Ich Med Recommendation ASAP!

JazzyB

JazzyB

The Boys on the Move!
Sep 20, 2003
142
0
0
Canada
I almost can't believe my Silver Dollars have ich. :sad Why? Because it's been years since any fish I kept had the disease. All the same, I was racking my brain to discover the cause... I just noticed the spots early this morning and have noticed it spreading on the SD's only. My conclusion is that either a change in temperature of the water as the tank is but 2 meters away from a window OR the introduction of the corys and neons last week brought something "fishy" to the tank.

Tank:

27 Gallon
-4 Silver Dollars (juvenile, about 1.5 inches each and who will be moved to a larger tank soon)
-3 neon tetras
-2 Pepper corys (juvenile size)
-2 Ottos
-Planted aquarium
-Aquaclear 150 filter
-150 watt heater

Water Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
pH: 7.2
nitrite: 0.1
Temp: 78.5 F

Let me know what you think could be the cause and what medications work the best! I have to buy the meds tomorrow so I need a prompt response. Thanks in advance.
:cool:
 
I use maracyn because i've always had good luck with mardel lab's products, but you can also use aquarium salt and raise the temperature to about 85 - 88 degrees.

It was most likely the fish you added last week, becuase the water added that was in the bag could have had ich in it, and the same with the fish that were living in it.
 
i dunno what its called but its the stuff that turns ur water blue and cures ich in 2 days, works great i think.
 
I recommend the product Super Ich Cure.
It's possible water change temperatures caused the Ich problem.
 
I treat ich with salt and elevated temperature.

There are several things that could have resulted in this outbreak. A) the new fish. Always quarantine! Healthy looking fish can carry parasites that infect your tank. B) Stress from water conditions. Nitrite should never be detectable--it's presence will stress fish. Ich is frequently present in sub-clinical levels--meaning you never see the signs, but the parasite is present in the tank. Once a stressor hits, the immune system can no longer deal with the parasite in addition to the new factor, so a full blown outbreak results.
 
Thanks for the advice on a quarintine tank. I used to have one when I lived in Europe, but I just got back into the hobby since I've moved back to Canada and couldn't really afford to buy 2 tanks at once. Funnily enough, I was in the middle of purchasing/acquiring a second tank for this very reason.

I bought Maracide (from Mardel Products) to treat the ich. So far, I've graduallly increased the temp to about 80F and removed the carbon insert from the Aquaclear filter. I'm hoping I can kill this thing and that it doesn't affect the other fish.
 
Good luck with your ich treatment! Just remember to treat it for several days after all the visible symptoms have disappeared to be sure you get it all.

I went to a LFS yesterday just to look around. It's a store I don't buy from anymore because I've had problems with the fish the 2 times I did, but sometimes I go just to look and get ideas since they tend to have a lot in stock. They also have a large indoor pond with saltwater rays in it that my daughter loves looking at.

This time they had ich in almost every tank. Both the fresh and saltwater fish had it. The gourami tank, silver dollar tank, and a couple others had it so bad that it made my insides hurt to look at these fish. I had never seen a case of ich like this, the entire fish body and fins was covered with it. Several of the fish were hovering near the gravel dying. I asked an employee who I'd seen working there for a long time if they were treating the fish for ich, and he seemed annoyed and said they were trying a dip. As he said this he pulled three heavily infected pacu from a tank of fish that all had ich out of the tank and dumped them in a medicated dip of some sort. He said that if it worked they were going to do this with all the tanks. A couple minutes later he returned the pacu to the tank.

I was awed and dismayed that a fish store that has been in operation for years and an employee that has been there for at least 6 months was this misinformed. Many people have different opinions of how long ich stays in a tank and other inconsistencies, but they all seem to agree on the fact that ich can't be killed in its cyst stage, and that if you see one spot in the aquarium the only way to treat it is to treat the entire aquarium. It makes me wonder how many people who have had trouble with fish this store sold them come back to ask for advice only to get misinformed. It's a good thing sites like this exist, I wish more people knew about them.
 
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