is it ok to treat ich without seeing spots?

angyles

angyles

AC Members
Nov 4, 2002
966
0
16
45
Tacoma, WA
Visit site
well I've had my 50g setup for 3 weeks now (yeeee!!!!!) so of course between the switch over and adding a few new fish (and still being bad at the whole fish thing), I figured it was only a matter of time before I had another ich outbreak. So last night, I added a clown pleco and a desert goby to my tank. As I was blissfully watching my new critters (in the span of a couple hours) I noticed my rosy barb, 1 guppy, and 1 tiger barb rub on things like when they had ich. The first time I had ich, I had 3 deaths before I even saw spots. So last night as soon as I saw this behavior, I started with the treatment.

Is this bad? I don't want to needlessly stress my fish, but I want to avoid any deaths. Are there any other things that cause the rubbing on plants? If I don't see spots, how long should I use the treatment? It's Rid Ich+. Last time I did it for 10 days and it worked. But they were covered in spots. I would like to avoid 10 days of 20gal water changes if possible.
 
I don't know either, But I do what you're doing. If a fish is consistently flashing its gills are being bitten by something whether Ich or not, and the sooner you eliminate external parasites the less stress. Less stress on the fishes too...

Have you learned how important quarantine is? You don't want to put your fish through medication after medication. The doses clear slowly from their livers. A second or third go-round may kill them. Or, six months later, they may have terminal "dropsy" from liver failure, and there's no direct "smoking-gun" connection to this stress on their livers they are going through now.

As for quarantine, remember, Eden is guarded by an angel with a flaming sword.
 
Water change

My experience is only to treat a tank as a last resort. 99% of all disease outbreaks are due to poor water conditions. Fact is, all of the bacteria and fungi that cause most diseases are naturally present in the tank at all times. However, under good conditions, the natural immune system of the fish is enough to keep sickness at bay (same as with humans). It is only when the fish becomes stressed (usually due to water conditions, conflict with other fish, transport, etc) that the fish becomes vulnerable to attack from disease.

In my experience, the best first thing to do is a 25% water change. Repeat this every day or two and monitor your fish for recovery. Make sure the temp is where it should be. If you fish haven't taken a turn for the better in three or four days, then consider medication. In my experience, you'll notice a huge improvement within 24 hours and disease will be nearly gone in 48.

Also, remember what keeps your tank healthy--bacteria! The natural cycle of your tank water relies on bacteria breaking down fish waster (this is what we wait three weeks for). When you treat a tank with antibiotic to kill a bacterial infection, you usually will also wipe out your good bacteria population. Be aware that you will need to do frequent water changes until your tank re-cycles. This is why it is good to treat fish in a quarantine tank. I've seen many cases where someone will treat an entire tank for a bacterial infection only to have all the fish die from ammonia poisioning.

I think this post has been long enough, but hopefully it has given you something to consider. I prefer not to use medications. Do your best to make the fish's environment as ideal as you can, but be aware that even in nature, fish get sick an die. That's part of letting nature run its course. After all, most of us fish keepers are trying to simulate a little piece of nature in a glass box. Good luck!
 
Well, fish can be infested with ich in the gills only (in fact, that is where it is most dangerous). However, if you treat too often, you are likely to cause other problems, as wetmanNy has noted. On the other hand, zmaj101 is right that water changes are a good first step for any problem (whether or not combined with medication is another question). But I am curious...has this tank really only been set up for 3 weeks, or am I reading your original post wrong? If that is the case then a whole new dimension has been added to this situation, and it would be important to know exactly how you handled the transition from the old tank to the new.
 
It has only been set up since christmas day. I simply moved everything from the old tank (plants, filter and fish) with new substrate and of course more plants. All the filter media is from the old tank. Cycling hasn't presented a problem. I guess I won't do any more rid ich, I'll just do the water changes and see what happens.
 
Yes it's o.k. to treat ich w/o seeing spots, unless you have medicated them several times recently thus come the troubles stated by wetman.
Immune system functioning will not keep ich away! Ich is a parasite - like a flea is a parasite, a healthy immune system does not keep these critters from biting! However, a healthy fish's first line defense (its slime coating) is better able to ward off these parasites. This isn't full-proof either. If ich is present in a tank, the fish have it. When they get stressed, you see it because it can infest the fish easier and more do so.
I treat all my fish for ich when I bring them home from the lfs. Of course, I do this in a q-tank. Oh, and Rid-ich is not an antibiotic (as you probably know) and won't harm the beneficial bacteria.
 
My LFS informed me recently that he treats ALL his tanks weekly for ich (and some fungus medication) when he gets his new shipments in every week. I don't know if once weekly treatments are even effective in curing these problems and I don't condone this constant treatment.

However, I will say that I haven't had any problems with any of the fish I've bought from him and they all *seem* to be healthy. Of course, I have no way of knowing exactly how many of these treatments any of them were subjected to since I don't know how long he had each of them in stock. I do know he gets his shipments on Tuesdays so I always make my fish purchases on Mondays :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom