Ich???

Make sure theres plenty of oxygen in the water as goldies need it a lot, especially in the warmer water.
Can you get any food with added garlic? It acts as a deterrent
 
I Feed them a variety of foods including a homemade gel food. i suppose i could make one with garlic. could i feed pieces of garlic instead?? what is the benefit of garlic anyway??
 
Nobody seem to have given you good idea on what to do.

I was a pet care specialists for 2 years. People would actually call me when I was off work for advice.

Heres what you do.

First step should be raising the temperature. I would raise it up to 82 degrees.

During the same time put in some salt. Dont use table salt. You want salt that is used for water softener systems or aquarium salt from a pet store. Both are the same thing. Usually the directions will tell you how much to put in, it will usually make it anywhere from .2% to .3% salinity.

Why do you raise the temperature and add salt?

Ich is a parasite that is developed from many factors. In cold water, Ich will be more common than in warm water. Ich has a hard time surviving in warm water. Thus raising the temperature will help eliminate the Ich.

Also, Many parasites will have a hard time living in water that is saline. This why you add salt, It will help in the aid of destroying the parasite.

I personally leave salt present in my water all the time because it aids in preventing diseases or parasites.

Just make sure you have lots of oxygen supplied, as time like this the fish is stressed out, so just having a good supply of oxygen would help.

Make sure there is a current in your fish tank. Raising the temperature and adding salt weakened the Ich. Now you will need something to aid it getting the Ich off faster. Use a pump to make current. The Ich will then get blown off of the fish by a strong current. Not too much not too little. Just use common sense here and figure out how much current is needed, as it is different depending on the location of the pump and the way it is pointing.

Now that you have that done.

Do water changes every other day. Not from the top of the surface, but from the bottom with a gravel vacuum. Do a 25% water change every other day. This is very important that you do this. Water changing is your cure!

Then do some math on how much more salt needs to be added to the new water so that the salt level stays the same.

Keep repeating the water changes and I am 100% sure that the Ich will go away in a week or two. Ich is soo easy to get rid of.

Once you see that the ich is gone, replace "all" the filter cartridges. It is important that you do this because there will be bad parasites in the filter. Get new ones or later on the Ich might re appear.

To all of the people that I have given this advice to, no one has ever come back to me and said it did not work.

Goodluck and let me know how it turns out.
 
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tengtou,

Thanks for all that info but now i am thoroughly confused by all the contradiction.

I Have already begun treatment with sea salt purchased from the grocery store. many people told me that this was ok. also many websites with treatment instructions have said the same. will it hurt? i would rather not buy aquarium salt.

i already have a good current and good airation in the tank, i have two filters that do the job.

I CAN do water changes every day but up to this point, nobody has advised me to. my regular schedule is every 5 days. do others agree that every day would be better??

As for the media in the filters, i will buy replacements that i do not already have if it will help. Afterwards, would i be able to clean the ich-ful media with bleach or something for future use???

I dont mind doing extra work if it helps in the slightest way but i do not want to do any unnecessary work or take on unnecessary cost.
 
Ich will get blown off the fish by the current?

Ich burrows under the skin of the fish and the white you see is the skin pulled tightly over it so there is no way a current can blow it off

Ive already given him the same advice youve already said. Raise the temperature add air add salt to .3% and doing a water change every couple of days is a good idea.

As for the media, theres no need to replace the media at all as keeping the tank salted to .3% for two weeks will be enough to kill it.

If you ever plan on any future fish always quarantine for a month first.

You can use sea salt, rock salt, solar salt, pickling salt and aquarium salt.
 
Not water changes every day. Do it every other day with small amounts like 1/4 or 1/5 of the water.

Yes the current will help blow off the ich. When you raise the water temp and add salt, it loosens the grip of the ich.

All you need is the filter pads. No other media, in my opinion, serves you any good.

There was another method that uses tank switching and current to remove ich.
 
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Ok it doesnt seem too ambiguous anymore.

All my fish are now showing the ich marks and lots of them. i am now in the process of raising the salt level to 3tsp/g. i will to water changes with a gravel cleaner everey other day for two weeks.

does this sound right??
 
mushroomfish said:
Ok it doesnt seem too ambiguous anymore.

All my fish are now showing the ich marks and lots of them. i am now in the process of raising the salt level to 3tsp/g. i will to water changes with a gravel cleaner everey other day for two weeks.

does this sound right??

Sounds good.

Was there any reason why you didnt want to use medications?

Do you have any recent pictures?

Try the water changes first and see how it turns out.

Usually when you use medication they will instruct you to do water changes every other day like how I stated. Maybe its the water change that helps and not the medication?
 
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i preferred salt because i have read that it wont change my cycle too much.

i could take some more pictures if you think it would help. do you?
 
one other thing.

my goldfish appear to be doing great aside from the ich spots. they are more active than ever and there colours look exceptionally radiant. but that could just be my imagination. anyways, i hope this is a good sign.
 
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