Ich treatment questions....

[Stacey]

Well it seems after 2+ years of fishkeeping I have my first fish disease! I have 4 Cardinal Tetras that are now spotted with ich. The small pleco also in the tank does not (yet) seem to be affected.

The only new fish I've added was a Cardinal Tetra, purchased a few weeks ago from the store I work at! (I only bought it because I felt sorry for it, it was the last fish in the tank, and had been alone for at least a week.) That fish is still alive, (I know because it's smaller that my other ones) and doesn't seem to have any more spots than the rest of them....

I've also had a couple of Tetra deaths recently, the first was a week or so after introducing the new Tetra, the last was of the 'mysterious fish disappearance' variety that I noticed only yesterday. (Can't find any trace of the body, but the tank is also heavily populated with Trumpet Snails.)

I've read some of the old ich threads on this forum and I have a few questions.....

How much salt should I add? I've so far added 3 tablespoons of aquarium salt. Are the tetras sensitive to high concentrations of salt? I'm thinking the pleco probably is. What is the highest dose I should add? Tank is 10 gallon, heavily planted.... are plants sensitive to aquarium salt?

And temperature? Tank is up to 83 now. Can I go higher? Do I want to keep the temp elevated for the next 2 weeks or so?

Any help would be appreciated, this is my first fish disease.

[jvision]

Depending on the types of plants, they may melt with too much salt, but you should be able good with the salt. I'd also add some Melafix.

[uwish]

Well it seems after 2+ years of fishkeeping I have my first fish disease! I have 4 Cardinal Tetras that are now spotted with ich. The small pleco also in the tank does not (yet) seem to be affected.

The only new fish I've added was a Cardinal Tetra, purchased a few weeks ago from the store I work at! (I only bought it because I felt sorry for it, it was the last fish in the tank, and had been alone for at least a week.) That fish is still alive, (I know because it's smaller that my other ones) and doesn't seem to have any more spots than the rest of them....

I've also had a couple of Tetra deaths recently, the first was a week or so after introducing the new Tetra, the last was of the 'mysterious fish disappearance' variety that I noticed only yesterday. (Can't find any trace of the body, but the tank is also heavily populated with Trumpet Snails.)

I've read some of the old ich threads on this forum and I have a few questions.....

How much salt should I add? I've so far added 3 tablespoons of aquarium salt. Are the tetras sensitive to high concentrations of salt? I'm thinking the pleco probably is. What is the highest dose I should add? Tank is 10 gallon, heavily planted.... are plants sensitive to aquarium salt?

And temperature? Tank is up to 83 now. Can I go higher? Do I want to keep the temp elevated for the next 2 weeks or so?

Any help would be appreciated, this is my first fish disease.

you should be fine adding 3 tpsn salt. It is not necessary to increase the temp of your tank, the reason most medications recommend this is to speed up the ich cycle. Medications are not effective on ich when they are in the visible stage, though I would begin treatment right away.

83 is a good temp already I would submit, within a couple of days the spots will dissapear then the ich will be in the stage able for treatment.

couple of things to note, if you use soft water or have soft water in your tank, medications with copper sulphate will not be that effective. FYI.

Edited October 18, 2008 by uwish

[gordo]

I found that heat and salt worked the best when curing my tank of Ich. The heat speeds up the development of Ich, therefore making it reach the "vulnerable" state quicker. And the salt helps heal the fins and body of the fish faster.

[Ishkabod]

I know for a fact that pleccos are sensitive to salt and if the plecco seems fine then maybe remove it to an isolation tank. Also i've noticed that the recommended amound of salt to treat ich will kill plants. For treating my Koi I gradually raised the water temp to 85 while i over a 24hr period dosed the tank with 1tbsp of salt per gallon in 3 separate doses. Keep in mind that thos was for a tank with only Koi in it and Koi are very tolerant to salt.

I don't know if tetras are but i know plecco's aren't. Even the recommended dose on the salt container for freshwater fish on an everyday basis will kill them.

Good luck

L

[Ishkabod]

I forgot to mention that with the increase in temp you need to be sure to add an air pump if you don't already have one because the increase in temp decreases the amount of dissolved O2 in the water and that'll just compound the problem.

Hope this helps

Lisa

[Tracked maniac]

salt is fine for plecos i run salt in my tank all the time the recommended dose is 1 tbsp per 5 gal. and my 9" pleco has tolerated this dose for 2 years as for the ich I understood that the parasite or virus what ever it is can't tolerated 83 degrees so keeping that temp is fine for however long you think is neccesary as long as your tetras can handle that temp don't know about your plants. hope that helps

[Ishkabod]

I found this in a post on another site It might help clear the salt question up

Here's the post

Common Plecs (the correct Latin name is Liposarcus multiradiatus for 90% of the Plecs sold in the country, by the way) originate from the Amazon basin, where water is soft and salt-free, so the addition of salt will be a stress factor, especially if it is kept in a coldwater environment.

However, they are usually very robust, and will adapt very quickly to the different water conditions, as long as this is a short term change or is a very gradual change.

I wouldn't be too worried unless you begin to see a lot more algae in the tank than usual, or spot that the Plec's belly is getting hollow, which indicates that the addition of salt has stressed the fish enough to affect its appetite.

Cheers,

Marc

Here is the link to the page the post was on.

Link

I hope this might help

[Ishkabod]

Here us a like i just read through that details a good method for treating ICH with salt.

Good luck

L

Salt treatment used on Plecco's

[Stacey]

Thanks for all the replies..... actually I sort of forgot about this post.

I only ever added 1 dose of the salt. I was just not sure if adding more would be hurting more than it helped.

I picked up some 'Ich Attack' by Kordon and that worked great. (It's an 'organic herbal' remedy.) It seemed to clear up the spots within a few days, although I'm sure the elevated temperature had something to do with that. (I also cranked up the air while the temp was up.)

I was initially worried that I had spread ich to all of my small tanks, (same bucket/ syphon) but I guess I caught it in time as all is well.

I guess this is why a quarantine tank is recommended.

[Baos]

I've studied ich quite a bit online. Just thought I'd share some of the mechanics. raising the heat speeds up the life-cycle of ich and has no effect on killing some versions of ich. ich pretty much is everywhere and the fish's own immune system fights it off. heat can also boost the immune system. I've got a tank with clown loaches and have never had an ich outbreak. salt prevents the ich from surviving very long in the tank without a host. don't dose so much salt that your fish are stressed, you could make the problem worse. There is an advanced form of ich that can live and reproduce within the fish untill it dies, never relying on the outside water. At that stage, time to quarantine and medicate.

On a side note I've seen a tank cranked to 90 degrees with a malfunctioning heater. Some fish loss after three days. And yes, ich can live at 90 degrees. Most of the fish were warm water species.