lost 2 fish this morning. The 2 sickest ones. There isn't exactly slime on the top of the tank... Hard to describe, but its like the air bubbles won't pop like they used to. They are accumulating on the top of the water. I also found that 2 of my Ghost shrimp shed their skeletons this morning after the treatment. I think they were about to do that anyway.
 
You need to put the filter cartridge back into the tank, taking it out just killed your biofilter hence why the water became cloudy. Test your ammonia and you might know the cause of the cloudiness. Next read up on treating the tank with salt. The blue is caused by malachite green which is a carcinogenic dye and not too healthy for you or your fish. Salt is harmless and will do the same thing. There is an excellent article about treating your fish with salt for ich. 2 teaspoons (flat and accurately measured) or table salt per gallon will do the trick. Read up about this in the ich article located in the articles section of this forum. Not only is salt safer to use but it is cheaper (maybe 12 cents to treat that tank), does not get removed from your tank by your filter and more gentle on the fish.
 
also read up ojn Ich..when you see the ich the parasite has already attached to the fish..in this state the ich isn't usually affected by treatment.
when these spoes drop off indicates the ich eggs are dropped..they will incubate for some time then hatch..it is at this free swimming the parasite is suseptible to treatment.

salt ill kill this free swimmer.
usually the recomendations is to raise the tank temp to 80+ (usually around 84) the heat speeds up the incubation cycle.
there are several ich treatments availble..they usually recommend you remove the carbon filter..it depends on they filter you use here..I have an ac and i remove the carbon pack..some HOB's have the carbon in with the sponge (whisper) you can open the pack up and dump the carbo.the filter media is where a lot of the bio material is for your bio filter. I would leave that intact.
the meds usually have to remain n the tank for 10-14 days.
I had good luck with coppersafe

you can also use salt the dosages seem to vary here..so i won't make a recommendation to that.
do some seaching on the web..or heck wait..i'm sure someone here wil have a suggestion as to salt ratio(remember..no iodized salt)

good luck
 
Don't go with copper. The problem with copper treatments is that the toxicity of copper changes with pH. I usually reccomend 3 teaspoons per gallon for ich but with regualar table salt 2 teaspoons per gallon will be fine since it is a much finer grade than aquarium salt. Since you have goldfish in the tank, the maximum temperature you can safely raise the tank too is 80*F. You might want to read up on goldfish since you will need a 100 gallon+ tank to house those fish within a year or so. If you salt ich, leave the salt in for 3-5 minimum after the last spot dissapears though I reccommend the total treatment time be 14 days (at 80*F) to guarantee a cure.
 
I think I'm going to go with the salt treatment. I put the filter back in and did a 20% water change until I can get to the store to get some salt.

Yeah, about the gold fish. I swear they have already doubled in size since I bought them a couple months ago. Not sure what to do with them if they keep growing. I sorta expected them to perish before they grew, but... they are tougher then they look. Maybe that could be my excuse for getting a bigger tank?! Wonder if the hubby will go for it. :)
 
Eight goldfish will require a 125-150 gallon tank. They need 20-30 gallons for one, and 15 gallons for each additional goldfish.

They should not be in with tropical fish as they require a very low protein diet and cooler waters.

Roan
 
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