Ich Emergency

M

mattjkirkpatric

AC Members
May 21, 2006
21
0
0
I started treating Ich on Tuesday. It looked like a very mild case with only my newest fish being affected. I started adding salt and raising the temperature as David W. Sullenberger said in his lengthy post on Ich. By Wednesday morning I had my salt level to 2 tsp per gallon and the water temperature between 85 and 86. I did both of these things very slowly, adding ¼ tsp of salt per gallon every four hours until at a total of 1 tsp per gallon. I mixed the salt in a 5 gallon bucket of tank water and then put it back in through the filter to make sure it was well spread throughout the tank. I raised the water temperature under 2 degrees an hour. By Wednesday night I thought all my fish were healthy looking and the spots had disappeared on the original fish that had it, no other fish had it by this point.

Then on Thursday for some reason my heat jumped up to 87. It had been stable 85 and 86 for more than a day. I noticed some fish gasping so I put a fan over my tank, lowered the temperature on the heater and took out some water from the tank to get more O2 in the tank. Then I had one tetra die.

Friday was a bad day. I lost 4 tetras and an angel fish, and I saw signs of Ich on multiple fish. I thought that they were dieing from the heat so I started to turn it down. I am now at 83 but have lost at least 4 more tetras, some look really bad, and others are gasping. I have no idea what to do now and it kills me to just figure that it is just the Ich getting them, but I don’t see what I have done wrong. Please HELP.
 
Warmer water carries less oxygen, if you have a lot of fish in the tank and not a lot of surface agitation, it's easy to use up oxygen quickly and get gasping fish. I would get a cheap airstone or bubble wand and air pump right away to up the oxygen in the water.

Do any of the fish have a "gold dusting" on them (turn the tank lights off and use a flashlight shone from behind)? Velvet can look like ich and it attacks the fish gills and can also cause the rapid breathing you are seeing. Other signs of velvet would be lethargy and loss of appetite.

With salt treatment the spots can come back when the ich lifecycle swings back around - this is normal. You just need to stick out treatment.
 
I don't think that they have velvet, but I'm not sure. I bought an airstone to help the fish, but I have noticed that some of the black neon tetras are losing their color, also some of the tiger barbs are losing color. Could this be from the lack of O2? It couldn't be the salt that is hurting them could it? I have 100 tsp of salt for a 55 gallon tank. How long should it be before they look better if they are just lacking air?
 
I added 12.5 tsp of salt into 5 gallons of water every 4 hours till it was at 1 tsp per gallon. Then the next day I added 12.5 tsp of salt into 5 gallons of tank water every 3 hours untill the tank was at 2 tsp per gallon
 
Since the fish have started showing stress signs, what if any "evidnece" of ich have you seen? Are the fish showing white spots, just flashing, ? or something else. Also what are your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and lastly how long have you had these fish.

It's a little unclear, as to whether or not you maintained the treatment the entire time. I suspect if you are using daveedka's instructions, you did but just to make sure, have you kept salt levels up at all times since Tuesday?
In other words has there been any time that the salt level dropped below 1 tsp per gallon since you added it originally?

Salt will kill the ich with or without heat, heat speeds the process and heat above 86* will also kill ich. of the two Salt has been less stressful and more depndable IME. If I see any signs of stress, I generally reduce the ehat ASAP. It sounds like heat (Lack of available O2) more than anything, but more information is needed really. An ammonia spike combined with heat will be rapidly lethal since both inhibit proper breathing.
 
I have been seeing the typical white spot symptom of ich, but no flashing. I’m not sure what my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are, a test kit is on the list of fish things to buy. I have had most of the fish since the beginning of summer, but the one that first showed signs of ich I bought on September 2.

I don’t see why my salt levels would have dropped off, I haven’t taken any water out without replacing it. The salt wouldn’t just disappear, or could it collect on the sides of the tank or filter to lower the concentration?

I had a heat spike on Thursday where my heater jumped from 85.5 to 87, that is when my fish started to look bad, but then I have been reducing the heat and it is now at around 83. I also bought a bubbler on Saturday, so they should be getting enough O2. Since then I have only lost a few tetras and an otto. I think things are looking better because the deaths have slowed down and I am pretty sure that the ich spots are gone.

The thing that is worrying me now are my barbs. They look like they are being bleached. Some are looking pale, while one of my green tiger barbs has a white spot, not like ich, but like a patch of scales that have lost their color. Could this be from the salt?
 
The salt most likely is not causing the problems. oxygen levels, heat, ammonia, and or something more than ich may be going on. A larger white spot that doesn't look like ich could be fungal or bacterial, it could also be a different parasite, but not likely just because it would be something pretty rare in the big picture. I usually don't look for the obscure until I'm way into a problem. It is common for secondary infectins to follow ich, and any stress will open the door for fungus or bacteria to get to your fish.

The pale color could be anything stress related, it may be the salt, it may be the ich, it may be the heat, and it could be something going on with your biofilter causing ammonia or nitrites to be present. This was the reason I asked about those levels in my last post.

If the pale fish are not getting worse, and are not showing any other major symptoms, I'd say it's likely the ich, heat, or the salt, but not something I would worry a lot about, just something I'd watch to make sure it doesn't change.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom