Need Help With Ick Problem

H

Harlan78

AC Members
Sep 25, 2009
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I have a established tank and all was going well until I noticed that my neon tetra had white spots (mind you right after I just introduced 3 lonfined serpae tetra). Once I noticed the spots I knew it was Ick and so I have slowly raised the temp up to 80 and treated them with half of the recommended dose of Malachite green for a 29 gal. tank. I am unclear as to when I need to treat again is it every 48hrs after a 25% water change? I know I should treat for at leat 12 days but the directions on the bottle say I can only use it 3 times safely. There is another thing my water got quite cloudy several days before I noticed the spots but I checked the water (with test strips) and all was ok but my ph has always been high along with the alkalitity. I would love if someone can help

Thanks


4 plotties
3 neon tetra
1 guppy
2 bleeding heart tetra
3 serpae
 
Should I just stop using this and start the salt/heat treament and if so could you provide directs as how to administer it.
 
:welcome: to AC, Harlan!

The first thing I noticed is you are using test strips. I would suggest switching to liquid test kits by API which is much more reliable than anything else. I would not rely on test strips as they tend to be misleading. The liquid drops will give you a peace of mind much better due to its reliability.

How long has your main tank been established? What exactly were the test results based on your test strips? We do need to know the test results so we can question your test kit's reliability and accuracy. Test strips are misleading most of the time hence I suggested the liquid drops earlier.

Secondly, do you quarantine your new fish? Please be sure you quarantine every new fish you get for at least 3-4 weeks. The longer, the better. Patience will pay off in the end. It is always important to quarantine regardless of the circumstances to protect your current stocks from possible problems especially as most new fish are carriers of parasitic, fungal, bacterial and/or viral infections that can pose hevy threat on the lives of your own fish.

A quarantine tank does not have to be expensive and will save you a lot of money in the long run actually. All you need is a 10g and it has to remain barebottom to make maintenance much easier. A spare heater and a sponge filter are all you need to operate a quarantine/hospital tank.

As for ich, I would suggest you try table salt first. Go with a tablespoon per 5g dosage. Be sure to dissolve it thoroughly and add to the tank slowly and carefully to avoid osmotic shock. As salt does not evaporate nor degrade like most other treatments, water changes are the only way to reduce the salt solution. If you are doing water changes during the 14-day treatment course, you may redose the salt by the water volume replaced.

Medicines are a last resort. I'd keep the medicines aside for now and go with the safer treatment, salt. Malachite green is also carcinogenic so you need to be very careful in handling that medicine especially formalin if ever you get a hand on those. Malachite green also degrades easily and can bind with organic matter so you need to redose it every 24 hours by a drop per gallon which is equivalent to 0.1% solution that is the appropriate dosage when using malachite green.

Hope this helps.:)

Lupes
 
The tank has established for roughly 7mths. The test strips normaly read the following:
nitrate 0 to 10 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
hardness 300 ppm (very hard)
alkalinity 300 ppm (high)
ph 8.4 ppm ( this is as high as the strip goes)

No I do not quaratine the new fish but I will now!!!

I normaly do monthly water changes, when doing this I also add the recommended dose of liquid cycle into the water and I do regular maintence doses of this weekly as well.

Since I have already administered the medicine should I do a small water change before switching to salt ? and is the tenp ok or should it be higher?
 
Yes, do a small water change. It never hurts to do one at all. The malachite green itself will eventually bind away with the organic matter and degrade completely since you mentioned you did a half-dose which is less likely to dent your beneficial bacteria that is responsible for keeping your ammonia and nitrite at bay. I'd increase the temperature to 84 degrees Fahrenheit.

Could you please obtain the ammonia test? Monthly water changes are very inadequate. I would suggest switching that to weekly. How high does your nitrate go when you do a monthly water change? How often do you feed your fish?
 
I didn't have any results from just using a salt & raising the temps.

I had use a combo salt + higher temps + Rid Ich in my discus tank 5days treatment all gone & 5days more to be sure. then I did the same in my angels tank when I had a small break out in one of my angels.

successful twice within 2weeks time of each other!

But learn my lesson, QT is a must! big mistake on my part!
 
Salt (2-3 tsp per gal) and high temps have never failed for me.
 
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