Blue Rams : Ich

[bristlenosekarl]

Hello, (and sorry for starting up another ich thread)
I have read through several threads regarding ich and I'm still having a bit of trouble figuring out what I want to do, even though I've started treatment.

I bought 2 Blue Rams and 15 Cardinal Tetras from my LFS last week. I put them in the 10 Gallon quarantine tank once I got home and 2 days later I noticed that the 2 rams had ich.

I have a main 300L tank and I had ich with my pearls and clowns and treated the tank for it with Protozin (1/2 doses) and got rid of the ich after 2 weeks, and all of the fish are doing GREAT now, swimming so good and looking really healthy. So to not disrupt my main tank I bought a quarantine tank.

My question is, should I not use Protozin, and because I've already started and on my second day, is it bad to stop the meds and try salt treatment like I've read from other posts. The Protozin worked last time for me, but I've read that meds can be quite harmful on the fish and I'm not sure about the rams and how they'll respond. They seem to be doing okay at the moment.

Also should I leave my cardinals in the tank with the rams as I'm treating them. I don't have any other tanks besides my main 300L tank so i'm not sure what to do. Any ideas on treatments and anything else would be awesome. I raised the temp to 82.

 

[bristlenosekarl]

Also...
What kinda of water changes should I be doing with the treatment? Normal 30% weekly changes, or more frequent, or not at all while treating.

Before I was closed to the idea (not sure why) of salt treatments, but if it's the easiest/best solution I'd be happy to switch it away from the protozin. It's great having a quarantine tank as you don't have to worry about the main tank getting all infected and can always start over with the quarantine.

At the moment I'm doing 1ml of protozin each recommended day during the treatment. Its on the bottle but I think it's 1,2,3 and 6 days. I could be wrong. I'm on the third day at the moment.

Thanks guys.

 

[wackydan]

Are you sure it's ICH?

When I first got my rams, some of the tiny spots they had on their fins freaked me out, but it was part of their appearance and not an ICH outbreak.

Cathy is the Ram expert here.... She might have some good pointers on treating the blues.

 

[Ulan]

Also...
What kinda of water changes should I be doing with the treatment? Normal 30% weekly changes, or more frequent, or not at all while treating.

I'd look at what the description on your medics says. The stuff I used asked for 25% water changes every day. This might be different for Protozin.

 

[Cathy G]

I've never had ich and blue rams. If they are eating and behaving just fine, then I'd finish with the med... I also don't know what's in this medicine as it is not available here.
EMG is also a ram expert - maybe you could ask her for advice?

One thing I have found very helpful in getting fish to survive ich and ich treatments is to add an extra airstone and/or lower the tank's water level to increase 'splash' and get more oxygen into the water.

Sorry I couldn't help on this one. I rarely buyblue rams anymore, and keep my tanks at 85-86 so ich hasn't been a problem.

Cathy

 

[bristlenosekarl]

hello again...to anyone who was actually paying attention to this thread!!

Just to let you know that it was ich. I've since gone through the fix 6 day cycle of the treatment, and noticed that the ich is gone. I'm going to do a water change tomorrow and start another cycle just to be sure.

I started doubting myself about the ich, thinking it was normal, but now that it's gone I know for sure it was ich. Even though it sucks having disease in your tank, it's great knowing that my fish are getting better and will soon be joining the rest of the clan in my main 300L tank.

If you wanna have a peak at a few pics of my tank at the moment go and check out....
http://www.pbase.com/lbrunet/2006fish
it's been fun setting it up to what it is now. I love fish keeping!