First time dealing with ich in my 75G

satanpie

satanpie

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Aug 25, 2007
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:confused: after a water change today i noticed white specks on at least 2 of my rummynoses, maybe a little on a guppy too. Ive never had fish with a disease before, the ones who are affected seem to stop and start twithcing in the water. theres 13 of them in there, the rest of the stocking is in my signature. ammonia is 0 and ph is 6 , i know i should take them out but i have nowehere to put them just yet. what could have caused this im gonna buy some medicine tomorrow.
 
How long has the tank been up and is it cycled? I am assuming that it is? What are the rest of the water perimeters such as nitrite and nitrate? Have there been any recent additions of fish or plants?

Marinemom
 
Treat with a tablespoon per 5g of table salt and increase temperature to 82-84 degrees Fahrenheit. Do this for a minimum of 10 days.
 
Thanks, yeah the tank is cycled, havent added anyhitng new in a while, one of the snails has been laying eggs alot but i doubt that ahs anyhitng to do with it, it looks liek all the rummynose might be affected to some degree, how dangerous is this disease? This couldnt have been going on for longer than a day because i watch my fish quite often, do you think i should remove all the fish i think are affected? or will i be able to get this under control, because i have a 16 gallon that i could fill up and put them in by tomorrow.
 
Once ich is in your main tank, there is no point removing any of your fish anymore. Why? The parasites have already been established there and will strike at anyone the moment they feel their hosts are weakening due to several factors. What you must do is avoid all stress-causing factors. Give them a varied diet with vitamins so their immune system will be given a boost and do plenty of water changes as any deterioration in water quality can cause their demise rather quickly.

You must complete the treatment or else they will reappear the moment your fish are stressed again. This is the only way to completely eradicate the ich. Consider quarantining every new fish the next time you buy another batch to prevent the repeat of this incident.
 
Though it's worth pointing out that there's no dormant stage where the parasites exist without infecting fish for weeks or days. What actually happens is that the fish are being infected, but only at a low level, probably hidden in the gills. What actually happens is that the infection takes a hold on the surface of the fish, and that's when (a) the fishkeeper thinks "my fish have ich", and (b) it becomes lethal.
 
well i havent added anyhitng new for at least 3 weeks, i feed a mix of frozen blood worms and a frozen "omnivore mix" i do about a 30 gallon WC weekly, ( i have a python so i just take it down to before the filter intake) Should i add salt everyday? Last night i used the rest of my box of aquarium salt, im about to go get more and some kind of chemical treatment. Also, a little off topic question but didnt feel like starting a new thread, one of my big gold snails keeps laying eggs, its a dig dry clump above water level, is this like a ticking time bomb, how bad will it be if i let them hatch? they egg clump appeared 2 days ago.. thanks
 
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...ariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601

...[The] safest and ... best treatment method is simply salt. You don’t need any special salt just so long as it’s NaCI salt and not something like Epsom salt or marine tank salt. If you’re not sure just purchase some aquarium salt from your fish store. The method for treating is relatively easy. The common recommended dose for treating ich is 2 tsp per gallon of water. It’s not recommended to put the salt right in the tank. You should mix it in with water so that it dissolves and then add the salt water into the tank. I recommend that you add about a quarter of the salt mix every few hours so that you don’t shock your fish as badly. You only do this once not everyday like with other ich medications. Salt does not evaporate or dilute over time in the water. The ich will probably look like it is getting worse for the first few days while you’re waiting for the salt to have its effect on in. If the ich does not look like its getting better after 5 days you will want to increase the dose by another 1 tsp per gallon. If you are keeping tropical fish I would recommend slowly turning the heat up to 86 degrees to help quicken the life cycle of the cyst which will not be affected by the salt. If you are keeping goldfish or other cool water species I would go to 74-76 degrees. Some people will tell you that 80 is ok for cool water but this really brings them undo stress. 74-76 will speed up the cycle of the organism enough that it should be killed off out in a week’s time. Remember heat is not necessary to kill ich the salt or medication will do it on there own but increasing the temperature will quicken the life cycle of the ich organism. If you keep any invertebrates or very fragile species you may want to consult an expert of the species to make sure that salt will not harm them. I would wait about seven days before doing another water change so that the salt has time to wipe out the life cycle of the organism. When you are done treating for ich I wouldn’t worry about doing a massive water change just your normal maintenance and the salt will be diluted out over time. Once you do a water change it is not necessary to add more salt back to the tank. If you do a water change during your treatment or want to continue treatment after seven day’s you will need to measure out how many gallons you take out of tank. Once you have removed the amount of water that you feel is sufficient for your water change refill the aquarium with fresh water equal to what you removed in old water. Then re-dose the tank with salt equal to 2 tsp per gallon of water that you removed. For example if you removed 20 gallons of water then you will want to add 40 tsp. of salt back into the tank.
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