Ack! Ick!

sandwich

sandwich

hey, sweet!
Sep 19, 2004
34
0
0
boston
Before you say it, I did a search, and I have seen that website that keeps getting mentioned.

I got my first case of ick recently (never seen it before) and I'm not sure where it came from...everybody seemed to be happy, now it's just starting. My poor little hatchets are affected the worst, oddly enough.

My LFS was closed and petco was out of EVERYTHING but I bummed some Rid-Ich off the guy there, enough for one treatment of my 40 gallon tank (10ml). Is there anything I need to be weary of?

I have:
6 blue tetras,
4 hatchets (with lots of white spots :sad )
2 Festivums
1 CAE
1 Cory
1 Betta

The betta, CAE and Cory appear unaffected thus far, with the hatchets being the worst, then the tetras, and finally the festivum(s). I recently bought the betta from petco :thud: but it looked fine. The water, of course, was blue and that should have been my first sign.

Anyways, I'm really worried about my hatchets...they are my favorite fish and they're doing the hurt dance. How should I know if they're not doing well? Most of them seen fine, but one seems to be breathing heavy...how heavy is a warning sign though? He's not freaking out, but it appears to be faster than the other hatchets.

So, any other suggestions? I don't have any meds of my own yet, and I will go to the LFS tomorrow to ask their suggestions, but what should I get or avoid? I will be going home for thanksgiving, just to complicate things more, so I only have about 7 days to treat.
 
You say the water was blue? That means meds was put in for ich.. theres some ich medications that turn the water blue :S:S
 
Yes, rid-ich tints the water... it works and does get rid of the ich as long as you follow the instructions. Personally I hate rid-ich, but that's only because of the scary warning on the label (something about it causing cancer or something...) eek.

I'd go the salt/heat route, as previously mentioned. It's safe for just about all fish (and all of yours would be fine w/ it). And it works.

Gradually get the heat up to 90 degrees
2 teaspoons salt (tablesalt) per 1 gallon water (so 10 teaspoons in your tank)
Water changes are your friend - 25% every other day would be best, but every 3-4 days would be ok too
Remember to add back whatever salt you take out in the water change
Keep this up for 3 weeks

How long will the tank be unattended?
~Tara
 
about 6 days lets say...i'll be here wednesday and get back sunday, so i can take care of it on either day.

Are you sure 10 teaspoons is enough? I have a 40 gallon tank. The way I calulated it, I need more like 27 table spoons, or 80 teaspoons. that should put me at about 2 teaspoons/gallon. I have already added eight tablespoons (roughly 24 teaspoons)
 
I misread... for some reason I thought you had a 20 gallon... you're correct, 80 teaspoons or 26.666666 tablespoons... hahahaha...

As far as tank maintenance while you're gone, you should be ok. Don't feed at all on Monday or Tuesday, and do a water change before you leave on Weds (or don't feed on Sunday/Monday and do a water change on Tuesday if you're leaving early on Weds).

If I were you, I'd wrap the tank up in a heavy blanket or a bunch of towels, to prevent the water from evaporating too much (hot tank + cold room)... but it's not a necessity.

~Tara
 
should be warm enough...my tank temp is now up to 83-84 in the corner, heater says 86...up to full salinity....let's pray!

thanks for your help, i did a water change and replaced the carbon to get the remaining rid ich out.
 
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