Gigantic Ick Outbreak!!!

LMOUTHBASS

LMOUTHBASS

My hypocrisy goes only so far
Jun 17, 2003
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Boston , MA
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Real Name
Mark
HELP!!!
my 20 gal q tank is under attack!!! the worst ick outbreak i have ever seen in my tanks is under way!!! i have some neon rainbow fish, silver dollars and pictus cats waiting to go to their new home soon but they have had minor ick outbreaks off and on the last few weeks - i think it's my fault they outbreaks have re occured as once i saw the last ick crystal dissappear i stopped medicating - now i looked in my tank today after noticing another small outbreak yesterday and everyone is covered in it!!! since i have the pictus cats i have to treat with scaleless fish meds which doesn't seem as strong to me as regular ick meds - it seems to take longer to get rid of it - i am using jungle ick guard 2 and raising temp to 83 - my question is - is this med strong enough and will it be effective for the fish with scales - also shoul i change water everyday and how long after i kill ick shoul i continue meds???
i need your help thank you
 
I had the same thing happen a few months ago. I would suggest that you do not use a super strong dose of something like malchite green/formalin. I did and it killed my silver dollar before getting rid of any ick. Apparently even though they have scales they are rather sensitive to the medication. The pictus are also sensitive to malachite/formalin. Unfortunatly I know of nothing else that gets rid of ick effectively. I've heard of people using salt and copper solutions but have never tried it my self. The most inportant thing to would be to keep the tank medicated/ remove any carbon filters or highly porus rocks and change a good bit of the water daily also keeping the temperature high is a good idea because it speeds up the life cycle of ick.

Once all of the white spots are gone keep medicating the tank at lower doses for a full week. Ick is a parasitic protozoan and has many life stages. Even though the white cysts are gone there may still be some free swiming protozoa.
 
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