Treating Planted Community Tank with Ick/Ich

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achase

Registered Member
Jun 22, 2010
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How I believe my 16 gallon planted community tank has ick/ich and I was wondering what the best method for treating the whole tank would be?
I have 6 neon tetra's, 6 glowlight tetra's and 4 kuhli loaches and several random snails in the tank. As for plants I have Eel grass, sword plants and Anubias. My water is currently at 80F which is the temp it is always at and the water parameters are normal (I just did a water change (25%) yesterday). From what I have read about treating ick that the salt and heat method would be the best for my tank.

Could someone explain the treatment method to me? Or tell me of another method for treatment which would be safe for my fish and plants.
Thank you!!
 

GCL

AC Members
Jun 30, 2006
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Western Ct.
I think that if you post your question in the "Freshwater Illness and Disease" forum you may get more responses.

Have you started any type of treatment yet?

It's important to start it as soon as you see the first signs.

I've only used the heat method to treat fish, BUT, this method will probably be tough on the plants.
Salt is hard on plants too.
You can take the plants out and quarantine them separately.

I have no experience with kuhli loaches. You will have to find out if they are both heat tolerant and salt tolerant and if you choose medicines if they are sensitive to those also.

Here is one link that may give you a start. I posted last on the first page telling how I used heat only.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201859

You can also do a search for ich in the
"Planted Aquariums" forum and in the forum above that I mentioned.

Hopefully someone with kuhli loaches that has done the treatment with them will chime in.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
 

XanAvaloni

AC Members
Nov 13, 2009
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Hi achase....I am wondering why you think you have ich, and which fish in particular are showing symptoms?

By and large every "tank" has ich, the parasite is on every fish just like all humans have germs like staph on their skin all the time. It only becomes visible, ugly, icky ich when a fish gets an injury or other illness or generally stressed and becomes vulnerable. Same way staph only becomes a problem if you get it in a cut or scrape and it gets into your bloodstream.

If a particular fish is showing symptoms like white spots or bigger cottony-looking blobs, I would suggest you remove that fish to a QT tank for a nice long rest and healing time. This will be smaller than your main tank, so easier to clean, heat to the temp you want, and if you wind up using medications you will need a much smaller dose. This also avoids exposing other tank inhabitants either animal or vegetable to regimens they have no need for and might be harmed by.

If nobody is showing symptoms then there is no need to treat anything. Just keep the water as clean as possible, like you are doing anyway, and watch for fighting (can cause both direct injury and indirect stress), bullying (stress), odd behavior, etc. Then solve the cause of the problem, not the result.

best of luck.. :)
 

angel fresh

AC Members
May 23, 2010
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what makes you believe that your aquarium has acquired itch , any symptoms that your fish showing would help ? Usuallly abrupt changes(fluctuations) in water temperature or a fish having this problem being introduced into aquarium can cause this problem. Raising the temperature higher a bit gradually upto 5- 7 days is usuallly a method adopted to cure this problem , it kills the germs ,luckily they donot survive higher temperatures. Use a quarantined hospital tank to treat any fish or fishes that you may think need to be teated with medicines. water changes do help but try to add water with almost similar temperature during water changes else your fish may get problems that they may not had like ( temp shock) (itch due to stress ) .
planted tanks need alot more medicine to be treated with and during the treatment you will lose helpful bacteria as well. so make sure you really need it.
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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If it is ich...taking the fish out that has current visible indications will not solve the issue.
 
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