I have been raising mollies for some time now, and without changing or adding any thing (besides usuall water changes) All my mommas have gotten ick. Now all my fish have it except my babies. ( I have about 200 fry in a seperate tank) I have done everything to get rid of this and nothing is working. All the levels of nitrates are checking out good. The water temp has held steady at 80 degrees, and I have done a full water change as a last resort. I have also tried two ICK away products and they too have failed to get rid of the problem. What else can I do? One more question.In a diffrent tank, I have a male lyertail mollie and I introduced a new female about a month ago and they hate each other or so it seems. Is this possiable? Do lyertails choose their mates diffrently?
Help, I Have Ick!
- Thread starter tabby
- Start date
I've had a 100% success rate with the salt treatment for ich and moderate success with medcation. Read David's Article about ich in the article section of this forum. The recipe I use to treat ich can be read up on here.
http://koivet.com/html/articles/articles_details.php?article_id=22&category=17&name=Diseases
If you want to measure the salt content of water, you can get a hydrometer which I reccomend since I've overdosed on salt before shutting down my biofilter which is not fun when treating a disease.
http://koivet.com/html/articles/articles_details.php?article_id=22&category=17&name=Diseases
If you want to measure the salt content of water, you can get a hydrometer which I reccomend since I've overdosed on salt before shutting down my biofilter which is not fun when treating a disease.
Thanks for the tip, but i have tried the salt thing allready. Today after the full water change I went ahead and added salt again and I will continue to try this again for three days, with the partial water changes. I sure hope this goes away soon. Ill keep you posted! Thanks again.
You need to raise your specific gravity by 0.003 or more to successfully treat ich. You then must leave it there for a minimum of 3 days after the last spot dissapears. Usually ich will get worse for 2-3 days after treatment starts at 80*F before the spots start dissapearing. This has to do with the lifecycle. Any ich parasites that already bit the fish are immune to any form of treatment and will display themselves in the form of white spots usually within 4 days. They then fall off and will die within 48 hours in the salted water. This is why you need to treat for a minimum of 3 days after the last spot dissapears to make sure you kill every last one of them.
Thanks Ill try it. I went out and checked my tank and all my guppies seem to be dropping like flys! Ive lost two in the last hour. I noticed they were not eating and their mouthes dont seem to be opening and shutting, then after about half an hour they drop dead. What is going on now? My mollis and sowardtails seem to be doing fine. Why just the guppies? Im down to just four now. What gives?
I just read an article in Aquarium Fish magazine about treating resistant ich. The author of the article used two tanks and every 24 hours she switched the fish from one tank into the other. she used a net to take them out and rinsed the fish in a bucket of fresh water first...before putting them into the clean tank. She said she could actually see the cysts dropping off into the bucket.
After switching the fish to the clean tank...she would completely empty and bleach the one she just took them from....dechlorinate it and refill it, being ready for the next day. She kept the temps at 81-84F..with nothing in either tank except the heater and the filter. The filter was a mechanical filter with a cartridge that the manufacturer claimed removed particles down to one micron in size. Since the ich swarmers are about 30 microns...she figured the filter aught to remove any swimming around in the tank. She sterilized the filter every 12 hours by immersing it for 5-10 minutes in diluted bleach (10-20 dilution)...dechloriniating it aferwards and adding dechlorinator to the tank as well, to counteract any that may remain.
She also had a powerhead in each tank. The powerhead she had in there kept the water moving so that the ich couldn't attach itself to the bottom of the tank, preventing them from developing into swarmers. Ich has to attach to something in order to morph to the next stage. If it doesn't attach within 3 days.....it dies.
She called this the "Transfer Method" for treating Ich...and claimed to have cleared all her fish up within 7 days and they hadn't had an issue with it again since. They were boesemani rainbows BTW.
After having the fish out of thier regular tank for a week, I would think any ich in the tank would be gone by the end of treatment, with no hosts to attach to. Especially if you up the temps in thier home tank while they are being treated.
I've never tried this method myself....but I have used the isolation...water change twice a day routine to treat fish with internal parasites...and I find it helps alot by removing any that leave the fish before they can reproduce or reinfect.
