Ich! Help!

A

Akysten

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May 28, 2006
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I started showing signs of ICH on Monday Evening... This was confirmed Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning, I purchased QUICK CURE and administered about 30-35 drops in my 60 gallon(because I have 3 Clown Loaches and 2 Blue Rams. This is a PLANTED tank to Salt is out of the question.
The rest of tank tank are 10 rainbows(5 Neon, 3 Boesemani, 1 Red and 1 Turquoise) and 1 Pleco.

I've administered for 2 days(half dose) and turned the heat up to 82. At this point, the ICH looks a little worse than before. I'm guessing it gets worse before it gets better, that the infections may have aready been in place but not visible.

Is this correct?

My plan is to administer for another day, do a 25-35% water change... and administer for another 3 days(the bottle says 3 days max). After those three days, I'm going to repeat again. I may or may not repeat for a total of 12 days... then do a 50% water change and put carbon back in the filter(yes, I removed it). I'm assuming that a 60 gallon is probably only filled 59 gallon, and with gravel and decor, it's probably more like 52-55.


I'm hoping that signs of ICH will be gone by Sunday, and the following 2 treatments will be to assure that the infection is out of the tank.

My questions are:

Am I doing to right dose? I've had one person recommend a 3/4 dose..

Does a half dose slow down the ich cure?

Is Quick Cure effective? At this dose?

Should I vacuum the substrate? What I can get at anyway?
 
I have planted tank and the salt never hurt anything. If you're worried about it put the plants in a bucket of water until your salt treatment is over. I tried the quick cure once. Didn't work. Salt is the only thing I've had success with. The vunerable time in the ich life cycle is when they drop off the fish and hatch on the bottom of the tank. I ran my salt for a month to make sure I got them all, and I did.
 
Salt at the levels prescribed in the article should cause no problems with your plants. I have not had issue with any plant yet.

Ich meds are very harmful to smooth skinned and sensative fish, and are not very effective at half doseage levels.

Dave
 
Great.. so Salt in a planted tank is OK, as long as I don't go TOO high(Maybe 1.5 teaspoons per gallon) and not for long term.

How month should I keep the salt in the tank for? The article doesn't say.
I would assume 10-12 days should be good. I know the article says that it comes out with regular water changes, but I want to pick this up, maybe do 25% per day for a several days to get it out ASAP!
 
Just wanted to say Good Luck with your ich. If you do everything they say you will be soooooooooo glad you did. Everyone on here helped me. I was using the meds and I was losing all my fish. Got on here for help, started the table salt and turned my heat to 82 and after alot of sweat and tears my tank is ich free :D . I thought it was going to take forever. I had to treat for two around two weeks. I did the daily water changes with salt until my last ich spot was gone and then treated for another week to be safe. My live plants were fine also. Thank You to everyone who helped me!!!!!!!!!! Good luck again!! :hang:
 
Along with the salt jack the temp. up to 86-87F for 10 days. Most ich strains cannot reproduce above 85F, so if the salt doesn't get them, the elevated temp. will..... and your fish will be fine with it....

Burt :)
 
I would go and get yourself an airstone, and raise your temp up to 86f SLOWLY over 3-4 days, from what i can gather, the salt just stimulates the fish to make a heaver slime coat and the temp is what gets the ich. I suscessfully beat ICH in my 40 gal by putting .5 teaps of salt per gal and keeping temp at 86 for 10 days. I did not loose a fish (note: I keep north american natives, they are often hard 2 kill) '

I would definatly get the airstone, at 86F the water looses O2 very fast, the airstone can help keep a constant O2 level.

my 2 cents
 
I'm a bit concerned that my Rams and Loaches may not be able to take the high temps...

I haven't had any ill side effects from the medication... except that the ICH is still on the loaches. I need to give it a chance at the very least.. a week is fair, as long as all the fish seem health. I'm going to do a 25% water change today and treat with about 40 drops.... then I'll treat for the next 2 days and see what happens. I need to give it a week at least..

One issue is that I feel that our tank LOOKS overcrowded. This is probably because of the rainbows morning mating rituals. They're all over the tank and it drives the bottom fish out to the mid levels. As the day goes on, and everyone settles down, things look better. I think I figured that I have between 35 and 40" of fish in my 60G.

Behavior is normal... thoughout the treatment.. I just wonder if the activity of the rainbows may not be putting stress on some of the fish. I know the female rainbows have got to be stressed.
 
Good news.. bad news..

It took a while, but as of yesterday(6 days) all sings of ICH are gone. I'm going to go ahead and treat through this weekend. (This was using quick cure)
Also, the clown loaches came through fine. Everyone is doing well... except... well... the bad news:

The Rams... one died, the other is in a hospital tank. She may recover but she's not as active or as colorful as I would like.... it will probably just take time. In the future, I'll just use SALT, or i'll move any sensitive fish to the hospital tank and treat differently.

Overall, and educational experience...
 
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