Plecos and Ich...Is There Hope?

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elinore

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Aug 7, 2010
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Well, sad story: I purchased an Electric Blue Ram for the first time, and was told by the owner of the lfs, who is an experienced fishkeeper with lots of ram experience, that the ram had been already quarantined, and I should put him into a well established tank, and skip the quarantine period if I didn't have a fully cycled qt tank ready, and as my qt tank was occupied already, I trusted his expertise. Long story short, the new ram went into my 20 gallon with 2 young albino bn plecos. Everything was wonderful for a week, but then the ram started showing ich, then the plecos, and a week later the ram is dead and the plecos look like they are losing the battle. At first sign of ich, I raised the temp to 84 degrees and added salt. Tank parameters remained normal throught the process, but I did 30% water changes daily, to be on the safe side. The few other times I've had ich, these measures have always taken care of the problem shortly, but this time they fish aren't getting better. I'm very worried that the ram may have carried in some other pathogen, as I've never had a fish die from ich in the past. I am just terrified for my plecos. They are my pride and joy. The male, an absolutely stunning longfin, is the worst off. Is there anything I should/ should not be doing to help the poor things? I plan to call the lfs first thing tomorrow. I am just so incredibly sad! Does anyone have any advise?
 

mel_20_20

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Sep 1, 2008
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I'm so terribly sorry this happened to you. The only thing to do is continue with the heat/salt treatment. The Ram may have had heavy involvement of the gills before the visible signs were present. Hopefully your sweet bn plecos will make it through this.

Keep your params pristine and be careful to replace only the salt that is removed with the WCs. I had to go 30 days with heat salt when I had Ich, and everyone survived. I hope you have success with this and your poor little guys make it.

Are they still covered in the specks? Hang in there.
 

elinore

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The poor things are completely covered. I've never seen it this bad. I think the longfin male is worse, but the female appears to be pretty bad as well, it's just hard to see since they're albino. There appears to be a slight reddish cast around the tips of the longfin's tail. I'm hoping this is normal, but I'm afraid it means he's worsening. Is 30% a day enough of a w/c, or should I go to 50%? Thanks for the help and condolences! It's just such a sad situation, but I suppose another hard lesson of not trusting anyone, ever.
 

mel_20_20

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As long as your params are perfect I think 30% is probably OK. I am so sorry. How many days has this been going on, so far? They might develop a secondary bacterial infection, so keep a close eye. Can you get some photos? His coloring might make the fin margins look red, so hopefully that's all that is.
 

mel_20_20

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With the temperture turned up, be sure to have plenty of oxygenation in the tank. An extra airstone, or two.

I use Prime to remove chloine and chloramine, and when I was treating for Ich I relied on that extra detoxifying affect to help keep the params perfect; I overdosed a bit on each water change.
 

elinore

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The ram came home on the 13th, the ich set in about a week later, spreading to the plecos about 2 days after the ram showed symptoms. The ram died on the 28th. I'm really worried about the red on the pleco's tail, and if it's a secondary problem, or maybe even a 3rd degree problem, since they were prefectly healthy before all this. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow if I can. I'm a college student, and this is happening in my tank at home (about 4 hrs away) so my mother and sister are doing all the work now that I'm back at school. This of course makes it all the more frustrating that I know it's going on and can't do anything to help but send positive thoughts!
 

elinore

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Thanks for the airstone tip! I've got a 14" bubble wand type thing in there now, but I'll hook up an extra airstone as well! Thanks :)
 

Dangerdoll

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I have never had a pleco with a case of ich and I do know a popular med for ich is heat and salt but let me warn you, salt is not well tolerated by plecos long term due to them being scaleless. The redness can be due to this intolerance. It's hard to say without at least seeing pictures.

question for others.... is there any tried and true meds that might be a litte more suitable for plecos and other scaleless cats?

Posted on mobile.aquariacentral.com
 

elinore

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Aug 7, 2010
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Far Northern WI
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Ella
I have never had a pleco with a case of ich and I do know a popular med for ich is heat and salt but let me warn you, salt is not well tolerated by plecos long term due to them being scaleless. The redness can be due to this intolerance. It's hard to say without at least seeing pictures.

question for others.... is there any tried and true meds that might be a litte more suitable for plecos and other scaleless cats?

Posted on mobile.aquariacentral.com
Very good point, and one I actually hadn't considered. Thanks for bringing that up! Will try to get pics tomorrow.
 

mel_20_20

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Sep 1, 2008
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DD is so right. Another thing, it worries me that you are not there to do the water changes and salt dosing.

I don't mean to imply that your mother and sister aren't doing a good job, perhaps they are experienced fish keepers, too, but it is very tricky to get the salinity where you want it and to keep it there when you are doing a lot of water changes, because you only want to add back the amount of salt that is removed with the water changes. It's all to easy for the salinity percentage to creep up to dangerous levels.

I hope others that have treated Plecos for Ich will chime in on this. I do remember reading a couple of threads where the AC member has used heat/salt successfully with Plecos, but I can't remember who it was. Seems like it was KarlTH, or JdoubleR, though I'm not at all sure.

I believe I would go with no more than 0.1% salinity at the most, until we hear from a Pleco person. That would be 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. You could even go lower: the 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons protocol, and that would be safer, still.
 
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