Worth a shot I guess if you can't find anything else that works.
After switching the fish to the clean tank...she would completely empty and bleach the one she just took them from....dechlorinate it and refill it, being ready for the next day. She kept the temps at 81-84F..with nothing in either tank except the heater and the filter. The filter was a mechanical filter with a cartridge that the manufacturer claimed removed particles down to one micron in size. Since the ich swarmers are about 30 microns...she figured the filter aught to remove any swimming around in the tank. She sterilized the filter every 12 hours by immersing it for 5-10 minutes in diluted bleach (10-20 dilution)...dechloriniating it aferwards and adding dechlorinator to the tank as well, to counteract any that may remain.
She also had a powerhead in each tank. The powerhead she had in there kept the water moving so that the ich couldn't attach itself to the bottom of the tank, preventing them from developing into swarmers. Ich has to attach to something in order to morph to the next stage. If it doesn't attach within 3 days.....it dies.
She called this the "Transfer Method" for treating Ich...and claimed to have cleared all her fish up within 7 days and they hadn't had an issue with it again since. They were boesemani rainbows BTW.
After having the fish out of thier regular tank for a week, I would think any ich in the tank would be gone by the end of treatment, with no hosts to attach to. Especially if you up the temps in thier home tank while they are being treated.
I've never tried this method myself....but I have used the isolation...water change twice a day routine to treat fish with internal parasites...and I find it helps alot by removing any that leave the fish before they can reproduce or reinfect.
Worth a shot I guess if you can't find anything else that works.
The first question that comes to mind is how much salt for how long. and the next question is have you previously used salt in those tanks?
Unfortunately with the salt myth and mollies, it's common for folks to use salt all of the time. low salt doses will allow ich to develop a lot higher resistance.
Mollies can tolerate a good bit of salt. I'd push it right to 3 teaspoons per gallon and maybe a touch higher if you have used salt chronically in that tank. If you haven't used salt chronically, then I'd still probably push it right to the 3 teaspoon per gallon mark, but not go higher.
Each teaspoon is roughly 2100 ppm. I have seen a couple of studies now where some strains of ich survived up to as much as 5 ppt (parts per thousand) so it would take 3 teaspoons to get the level a safe amount above that mark.
Theoretically the transfer method could work, but will be stressful to the fish keeper (And possibly the fish), and of course requires at least 2 spare tanks. I have not talked directly to anyone who has tried it, But if it were done in a very dilligent and systematic manner, it could work. I like new ideas and logical experiments but am not sure I'd try them on my show tanks or breeding stock. I do not think a powerhead would be enough to prevent ich from settling anywhere in the tank. Micron and or diatom filters would help but are not a foolproof cure either. If you do go with this method, It would be nice if you could post your schedule and results, observations, and opinions at the end.
Dave
Most freshwater fish could probably survive up to 7 ppt of salt for a short duration like treating ich. My fish survived 11 ppt salt concentration for 36 hours with no problems so the resistant strain of ich is still treatable. Unless you have the type of ich that does not leave the fish, it is curable with salt.
Success!!! well almost.LOL
I did a partial water change today, and vacumed the gravel, added some salt... and everyone looks 1000 times better. You could hardly see the fish and now they only have one or two spots and my guppies have stopped dying!! My pleco looks like he is feeling better to. I will keep eveything up for another week or even two if I have to, I dont care if I have to change 100 percent of the water in that 55 gallon everyday, im going to get rid of this. I usually keep a very low dose of salt in the tank all the time, about 1 tespoon for every 10gallons, it seems that my mollies are happy with that, for now.
I did a partial water change today, and vacumed the gravel, added some salt... and everyone looks 1000 times better. You could hardly see the fish and now they only have one or two spots and my guppies have stopped dying!! My pleco looks like he is feeling better to. I will keep eveything up for another week or even two if I have to, I dont care if I have to change 100 percent of the water in that 55 gallon everyday, im going to get rid of this. I usually keep a very low dose of salt in the tank all the time, about 1 tespoon for every 10gallons, it seems that my mollies are happy with that, for now.