Desperate Ich Problems!!

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pisces22

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Aug 1, 2004
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I discovered that the red platys and black lyretail mollies in my new aquarium have ich. The fish were perfectly healthy until I added a school of neon tetras, then a few days later I noticed white spots on the platys and the mollies. The neons seemed healthy, but I think they had a few spots too. I bought the medication, and it said to add one drop for every gallon, and half that amount for tetras. I didnt know how much to put in because I wanted to make sure the livebearers were properly treated but I didnt want to harm the neons. I lost two platys to ich, and I must have put too much medicine in because 4 of the neons have lost their colour and then died. I dont know what to do!! Should i stop treating the fish (the medication bottle said to treat for three days but I read u should treat for 12-14 days to ensure all the parasites are killed) How many drops should I put in? How can I save my fish?!:(
 
Some harmless things you can do in addition to the medication are:
-raise the water temperature as dismantle me said (shortens the ich life cycle)
-add some salt to the water. This helps the fish secrete a heavier slime coat. Start with 1tsp/10g and increase the amount to 1tsp/5g (or even more if the fish will tolerate it) over a few days.
-gravel vacs and daily 50% water changes. The parasite lives in the substrate after falling off the fish, where it multiplies, then swims free looking for fish to re-attach to. Vacuuming the gravel removes many of the parasites.

About medications - I would add the lowest dose recommended for your fish. If you should dose 1/2 strength for tetras/scaleless fish, and you have those fish in your tank, then dose 1/2 strength. And you're absolutely correct that treating for 2 weeks or even more is the way to go. You can do just the above things and often erradicate an ich infestation without even using medication.
Good luck.
 
ICH

Read this article, It covers ich, ich meds, Salt and heat very well. Salt should be 1-3 TSP per gallon, to treat ich, the meds do work, but come with their own set of problems as well. With tetra's or any other delicate fish, I personally wouldn't reccomend the use of meds, only salt and heat. Meds are very stressful to fish, and the combined stress of meds and ich are usually too much for delicate fish. The heat will increase the life cycle speed as mentioned and get the little nasties off of your fish quicker. The meds and or the salt cannot kill the parasites while they are on the fish. Treatment needs to be kept up for at least a week ( I like two weeks) after all of the visible parasites are gone from the fish. The articlae linked above is well worth the time it takes to read it.
dave
 
i bought neons about 2 weeks ago and they were dead within 3 days.They looked healthy when i bought them to. The ich probably killed them but they are very weak fish to begin with anyway.
 
Desperate Ich Problems

Thnaks for the advice,
My tank is 21 gallons, and my dad ( who has had many aquariums but is not used to adding chemicals ect) said to put in 15 drops which is obviously too much because now all my poor little neons are dead. I had three red platys but now there is only one, and three black lyretail mollies who all have ich. Il look into the salt thing, the problem is that my family and I are going to be out of the country for two weeks. We had arranged for someone to come every few days and feed the fish, check on them, check on the tank and mabe do a water change, but I dont kno if the person could come everyday to medicate and clean and change water. What should I do?
 
We had arranged for someone to come every few days and feed the fish, check on them, check on the tank and mabe do a water change, but I dont kno if the person could come everyday to medicate and clean and change water. What should I do?
Click to expand...

All the more reason to use the alt, get the temp raised up, get the salt level up to about 2 tsp per gallon, and then when your friend does the water change ask them to add 2 tsp per gallon to the water they change. you have room for error of 1 tsp per gallon in both directions. when you get home in two weeks you can lower the temp and quit adding salt to you change water and eventually the salt level will dissapear in your tank. You don't have to worry about daily meds or constant water changes. While vaccuming during ich treatment is helpfull, it isn't essential if you use salt. I didn't vacum during my treatment period.
dave
 
Any salt that is NaCl will work. Either buy the Aquarium salt from the fish store or just use any food grade table salt that is NaCl (and not KCl).
 
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