My fish have been ich free for the last 2 weeks... that is they've been visibly ich free. I treated the tank by getting the temperature up to 83* and the salt up a little over 2tsp/gallon... and after seeing no ich on the fish for a full 2-3 days I began counting down 2 weeks to make sure the ich was dead and gone. But today, as I was doing my weekly 50% pwc, I noticed floating up from the gravel (but not all the way up the tube/out of the tank unfortunately) what looked to be maybe a dozen specs of salt. Is there still ich in my tank!? And is it something to worry about? Any chance they're just corpses? Do I need to get the salt back up to 2tsp/gallon and get the temperature even higher than 83*... perhaps to 85* and keep the salt and temperature up there for another week or more???
I was very careful in measuring out that I'd have at least 2 tsp/gallon of salt and that the temperature was always at 83-84* over the initial 3-4 days of treatment and then the 2 weeks afterward... could the ich have survived? I haven't seen any on the fish for 2 weeks and a couple days now, so I don't think that's it... but those specs look just like the ones that used to be on my cories!
I couldn't get them out with my regular gravel vacuum or my python... should I do another small pwc tomorrow (I only see them when the gravel tube sucks them up an inch or two above the gravel) and do whatever it takes to scoop the specs out... and hope that's the end of it- or is there something else I need to do? Again, the fish have seemed perfectly fine for a couple weeks now and I have seen absolutely 0 ich on any of them for just as long- and I've been watching them closely.
For reference and future planning, it's a 36 gallon bow front stocked with 3 dwarf platy (and there were 2 fry but I think they've been eaten) and 3 peppered cory cats. I'm running an AC70 filter, Stealth 150W heater, and a whisper 20 air pump with 2 stones in the tank. It's decorated with smooth natural gravel, one large and one small piece of driftwood, some plastic and silk aquarium plants. I've got some other silk and plastic plants I've been planning on adding once the ich is done, as well as a slate cave... and over the next 4-5 weeks I've been hoping to remove the platy and return them to their 10 gallon and to add 2-3 more peppered cory cats to get them to a decent little school, 7 lemon tetras, 1 angelfish, 1 german blue ram, and 4 oto. For the last 2 weeks my water tests have been great, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 8-12 nitrate, and a steady pH of 8.3.
Sorry for writing a novella, again... I'm trying to do things right, and am quite perturbed since I thought all was well since I'd seen 0 ich and had perfect water tests for the last 2 weeks, and was ready to start stocking at last.
I was very careful in measuring out that I'd have at least 2 tsp/gallon of salt and that the temperature was always at 83-84* over the initial 3-4 days of treatment and then the 2 weeks afterward... could the ich have survived? I haven't seen any on the fish for 2 weeks and a couple days now, so I don't think that's it... but those specs look just like the ones that used to be on my cories!
I couldn't get them out with my regular gravel vacuum or my python... should I do another small pwc tomorrow (I only see them when the gravel tube sucks them up an inch or two above the gravel) and do whatever it takes to scoop the specs out... and hope that's the end of it- or is there something else I need to do? Again, the fish have seemed perfectly fine for a couple weeks now and I have seen absolutely 0 ich on any of them for just as long- and I've been watching them closely.
For reference and future planning, it's a 36 gallon bow front stocked with 3 dwarf platy (and there were 2 fry but I think they've been eaten) and 3 peppered cory cats. I'm running an AC70 filter, Stealth 150W heater, and a whisper 20 air pump with 2 stones in the tank. It's decorated with smooth natural gravel, one large and one small piece of driftwood, some plastic and silk aquarium plants. I've got some other silk and plastic plants I've been planning on adding once the ich is done, as well as a slate cave... and over the next 4-5 weeks I've been hoping to remove the platy and return them to their 10 gallon and to add 2-3 more peppered cory cats to get them to a decent little school, 7 lemon tetras, 1 angelfish, 1 german blue ram, and 4 oto. For the last 2 weeks my water tests have been great, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 8-12 nitrate, and a steady pH of 8.3.
Sorry for writing a novella, again... I'm trying to do things right, and am quite perturbed since I thought all was well since I'd seen 0 ich and had perfect water tests for the last 2 weeks, and was ready to start stocking at last.
