since you only have two fish left, wouldnt it be better just to take them to a hosiptal tank. Then you can crank up the temperature/salt (or completely drain the water) in the main tank to make sure all the crap in there are dead and gone.
Ich Disaster Diary
- Thread starter LoneFox
- Start date
Saturday
I picked up a tank today, a new filter and heater. for use as a hospital tank/quarantine, I also took the water to be tested today, but the aquarist shop has said that the water is fine. So nitrate and ammonia levels are not to blame.
Upside down catfish now has ich, and also appears to have sores on his side, and what appear to be blisters.
Having ruled out ammonia and nitrite I am wondering if the ich treatment is the cause of his sores. Infuriatingly it would appear that ich is still prevalent in the tank and despite two weeks of treatment it has thrived.
I have done a 25% water change, but opted to cease dosing for ich as I feel that if I add any more treatment, it may kill the catfish.
I intend to go with the suggestion of adding table salt to the water as suggested by an earlier poster, starting tommorrow. Unless anyone can think of any reasons why I shouldn't.
Is there a significant difference between it and aquarium salt.
I picked up a tank today, a new filter and heater. for use as a hospital tank/quarantine, I also took the water to be tested today, but the aquarist shop has said that the water is fine. So nitrate and ammonia levels are not to blame.
Upside down catfish now has ich, and also appears to have sores on his side, and what appear to be blisters.
Having ruled out ammonia and nitrite I am wondering if the ich treatment is the cause of his sores. Infuriatingly it would appear that ich is still prevalent in the tank and despite two weeks of treatment it has thrived.
I have done a 25% water change, but opted to cease dosing for ich as I feel that if I add any more treatment, it may kill the catfish.
I intend to go with the suggestion of adding table salt to the water as suggested by an earlier poster, starting tommorrow. Unless anyone can think of any reasons why I shouldn't.
Is there a significant difference between it and aquarium salt.
what ich treatment did you use?
many ich treatments are hard on the smooth skinned critters...some cats are in that category.
in those you would half the dose. I think..salt is a particularly effective ich treatment..it messes with the ichs balance.(osmosis) the idea with salt is it changes the balance of salt and water inside and outside the cell.
ich is treatable in the free swimming stage..that is when the parasite hatches..the ich cyst will sluff off the host falling to the substrate..it incubates inthe substrate then hatches A(freeswimming) looking for a new host..
ich is treatable but persistent..and if it gets out of hand(read as everytime the cysts falls off it propagates to more bugs) it can be very deadly.
one good thing is you can move the fish to a hospital tank and kill the ich with high doses of salt and raise the temp..a lot 86-90 should do it..
good luck
many ich treatments are hard on the smooth skinned critters...some cats are in that category.
in those you would half the dose. I think..salt is a particularly effective ich treatment..it messes with the ichs balance.(osmosis) the idea with salt is it changes the balance of salt and water inside and outside the cell.
ich is treatable in the free swimming stage..that is when the parasite hatches..the ich cyst will sluff off the host falling to the substrate..it incubates inthe substrate then hatches A(freeswimming) looking for a new host..
ich is treatable but persistent..and if it gets out of hand(read as everytime the cysts falls off it propagates to more bugs) it can be very deadly.
one good thing is you can move the fish to a hospital tank and kill the ich with high doses of salt and raise the temp..a lot 86-90 should do it..
good luck
table salt has iodine in it..I have heard it doesn't cause issues but use cooking salt(kosher or sea salt) a salt with no caking agent or iodine..aquarium salt should work but it costs more..
IMHO
IMHO
Table salt is fine to use. You should run some fresh carbon to remove the meds before you start adding salt.
I use aquarium salt and raise the temp and have used this method for many many years...(my Dad used this treament only for this problem ever since I can remember) as I found the other treaments just caused my fish to die and not cure the problem....just created more.
I'll buy a carbon filter to add to the fluval tommorrow, and some aquarium salt while I am at the garden centre. I Have put the new pump in the main tank to build up a biomass, for use in the quarantine tank, have decided there's little point in moving the 2 remaining fish to the hospital tank, as I'll have to cycle it anyway, which will mean I'll have to transfer half the water from the main tank and any bad things with it.
Catfish looks a little less stressed since the recent water change, but is definately not well. I'll see how things go, but will not bother attempting to restock for a month at least.
When I do restock, I'll buy some more tiger barbs, as they seemed to fall ill quite quickly last time, so they'll serve as a good indicator of any problems. And I'll be leaving them in quarantine for a week first.
Not put off by my disaster, my housemate has just purchased an 80 gallon tank which he intends to use for marine fish, I admire his bravery and will watch and learn with enthusiasm when he gets it running.
Cora Dora is still strong, no signs of any illness and showing good colouring, if he gets through this I have total admiration for him, that's one strong little fish.
u/d catfish I am going to try my best to help him through, he came with the tank, and I believe he's about 2 yrs old, so i feel quite guilty over my incompetence causing him to suffer like this.
Catfish looks a little less stressed since the recent water change, but is definately not well. I'll see how things go, but will not bother attempting to restock for a month at least.
When I do restock, I'll buy some more tiger barbs, as they seemed to fall ill quite quickly last time, so they'll serve as a good indicator of any problems. And I'll be leaving them in quarantine for a week first.
Not put off by my disaster, my housemate has just purchased an 80 gallon tank which he intends to use for marine fish, I admire his bravery and will watch and learn with enthusiasm when he gets it running.
Cora Dora is still strong, no signs of any illness and showing good colouring, if he gets through this I have total admiration for him, that's one strong little fish.
u/d catfish I am going to try my best to help him through, he came with the tank, and I believe he's about 2 yrs old, so i feel quite guilty over my incompetence causing him to suffer like this.
Added the carbon filtering, left running for two hours and added 12 Teaspoons of Table salt to the aquarium, the catfish didn't appear to appreciate the salty water to start with, and was doing the fish equivalent of spitting and snarling.
within just 4 hours after treating the water, the catfish has settled back to his usual moody self, the blisters have gone completely, and the sore mark on his side looks a little better (could it really have worked that quickly).
He still has some ich spots, but even they appear to be less than before. And for the first time I'm actually hopeful he might live through this disasterous few weeks.
I'll wait to see how it pans out, but I'm now a little peeved particularly with the various pet shops, that something so cheap and simple could have potentially saved all my fish from undergoing the suffering of the various ich treatments. If only i'd found out sooner, instead of wasting my money on over priced carcinogenic chemicals to add to the water.
within just 4 hours after treating the water, the catfish has settled back to his usual moody self, the blisters have gone completely, and the sore mark on his side looks a little better (could it really have worked that quickly).
He still has some ich spots, but even they appear to be less than before. And for the first time I'm actually hopeful he might live through this disasterous few weeks.
I'll wait to see how it pans out, but I'm now a little peeved particularly with the various pet shops, that something so cheap and simple could have potentially saved all my fish from undergoing the suffering of the various ich treatments. If only i'd found out sooner, instead of wasting my money on over priced carcinogenic chemicals to add to the water.
Funny enough I have never had a fish with ich. Oops I just jinxed myself. I've had plenty of other diseases in my tanks but no ich.
star_rider said:
Table salt is harmless. It doen't contain Iodine, it contains an Iodide compound. You ought to check out HappyChems post in the salt thread. It is right on the money.
http://aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70876
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