Ich + Plants + Catfish + Invertibrates?

[C.Anderson]

Soooo...apparently my Columbian Sharks now have Ich.

I just bought them last week, and due to their size (5"-7") I couldn't put them into a quarantine tank for any period of time. So...into the tank they went. A week went by, everything looked great. Then suddenly around tuesday, my Irridescent Shark started showing tiny salt looking white spots...he didn't flash, or show any other signs of discomfort or issues...so I started researching. Well, by today, the Columbians are showing salty looking white spots, and are flashing like mad. Definitely Ich.

Here's the problem...my tanks become a planted tank =/. I've worked sort of hard and some of the plants I've collected have become rather large (it's a 300gal tank). I most certainly do NOT want them to die...much less the Columbians. Is the answer salt? If so, what kind (aquarium salt? table salt? marine salt?), and also, a measured table spoon of each of those salts is going to result in a totally different dosage. A table spoon of table salt will contain a hell of a lot more salt than a table spoon of aquarium salt =/. So what is the actual correct dosage? I have a small bottle of quick cure...but I'm hesitant to use it. I know that in 'half dosages' it should be safe for tetras and catfish, but what about my snails and plants?

Bleh!! :wall:

Cris

 

[C.Anderson]

You can try a alternative. It's a medication, but it will not harm your plants or biological filter. Imo, it's pretty effective and it's organic

Ich attack will work

http://www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm

Adding info for thread continuity!

 

[C.Anderson]

You can try a alternative. It's a medication, but it will not harm your plants or biological filter. Imo, it's pretty effective and it's organic

Ich attack will work

http://www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm

I'm liking the way that looks. Unfortunately with a 300gal tank, and 2 doses a day...that's 2/3 bottle a day at 15$ a bottle lol. Minimum 5 days. My aquarium has been holding steady at 81*...so hopefully that should speed up the life cycle some.

Guess I'll head down to Petsmart and pick up 3 or 4 bottles and try it. It says it won't kill my shrimp, snails, crabs, or crayfish as well...which is very cool. Hopefully it kills the Ich lol.

Thanks!

Cris

 

[C.Anderson]

I'm liking the way that looks. Unfortunately with a 300gal tank, and 2 doses a day...that's 2/3 bottle a day at 15$ a bottle lol. Minimum 5 days. My aquarium has been holding steady at 81*...so hopefully that should speed up the life cycle some.

Guess I'll head down to Petsmart and pick up 3 or 4 bottles and try it. It says it won't kill my shrimp, snails, crabs, or crayfish as well...which is very cool. Hopefully it kills the Ich lol.

Thanks!

Cris

I've only had ick once... and this was exactly what I used... in conjunction with raising the temp.

I used this treatment because I had apple snails in the tank also---so/but no plants. Thankfully, it's only a 30 gallon tank. (Well, 29)

Worked like a charm!!

Added info for thread continuity!

 

[C.Anderson]

Good too know!

Unfortunately I think I waited too long to start treatment...I put 180ml in yesterday, and another 180ml in today...but the sharks are getting sort of listless and laying on the bottom rather than being active as usual. Hopefully this works though...they're such GREAT fish and it will take a long time to grow 5 more to match them. Plus they have developed individual personalities and I'd hate to lose them to my inexperience =/.

Cris

Edit~ On a side note, they're still quite active at feeding...so maybe there's hope!!

C.

 

[C.Anderson]

Well, it's hard to say if it's working or not =/. The sharks aren't very active until feeding time (unusual compared to normal)...they mostly just lay along the bottom or find a bit of current to hover in (I think this helps them breathe...for all I know their gills are FULL of freakin Ich =/....). At feeding time they act 100% normal. I lost one of my black kuhli loaches...unsure of the cause, he didn't appear to have any white spots on him. Water parameters are great. Snails, crabs, and ghost shrimp are doing great, and today was my 4th day of dosing 180ml into 240gal (7.5ml per appx real 10 gallons of water, not rated tank size...base dosage is 5ml per 10gal). I was only running the Fluval FX5 (the other filters have Carbon in them) but today I removed the carbon from one XP3 and started running it too. The water flow was just a bit too sluggish for my taste with only the FX5 running. All of the other fish have cleared of white spots. The sharks still have marks all over them, but it's hard to tell if it's white spots or not (it could be light scarring/residual marks from the spots due to their smooth silvery skin). I'm going to continue to dose the tank until I run out of product...which should be about 4 more days (for a total of 8). I'll make a judgement call then and decide whether to go buy one more bottle for a total of 11 days dosage.

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Cris

 

[Sploke]

I've treated ich successfully several times with temp up to ~82 degrees and 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon. This is by far the most economical option for treating large systems - I was dosing 400gal of water, the whole run of treatment cost me about $7. I was also using it in tanks with lots of plants, catfish, loaches and snails with no ill effects.

 

[C.Anderson]

I've treated ich successfully several times with temp up to ~82 degrees and 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon. This is by far the most economical option for treating large systems - I was dosing 400gal of water, the whole run of treatment cost me about $7. I was also using it in tanks with lots of plants, catfish, loaches and snails with no ill effects.

Once the ich was gone, how soon/quickly (meaning right away and all at once?) did you remove the salted water? Also, did you build up to 2tsp/gal over a few days or just add it in? I'm assuming you mean standard iodized table salt as well?

This may end up being the route I have to go...even if it kills everything in the tank but the fish. After posting this morning I went to go dose the Ich Attack again, and I see a few new spots on the sharks, as well as a few other fish that had cleared up as of last night. This tells me the Ich Attack doesn't seem to be killing the new spores that are hatching off the substrate =/. That's with NO carbon in the filters, and no water changes since beginning dosage.

This is really getting frustrating!!

Cris

 

[msjinkzd]

Your inverts should tolerate teh salt treatment, although you may see some snail inactivity. If at all possible, remove any applesnails prior to treatment. You build up the dose over a couple of days. Table or aquarium salt is fine, table salt is much cheaper. With the salt treatment, you can do water changes you just redose the salt for the volume of water exchanged, being sure to dissolve it in tank water first. Doing deep gravel vacs and wiping down the inside of the glass is a good idea. Hopet his helps

 

[kain]

Ich guard works great. But it will turn your decorations blue, and kill your snails. So I would move the shark into a smaller tank (if you have one) and treat it there.