The ich medication is not working for my Oscar, What now?

[Oscar_Mania]

I noticed last week that my Oscar was getting ich and so I started treating him with Mardel Maracide. I also did a water change not too long ago. On the first day I noticed that the white spots had vanished and I continued to treat him. It's day 5 and now I noticed quite a few smaller white spots on him. What should I do now? should I increase the temp. of the tank and add a bit of salt? Any advice would be welcome.

 

[tanker]

Need to find the cause of the problem. Is your fish stressed =too much fish, too little room?? Is the temperature stable and in the high 70s?? Are you running carbon and it is taking the medicine out?? What are you feeding the oscar?=goldfish??=Are the goldfish ick-free??

 

[Oscar_Mania]

He's in a 33g with 3 " JD and convict. I took the carbon out and I have raised the temperature slowly to 82F. He hasn't had any feeder fish for a long time. The water conditions are fine also. I feed him crickets, earthworms, pellets, shrimp, and freeze dried krill. Also the convict is new. I've had him for about two weeks.

 

[tanker]

Looks like you doing OK. Think the convict may have been the cause==carrier of ich. Keep temp at 82 and if you can increase circulation that would be good too (high temp carry less oxygen.

33gal a little small for two 3" fish plus an oscar. That is a big BIO load. When all settled you need to do lots of water changes, 20+% a week.

 

[Oscar_Mania]

Water conditions have actually been really good with the three fish in there. I haven't had a spike since before I did my first water change. I have some air stones in the tank. I am planning on moving the convict though since the JD is beating him up too much. I noticed an increase in the Oscar's activity today.

 

[tanker]

Good> He should pull through. Ick very curable if treated properly and quickly. Good Luck.

 

[Harry Tolen]

Just keep treating the tank, out to about two weeks. Do water changes and gravel vacuuming every other day or so, because the medicine will impair nitrification slightly, and because the ich cysts fall into the gravel after they drop off of the fish. If you remove them in this way, they will not release the next generation of free-swimming parasites to re-infect your fish.

Ich goes through three stages in its life cycle, two of which (on the fish and in the gravel) are immune to treatment by medication. The free-swimming stage (after the cysts release the new parasites) is the only one that can be treated. You need to treat through 2-3 life cycles of the disease (say 10-14 days) in order to really eradicate it.