What to do if Ich not cured in 5 days

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longhorn

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what to do if ick not cured in 5 days?

I am use Maracide to cure Ick in one of my tanks. The instruction says I should apply the suggested dose for five consecutive days. I am in my third days now and have seen any sign of improvement. Just wondering what should I do after 5 days if the fishs still not show signs of improvement. Keep the same dose for 5 more days? or switch to another treatment?

Thanks for any advice.
 
Have you raised the temp any? Using any salt? I'm not fond of meds in my tanks. You may want to try the salt/higher temp route with some water changes mixed in there. Do a search here, there are a lot of threads to explain and help with ich. HTH,

Scott
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried med/salt combination to treat them. It seems they are showing signs of improvement.

A related question. When to terminate the treatment? I read from somewhere that even when the white spots dissapear from the fish, Ick can still alive in the water. Should I continue the treatment with reduced dose for couple more days once the white stuff is off my fishs?
 
same problem

I'm having pretty much the same problem, and I'd like to try salt treatment. I searched and didn't find much on it. How did you treat your tank with salt?

-Josh
 
You'll see this again I'm sure...
skepticalaquarist.com

Yes you should continue treatment after seeing no signs, three days after seeing no signs is sufficient as long as your temp is at least 80. Do NOT reduce the dose! One of the troubles with ich is that it can attach to the gills and you won't be able to see it. General recommendation is treat for 6-10 days (some say at least 14 days) and as long as the temp is up, you should see improvements by day 3. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the suggestion. However, i have a cat and a pleco in the tank. I was told I should reduce dose for those scaless babies.

Any commnents.

By the way, Ich is gone from the fins on the fourth day, but I am giving a half dose starting the fifth day. Now is the sixth day.

Thanks!
 
Yes, use a reduced dosage for sensitive fish, just don't reduce the dose again after "x" days. Whatever dose you were using, stick with that. I thought you were asking if you should reduce the dosage again. Hope this is a little clearer.:)
 
I like malachite green/formalin products, which are the best tried-and-true effective ich meds in my opinion. No raised temperature, no salt, no combining different treatments. Doesn't hurt the biofilter or plants and I've used it on both kuhli loaches and cardinal tetras at the "normal dose" (per gallon of actual tank water, not per gallon of advertised tank volume) with no deaths though I would try a half dose first if you have sensitive fish. UV light is said to degrade malachite green rather quickly so I dose at lights-off. 50% water change before each dose.

Raising the temperature to "speed up the life cycle" has to be balanced against the additional stress of reducing oxygen content in the water, considering ich tends to affect the gills heavily before spots even appear on the body and breathing can be hard enough under those circumstances. It should NOT be used with preparations containing formalin as formalin reduces oxygen still further, though people like to do this anyway.

I have not used Maracide and the ingredients aren't familiar to me so I don't know whether 5 days with no improvement is normal for that medication. It would not be normal for the meds I use. Hopefully someone who uses it can advise you... switching meds should be a last resort.
 
Originally posted by keely


Raising the temperature to "speed up the life cycle" has to be balanced against the additional stress of reducing oxygen content in the water, considering ich tends to affect the gills heavily before spots even appear on the body and breathing can be hard enough under those circumstances. It should NOT be used with preparations containing formalin as formalin reduces oxygen still further, though people like to do this anyway.
Click to expand...

Valid points keely, however, I don't think for most of us, oxygen content is so critical that we need to worry about warmer vs. cool water regarding oxygen capacity. Generally, we're talking 5, maybe 10 degrees difference. Same goes with formalin. For each 5ppm of formalin (most dosages use 25ppm) 1ppm of oxygen is removed in about 36 hours. So for a treatment at 25ppm, 5ppm of oxygen is removed. If your tank is around 8ppm oxygen then you're down to 3 right...no, b/c oxygen exchange is occuring all the time. It is replenished as it is lost, so not much to worry about there.
Just wanted to clarify.
 
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