I have been treating ick now for 6 days. My temp is 86/87 and I have 1tsp per gallon. Despite the one SAE and 6 cardinals the remaining appear active.
Scott
Scott
ICK & THE HEAVILY PLANTED TANK
- Thread starter scottracy
- Start date
I just thought I'd add for anyone following this that RTR hit on a very key point. The salt/heat is a short term treatment not to be confused with long term salt addition. Most fish that are said to be intolerrant of salt will get through the treatment period just fine. In all honesty long term salt use is not a good thing for freshwater fish as a whole, but many tolerate it better than cories and loaches. In most cases (not all) the fish that don't like salt are the same fish that don't like ICH meds, and I personally found the salt to be less stressful to them.
Dave
Dave
I spoke too soon. One of my corys died. Its hard for me to say for sure what the best treatment is. A little under a year ago I had a bad outbreak of ick in my non-planted 55g. My clown loaches and tetras were affected. I treated with coppersafe by Mardel at half strength. The ick was cured and all survived including tankmates of emerald corys and common pl*co. They are all still alive with no further outbreaks. One important point is that I have not added new fish to this tank! IMO ick is very preventable. Good tank maintenance aside, you must Q new fish before introducing them to your display tank. Unfortunately I did not follow my own advice this time. One of the keys to this hobby is patience. One problem with this current outbreak in my planted tank is oxygen defeciency due to high temps. RTR pointed this out. I assumed I had enough surface agitation but after discovering the dead cory I guess not. I have added a pump with an air stone. In a brief period of time the fish seem to have responded. The otos have come out of hiding and are active on the glass again. Growing lessons!!
Scott
Scott
Second the motion for QT. All my experience w/heat & salt over the last 20 years or so has been with new fish in QT. I am really neurotic about QT, but as a consequence I have not had any outbreak of infectious disease in a display tank in that period and longer.
I fully agree on the QT as well, But for most of my fishkeeping life, I didn't have room/money for a dedicated qt tank. I use the 10g snail breeder as that now, and when the basement is done, I will have a 20g dedicated to qt only.
The real comparison for me with the salt and ich came with my pictus cats which are highly succeptable, as well as hard to treat. With pictus, Ich can be fatal very quickly and ich meds can be fatal just as quickly. these fish just don't seem to handle stress well at all. My pictus were obviously stressed during the treatment, but continued eating and came through quite well. they didn't show nearly the distress signs that I got when using the ICH method. I haven't tried it with cories myself,, but know several people including my Brother who have successfully cured ich on cories with the salt/heat method.
Dave
The real comparison for me with the salt and ich came with my pictus cats which are highly succeptable, as well as hard to treat. With pictus, Ich can be fatal very quickly and ich meds can be fatal just as quickly. these fish just don't seem to handle stress well at all. My pictus were obviously stressed during the treatment, but continued eating and came through quite well. they didn't show nearly the distress signs that I got when using the ICH method. I haven't tried it with cories myself,, but know several people including my Brother who have successfully cured ich on cories with the salt/heat method.
Dave
Most ich treatments use copper salts which are considered poisonous to the ich but are also poisonous to all life as well, they are just in small doses. They should definatley be avoided as well if you have shrimp or snails in the tank.
Salt is just such a good system and so easy and cheap to get.
And yes, QT is a good idea. And all you really need is a 5 gallon bucket and a filter of some sort with maybe some floating plants for comfort.
Salt is just such a good system and so easy and cheap to get.
And yes, QT is a good idea. And all you really need is a 5 gallon bucket and a filter of some sort with maybe some floating plants for comfort.
How do you approach quarantine when dealing with pH sensitive fish as the cardinal and rummynose? My tap water is normally pH 7.8-8.0. My planted tank with CO2 injection has pH of 7.0 and is the ultimate destination for above mentioned fish. The QT I have is a simple non-planted tank and the pH is 7.8-8.0. Do you recommend setting up the 10g tank with DIY CO2 with simple plants to quarantine future pH sensitive fish or will these fish survive temporarily with a higher pH? This is why I did not Q the cardinals.
Scott
Scott
No it is just the same as bringing in any new fish. Once the QT period is over then start to excahneg the water in the QT with water from your main tank. You can even time it with a water change. Take a coupel of hours to do it and voila the new fish are happy. I know it works when I bring home rummy nose.
Does the salt/heat method take longer than meds? My salt is between 1-1.5 tsp/gallon, the heat has been constant at 86 and I have performed 50% water changes every other day for 8 days now. The fish are still visibly infected.
Scott
Scott
