Ich treatment gone bad ??? Please help

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bzboy

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Nov 4, 2004
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Tell me what you guys think. In my tank are 2 large ryukins, 1 large oranda, 2 small lionheads, and 2 plecos. 90 gallon tank. One of the lionheads started showing ich on its head so i decide to try the salt treatment instead of the usual ICH treatment i buy from petsmart. I went really slow. I was shooting for 1tsp salt per gallon and decided to split it into 4 doses added per day and I also raised the temp slowly from 74 to 78 degrees. Sat - 1/4 tsp per gallon added. Sun - 1/4 tsp per gallon added , temp at 80 degrees. Monday nothing - I had to work all day. Today my 2 large ryukins are ich covered and my Oranda is doing the "floating upside down" thing and his tail looks beat up.

My thoughts were did I stress my fish too much and dropped their immune system so they got Ich? I just did a 50% water change to drop the salt level down and dropped water temp back to 74 degrees. I did add extra air wand during the process. Please help.
 

Roan Art

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Oct 7, 2005
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IME goldfish get it in the gills and then show the spots on their fins and it's not very noticeable. Very easy not to realize what's going on until the ich has a big hold on your tank.

This sounds like you have a very heavy ich infestation as well. The spots you are seeing are from ich that were already on the fish looking for places to dig in. If ich isn't caught at the very begining you are going to see some heavy spottage like that. There's nothing you can do about ich already on the fish. You can only kill it in the free-swimming stage.

It takes 3-4 days for the spots to fall off at around 82*. Raising the temperatures accelerates the life cycle of the ich. Since you didn't raise the temperature past 78*, IME it's going to take a day or so longer for you to see any results.

Took 5-6 days for the spots to fall off my orandas at 78*.

If you decide to try the salt again, and IMO you should, raise the amount to 1½ - 2 teaspoons per gallon.





Roan
 
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Boohoo

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Feb 22, 2005
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I don't think that you stressed your fish, that is just the nature of Ich. It will probably attack all of your fish and the amount of spots will get worse. You really need to get the salt level up to at least 2teaspoons/per gallon. As far as the temp is concerned, when I treated my goldfish tank I didn't elevate the temp at all,(tank temp was around 74), but I left the salt in my tank for 4 weeks. Killed the Ich, not my fish. :)
 

bzboy

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Nov 4, 2004
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Boohoo said:
I don't think that you stressed your fish, that is just the nature of Ich. Killed the Ich, not my fish. :)

Thanks for replies. I feel better now :bowing:
 

YuccaPatrol

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Oct 17, 2004
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Although you don't want to stress your fish by adding the salt too quickly, you also want to get it in there and working as soon as you can.

I add 1/2 tsp per gallon every 4 hours until I reach 2 tsp/gal

Hope it works out for you!
 
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