Which Ich Treatment Would Be Safest For All?

G

GardenGal

Catmom
Mar 12, 2010
6
0
0
New England
My school of black neons is looking like they are developing ich. The catch in treating is that there are 5 corys, 2 khulis, 3 Otos and a tankful of live plants. If I treat the whole tank, what will be the safest treatment for the above combo? Other fish in there are a few swordtails and "purple passion" danios - both should be able to tolerate anything.

I have a quarantine/hospital tank set up and cycled, but it's only 5 gal and there are 12 tetras in the school! I think that might be a bit tight. In theory I could set up a larger treatment tank (and use the 5's filter so it's "partly" cycled from the start) but getting it up to temp would take at least 24 hrs.

Ideas? I'd hate to lose the guys, but I'd also hate to create a lot of collateral damage from treatment! :help2:
 
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You'll need to treat the main tank. If they're showing signs of ich, it's all over the place.

From my experience, the heat/salt method is the most effective - I've treated ich using h/s three times with no losses. You'll just need to vary the amount of salt based on your catfish and loach population.

First, slowly raise the temperature in your tank to as close to 88 degrees F as possible. Many people say 84-86 to accelerate the life cycle of the parasite so that the salt can kill it faster. Temperatures of 88-90 are toxic in themselves. Watch your fish closely though. If they're showing symptoms of stress, don't turn up the heat past 86.

For salt, add two TABLEspoons of non-iodized "aquarium", "sea", or even kosher salt that you can find in the store per FIVE gallons of water. Add it over a period of 48 hours so they can adjust. Again, if you see significant stress, don't add more salt. Wait for them to calm down before adjusting tank parameters.

If it makes you feel better, my 60g with congos, black neons, cories, banjo, angels, and live plants survived this very treatment (88 degrees, three T salt/5 gal) for 10 days to make sure I killed all the parasite - absolutely no losses, fish or plant.

Best of luck!
 
even iodized salt is fine...the concentration of it will not hurt at all...plants are easier to replace than the fish in my opinion.
 
No - plants didn't get affected, but that's a fairly low concentration of salt, too. Also, I'm not sure if the type of plants I had made any effect - they all seem pretty hardy, though I don't know exactly what they are with the exception of three (banana plant, amazon sword, anubias). I also continued my flourish and iron/potassium fertilizer through ich treatment, so that may have helped them stay healthy.

And yes, plants are easier to replace - though sometimes not any less expensive.
 
Thanks Trigiver01 - reassuring to know everything survived the treatment! At this point not the whole school is affected and even the affected ones only have a couple "grains of salt" visible on body or fin. I figured I'd at least have to raise the tank temp to cycle the parasite, even if the fish were moved for treatment. Part of me also knew treating the tank was biologically/medically what needed to be done. That salt dose is just an edge above 1tsp/g. I think I'll treat based on 50G (55 + gravel + dec = more like 50), then if I've underestimated the gravel displacement I won't end up with pickled fish. The plants are pretty sturdy - I remember looking up ok plants for a mild brackish tank and most of what they listed were what I have. And I think 7-14 days of slight salt is unlikely to kill 'em anyway; so long as they get their regular water back they should recover.

Thanks to all for the advice!
 
No problem! Keep us posted on any news. Just one thing that I forgot to mention (I'm not sure how experienced you are, so forgive me if this is obvious) - pre-dissolve your salt in tank water, don't add it directly. :)

And I'm glad your plants will make it through. I actually kept the salt up at 2T/5g for about a month after my treatment ended just to ensure that slime coats were good and any stray parasites were killed. Then I just stopped adding it back after water changes so that the concentration slowly fell to 0.
 
Update - Figured out my salt and mixed it up in a water bottle. No, it would not all go into solution at once, but every time I'd pour some into the tank, I'd refill the bottle. Took the better part of the week to dose it all. Brought the temp up to 86F over a few days. Held everything there for about 3 weeks total, then started some water changes.

During the first week the black neons looked a little worse, then spots started shrinking and getter fewer and fewer. Did not lose one. Corys came through it fine - in fact one had developed a white spot and torn looking area at the base of the dorsal fin (I'm thinking fungus on a damaged area from transferring him to the big tank a couple weeks before) and this cleared up and healed nicely. Kuhli loaches both made it through the salt and are still healthy and active. The livebearers of course did not mind the salt at all!

Plants also came through ok - Water Sprite has melted back a bit recently, but this was a couple weeks after knocking the salt back and may have had to do with a lighting issue, so I'm not inclined to think salt was the cause.

So I can vouch for this being a safe and effective treatment for ich, even with live plants, loaches and corys! Thanks to everyone who gave advice, and I hope this helps someone else!
 
Glad to hear all went well!
 
Awesome! I'm glad it all worked out. I used to use the chemical treatments (e.g. quick cure) for ich and was always frustrated with them. In those early days, ich was a death sentence in my tank. I found the heat + salt method on AC and since then...good news!

Congrats on your success!
 
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