advice on ich treatment

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kalliopeia

Registered Member
Oct 8, 2006
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Hello. I've got a 20 gallon tank that has been set up since the first of July. It seemed to cycle just fine, although I lost a few fish in the process. I think this might have had a lot to do with the store I got them from, though. A few weeks ago I went to get more fish from them and noticed a couple of dead fish floating around, and they looked like they'd been dead for a day or two, and that makes me wonder if mine might not have been sickly to start with. I'll never get fish from that store again. Anyway, I was as careful as I knew how to be getting new ones, though I can't quarantine because I only have one tank (and nowhere to put a second one). A couple of days ago I went to get what I decided would be it for the tank, and I now have 2 Black Skirt Tetras, 2 Clown Loaches, 2 Mickey Mouse Platys, and 2 Black Mollies.

Yesterday I noticed that one of the mollies seems to have broken out in white spots. I went to the store today and got some RidIch. I increased the water temperature a few degrees (it's about 80 right now), removed the carbon from my filter and added the treatment according to the directions. I know I need to do water changes along with the treatment, and I'm wondering how to go about it? I generally do a 25% or so change about every 7-10 days. I can't really seem to find a concensus on how to do them during the treatment period, though. Every day? Every other day? How much per change?

Is there anything else I could be doing, or something I'm doing that I shouldn't?
 
Keep an eye on the Clown Loaches, Rid-Ich is safer for them than many other meds containing Malachite Green. Safer does not necessarily mean prefectly safe.

By the way, this is going to be brought up so I may as well get it over with... That tank is way too small for even one Clown Loach, much less two.

It has been a very long time since I have had to treat for Ich (knock wood) but I did big water changes (50% or more) daily until I no longer saw spots on the fish for a few days. Then I returned to a normal schedule. The logic is that the water you take out will contain some of the ich "swimmers". The water was removed by means of gravel vacuuming to remove any that I could get while they were in the gravel waiting to pounce on my fish.

Just be sure that you keep the concentration of the medication where it belongs. The easiest way to be sure is to use buckets so you know how much you removed.

The way I did it was to mark the tank (it was a 55g) where the water level is after removing 25 gallons. I drained down to that point every time and treated the water accordingly as I refilled.
 
The best method for ich is raising the temp. and adding salt. I followed directions given by a member named Daveedka and it worked perfectly but can't find it right now, so I will try to sum up the procedure...

You basically raise the temp. to approx. 80-84 (depending on your species of fish and their tolerance of heat....go as high as you can) and add salt. (someone should clarify the amount, I forget since I had to cut it back in lieu of the clown loaches). I think it was 3tsp. per gallon.
Clowns are a scaleless fish so they can be more sensitive to the meds and/or salt treatment. Anyways the best advice I can give is to keep the salt bath going for at least a week. The life-cycle of ich can be a week long (depending on temp. - the colder the temperature the longer the life-cycle, that's why you raise the temp., to speed up the life-cycle and kill the parasite faster.).
Once you are happy that all the parasites are gone and no more white spots on your fish, do your regular weekly water changes and this will rid the water of the salt you put in there. At the same time, gradually reduce the temp. back to where it was before the bath.

Hope this helps.
 
I recently had my second bout with Ich. The first bout was cured with 1 tablespoon of salt per 10 gallons of water, temp up to 82 degrees, and full dose of CopperSafe (yes, I know, I'm a bad loach-daddy). I lost no fish and it cleared up in 2 weeks; I did a 50% water change after a week with the first few buckets coming off the bottom (via a gravel vacuum) and the rest coming out of the middle and top (via cups). I replaced the salt and CopperSafe that I took out.

The recent bout was apparently eliminated with just the salt and the temperature change, as I did not realize that Chemi-Pure would immediately take out the CopperSafe. In this instance, the Ick was completely gone in less than a week and has not shown back up. I would say this instance was an anomaly, though, as it normally takes folks much longer to get rid of this Devil Disease.
 
I don't have any Loaches but when I had Black Mollies they responded well to "General Cure". I commercial medication you can find at a LFS.
 
I recommend for small minor cases of ich (one or two spots on maybe 1 or 2 fish in the aquarium) heat treatment at 86c+ alone. It's relatively stress free, and incredibly effective and easy to do.

For larger cases, salt or meds will do. I'd do it at 82c just so the ich cycle only takes 3-4 days. If you treat it for 4-6 days you should be just fine.

I use a low dosage of Quick Cure since its cheap, easy to find, and very potent. The dosage instructions on their label is really high, so I don't follow it. Do a 25% water change everytime you dose. I'd add the medication slowly over 2-3 hours and at night with the lights are off and the fish are sleeping. I use 1 drop every 3 or 4 gallons depending on the severity of the infection. Contrary to popular belief, you can leave the carbon in when using meds since the carbon really won't absorb it very quickly.

So far I've had two ich outbreaks and no dead fish from either outbreak.
 
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