ich treatment advice

invisible1130

AC Members
Feb 18, 2006
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Hello! I have 2 jack Dempsy's that I've had for about a week. Last night I noticed small white spots which I'm sure to be signs of ich. I started treatment with quick-cure this morning. As of this evening most of the white spots are gone. Through reading on the internet I know that you have to treat the "tank" to get rid of all of the parasites. My question is...I'm ready to move the Dempsy's into a bigger tank. the tank with the ich can be completely emptied out and cleaned at this point. Should I leave the dempsys in the smaller tank and finish treatment or move the to the larger tank and at that point completely clean out the smaller tank. Not sure what the best route to take is. Thank you in advance for your advice!!
 
I would leave them in the small tank and finish the treatment to make sure the ich is gone. You wouldn't want to contaminate the other tank by putting the fish with ich in it. Also it saves you on medication cause it'll take less med to cure a smaller tank than a bigger tank.
 
Invisible,

My experience in dealing with Ich is that any fish showing the white spots can transfer the more mature form of the illness (the white spots) to another tank, even if it is brand new. I am sorry to admit that my very first fish were 5 glass fish that were died in neon colors (I know realize how wrong it is to support this treatment of fish). Anyways, two of the fish showed signs of Ich very early, even though I did everything I was told to do in order to avoid the problem. Since my kids were already attached to the fish, I bought a 10 gallon 'hospital' tank to treat the fish along with another platy (I had decided to use the larger tank for a semi agressive community tank). Needless to say, all the fish ended up being infected and I had to scrap the whole tank and clean them out. Since then, I have had no problems and I am pretty sure that it is due to the use of a small amount of aquarium salt every other week (about 5 tablespoons for my 55 gallon tank).

From my experience, I would have to say that you should treat the tank with the infected fish in it and not risk moving them to another tank unless they are going to by themselves until cured. Another thing I learned from this experience is that the Ich cure tablets (of various brands) not only dye the water for a period of time, but also will dye any air tubes you may have 'hidden'. I have two air stones in my 55 gallon tank and even after changing the clear tubes, the stones held enough of the Ich cure to re-dye the new tubes. Just thought this would help since it cost me some money that I wasnt expecting to spend.
 
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759

This article will clarify a lot of things. I would finish treatment before moving the dempseys, Then if you have any doubts just run the empty tank for a week before putting any other fish in it. Ich cannot survive without a host so an empty tank will be ich free in short order. While running the tank empty just add some fish food each day to keep the bacteria alive, and the tank will be ready for fish when you get them.

dave
 
This article will tell you more than you will ever need to know send ich the way of polio ;)

Tommy, using aquarium salt as a regual routine is unnecissary. It irradicated the ich after a few weeks of use, and has served no benifit since that point.

Edit--dave beet me to it LOL!!
BTW dave, the numbers 39759 are almost seared into my brain.
 
Thank you, everyone, for your replies. You all have been VERY helpful!!! :-)
 
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