ick and catfish help!

[arise1dwr]

Hello.

about a weeks ago my tank came under heavy ick infestation due to a large dragon goby i purchased. I began dosing with QuICK Cure as per the bottle and adding a tablesoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water and have raised the temperature to a constant 86 degrees doing water changes of 15% every 3 days.

In the aquarium are 3 Tiger Barbs, 3 black Skirt Tetras, A blue Gourami, the dragon goby (probable carrier or the ick) and my stripped raphael striped catfish.

the infestation was bad on the cat and goby, not so much on the other inhabitants, the gourami went unscathed. Any who all visible signs of the ick have fallen off the fish but my cat is acting very strangely.

It's out "laying there" like it's dead in the open almost 24 hours per day. At first I was like, alright it's dead and proceeded to try and remove it. As soon as I touched it, it zoomed off. So I was like, oh o.k. and left it alone. It has plenty of hiding spots that it would curl up in before.

The peramiters of the water are as follows, the Hygrometer I got says the water salinity is at just below 6. The handness is between 100 - 180, akalinity is between 50 -100, the ph is between 7.2 - 8.0. I used test strips for these measurement ( i know u guys suggest against it but its all i have).

His whiskers have curled up and he seems to be having trouble breathing, even though there is an airstone i have put in for the meds, high temp, and salt.

i really love this guy and dont want him to perish any suggestions?

 

[mel_20_20]

I don't think you need to, or should, raise the heat with Quick Cure, at least I've read that if you use Ich medicine, you don't raise the temperature because this makes it harder on them, and also I've read that you don't use salt when you use Ich medicine.

I don't know what a reading of 6 on a hydrometer means, in total salinity of the water. However, I've treated Ich at .3% salinity with heat and had good success. My Brochis and Otos did well and survived the treatment.

I don't know how sensitive the Raphael cat is to salt, or to the med but I think usually in sensitive fish the directions say to do half a dose with some meds, and if using the heat/salt method have less salinity, say .2% or even 1.5%. It just takes longer to do the job, but it does work.

There could be several things going on here:

The Cat has major Ich infestation in his gills and is having trouble breathing.

You other parameters are out of wack, ammonia and/or nitrite may be detectable you need to do bigger water changes.

The O2 is low and needs more bubblers, airstones, etc.

The combination of Ich Cure, salt and heat, which is not advisable, is causing difficulties.

The salinity in the tank has crept up to harmful levels due to evaporation of the tank water and additions of salt with the replacement water.

When you do the 15% water changes have you been adding more salt at that time?

Can you tell us what your parameters are: ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, using a liquid test kit, strips give false reading and are totally unreliable (more expensive in the long run, too)

If you find any detectable ammonina or nitrites, and/or nitrates about 30 you need to do water changes as often as needed to bring the ammonia to 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, and nitrate 20 or less.

He definitely is distress. I'm so sorry you're having this difficulty. I hope he will be alright.
I don't know if this has helped.

 

[arise1dwr]

I have one of those plastic Instant Ocean brand hygrometers where it says salinity on one side of the scale and gravity on the other of the scale, the arrow is pointing at 6 for salinity and 1.004 for the gravity. it looks like this
http://www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/catalog/crystal-hydromter-p-2263.html

would you recommend a 50 percent water change and just stick to the QuICK cure method? Only reason i deviated and did both is because Ive read ppl have had success using both and i really didnt want to lose my little guys ive had some since the begining.

 

[Cerianthus]

Is it possible to set up small quarantine tank for this cat?

Although it couldve been ich but it also coudve been Oodinium.

Ive seen this post symptom, extra slime or skin peeling of and/or cloudy eyes, with cats when infected with Oodinium more than Ich(Finer and more spots than Ich like fine fine sand paper and rather more brownish/beige/gold spots than white Ich spots) .

Ive also seen secondary bacterial infection creep in when fish are weakened, curling of whiskers/deterioration of whiskers.

I cant not render opnion since did not observe the whole process from the beginning but I would recommend to isolate in Q/T when and if possible. This way you can treat this Rafael Cat as post symptom develop thus minimize whole outbreak in main tank.

Google for images of f/w fish infected with Oodinium and maybe you can verify the beginning stage of infection. Let's go from there.

I dont think raising temp + salt was bad move but should have waited before medicating. Another word, spped up the life cycles of parasites with higher temp and as they are off the skinor free swimming, shouldve med since med usually dont have affect when parasites on the body. For future reference, Research on line the duration of life cycles of parasite then you can determine when is good time to med (Not an exact science but better than rasing and med at same time, IMO).
I cant remember the specific gravity when 1 level tbspn of salt is added to 5 G.

Experiment:
Collect new water in bucket, add appropriate salt amt to water in the bucket (1 level table sppon for 5G as you mentioned).. Dissolve and test with hydrometer.
If this new water comes up as 1.004, I would not worry.

If it comes up lot less, 1.002 for example, I would do few samll water changes to diluted the salt concentration equal to your new water salt level.

I also seen similar symptoms when f/w fish are exposed to too high [salt].

 

[arise1dwr]

See what happened was that I didnt notice the infection until it was full blown on my cat, i belive it started with a dragon goby and the cat both of which hide during the day. When i finally did notice it it had covered about 80% of the cat and the goby so i freaked out and in an attempt to quell any free swimming ick i medicated and used the heat-salt method.

I do belive it was ick, since then all the white spots have dissappeared. Since i started treating it on 01-10-10 all spots on all fish have gone now im just going to medicate at half dose until 01-24-10. sound Ok?

I am still not home but i think im going to do a 30% water change. Should I add the carbon insterst at all or not until the medicating is done? I can setup a a quarantine tank, I have some mela-fix would that help against Oodinium/

 

[Cerianthus]

Set up Q/T using 70% water from main tank qnd rest with well dechlorinated tap water. Filter and heater is must to maintain steady environment.

No carbon unless changing med. I cant say at this point whether to change med or not since I am not sure what it is suffering from.
Like I said before, If it were Ick or Oodinum I would just follow direction of QC. It seems most of parasites are not visible on the body. Maintaining 1 tablespoon of Aq salt/5G is (not a marine salt) helpful.

Melafix and Pimafix is not going to assist in eradicating Ich/Oodinium. I would not use either for this sort of infestation.