ICH Problems

Pufferpoison

Pufferpoison

Like a dolls eyes
Feb 6, 2006
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Ok i have obtained a case of ick from buying some clown loaches. i started off with 3 loaches and noticed ick about 5 days or so after i had them. i was told by the lfs that loaches get ick pretty easily and i should buy medicine, which i did. the next day i went in there and heard a guy tell the manager that lots of his fish had ick and the manager's reply was "it must be the weather". i did ask him when i bought the fish if they had ick and he said absolutely not. well enough of that but i've been treating it for a week now and one of my loaches still has it pretty bad all over, mostly his tailfins. a few other fish had it and it seem to have fallen off. i have been keeping the filter media in the bottom of the tank, not wanting to kill off the bateria that i just established not too long ago. Tonight i took it completely out of the tank and into some freshwater with some plants and some food (trying to rot the plants and food so there will be ammonia) what should i do to help the little loach out? i did loose my biggest loach since i've been treating this, but the other two seem to be fine with great appetites and very playful. what's the best medicine? i did raise the temp to 80 degrees. i've also been doing partial water changes- 35% about twice a week. any suggestions?
 
Read the ich sticky in article.

Salt - 2 teaspoons per gallon dissolved in tank water before adding

Increase temp - 1 dgree per hour up to 82-84f

What "med" are you currently using

What are you water parameters?
 
I treated with Quick Cure and Salt it took about 3 weeks - 1 month for my clown loach to be totaly ICH free. It is a slow process....

ICH works in a wierd way. You cannot kill ICH while its on the fish. So basicaly you have to wait till it falls off then the meds kill it. If you dont treat with the meds the ICH will multiply rapidly and kill your whole tank pretty easily. So to make the process faster you want to increase the temp which increases there life cycle (faster they feed and fall off).

Make sure there is no carbon in the tank as it will absorb the meds. Also when all fish look good (no more spots) continue to treat for about a week after. This way you make sure you kill everything thats in the tank that might not be on your fish.
 
I just raise my tank temperature to 80*F and raise my specific gravity to 1.005 (Approx 2 level teaspoons of tablesalt per gallon). Cures ich in 7 days (Spots dissapear in about 3-4 days). Read the ich article to learn how to add the salt so that you don't mess up your filter bacteria. Don't worry about removing any carbon because the only way to take salt out of the water is via waterchanges.
 
thanks for the fast response. i did see the sticky, after panicking on here a bit, would the salt show up on a refractometer? i am using rid ick + by kordon. but i am out of it now and am having to use a small bottle of quick cure. i have raised the temp and it's slowly adjusting to 83 for now. i have red eyed tetras, clown loaches and dwarf puffers and a pl*co in there now, so i don't know if they will be able to handle the 86 degree thing or not???
 
I would not go to 86* with any medications. Specially ones with formallin in them like quick cure unless you want to have some dead fish. 80*F is fine though you can go to 82* if you want.

On my refractrometer, 1.005 specific gravity is 7 ppt of salt which is more than enough to beat even the most stubborn strains of ich.
 
Stop at 84f, do the salt, stop the quick cure.
 
If you want to switch to salt do at least a 50% waterchange to get the formalin out before you add salt. Salt + formalin = dead fish and activated carbon won't do anything to formalin.
 
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