totally desperate with ickky ich - 7wks+

[rosita]

I know this is a stoopid question, but do you need to take plants fish etc out of hot salt bath? (Please excuse my lack of common sense, it's been educated out of me!)

 

[Jay]

Please read the information available on ich in the archives and stickies it will answer your questions on plants, fish etc.

I would caution against using copper as a treatment it just is not worth the risk when the salt temp thing does so well. Keep in mind that you are trying to kill an organism, without killing your fish and inverts.

Jay

 

[mainer]

do i just add salt once a week or daily for a week?

 

[rrkss]

You add the proper salt dose once and after that, you don't touch the salt unless you have to do water changes where you would compensate for the salt being removed by the water. Davidka's ich article will tell you how to measure salt ... Salt does not get removed from the water EXCEPT by waterchanges.

 

[chicken2]

YES, stop the green medication

Follow the ich article to a "T" and you will be ich-less.

As for your reputable aquaria place, darkening the tank is for treating velvet, not ich. That won't affect ich at all. It's possible they told you to do that to make sure it wasn't velvet, however it's very easy to tell the difference between ich and velvet.

As for your current course of medication -- most medications require daily treatments and regardless of what the bottle says, you MUST treat for 7 days minimum or the ich will survive in the substrate and reinfest your fish.

Roan

Well I've increased the temp slowly, done a water change and added a charcoal filter and put the med bottle away!!

I have started to add the salt 1/4 teaspoon per gallon every hour for 4 hours - - and then a further 4 doses of 1/4 teaspoon of salt every 3-4 hours this then gives me a total of 2 teaspoons per gallon in the tank.

fingers crossed that this will work and I will keep you updated

ps - what an excellent clear article Daveedka has written on Ich

 

[Roan Art]

ps - what an excellent clear article Daveedka has written on Ich

It is, isn't it? I love the salt + heat because it's far easier for people new to the hobby to handle and that makes it, IMO, safer for the fish.

With meds you get so much conflicting information and some of it can seriously harm or kill your fish. For example, using heat with some types of medications increases their toxicity a *lot*, some medications are toxic to bottom feeders, some are toxic to bottom feeders, tetras, barbs and gouramis, and most will obliterate your biofilter.

It's hard to know which to use and what to do.

Roan

 

[Pufferpoison]

the salt is the way to go. i have a 55 gallon that i bought 3 clown loaches for and bam less than a week later ich everywhere. it even got cross contaiminated into my wife's 10 gallon tank. went through expensive medicine for 3 weeks without any results other than making my loaches almost die, then i read the article on ich, put the charcoal back in and salted the tank, raised temp to 82, i have a refractometer for my brackish / saltwater, so that went smooth. after 3 days most all ich was gone, but the loaches didn't survive, i lost one from the first medicine, 2 others were weak and FULL of ich so i don't blame the salt but my tank is clean now and still leaving salt in for another week and best cure .49 cents could buy LOL

 

[chicken2]

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU


after all those weeks of medicating etc - the salt method DOES WORK!!!!!!!

to be honest I couldn't see how salt would cure what medicine couldn't.
I don't know/understand the hows and whys of this but I am so grateful and so are my fish.

All the fish are clean now - it took just 5 days - I was a little worried that the salt levels would kill off some of my fish, but the whitespot was going to kill them all and I was really desperate.

If only this salt/heat regime was more widely recognised - I certainly will promote this over chemicals every time.

 

[chicken2]

the salt is the way to go. i have a 55 gallon,.... but the loaches didn't survive, i lost one from the first medicine, 2 others were weak and FULL of ich so i don't blame the salt but my tank is clean now and still leaving salt in for another week and best cure .49 cents could buy LOL

I'm so sorry that you lost your clowns - I was very lucky not to have the same happen to me - - they suffered terribly.

Like you, i'm going to leave salt in for a further week even though the fish look free of ich

 

[Roan Art]

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU


after all those weeks of medicating etc - the salt method DOES WORK!!!!!!!

to be honest I couldn't see how salt would cure what medicine couldn't.
I don't know/understand the hows and whys of this but I am so grateful and so are my fish.

All the fish are clean now - it took just 5 days - I was a little worried that the salt levels would kill off some of my fish, but the whitespot was going to kill them all and I was really desperate.

If only this salt/heat regime was more widely recognised - I certainly will promote this over chemicals every time.

That's wonderful! :thm:

But PLEASE keep treating for at least 7 days to be *sure* you've eradicated the ich cysts in the substrate, kay?

Roan