Ich Treatment with Nox-Ich

[Terra]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping I can get some clarification about treating ich.

I have a 17g lightly planted tank that I am treating with Nox-ich (malachite green). On the bottle it says to dose for three days.

My question is, should I treat longer based on knowing the ich lifecycle is at least 4 days?

Also, how long do I wait after quitting the dosing to do a water change? And how much water do I change?

Finally, why do the not-sick fish nibble on the sick ones?????

Thank you! Terra

Edited September 22, 2010 by Terra

[cale262]

I haven't had any ...fresh water Ich in a long time but, I found the most effective way to treat the issue was to increase the water temp to about 30*C or 86*F and leave it there for about two weeks.

[nautilus]

Agree with cale262. Alternative which had good results is raising temp to 30 c and salting tank with generous amount of aquarium salt (NOT marine salt) leave to work for 1 week then water changes gradually to bring salt levels down. Also helps if you have a UV going at the same time but found detrimental to plants.

Edited September 23, 2010 by nautilus

[Terra]

I've already tried the heat/salt approach. This outbreak has killed all of my adult fish. My jeuveniles are all that's left. They all seem healthy so far. I have my temp at 80F and my bubbler on high to increase O_2. I am two days into the treatment, which says to use for three days. My question is should I continue longer than three days? Please help me out!

[Kronosdelsol]

Also helps if you have a UV going at the same time but found detrimental to plants.

Do you think it was the UV or the salt that was affecting your plants?

[cale262]

I wouldn't use salt in a tank with live plants. ICH doesn't reproduce at 30*C but you have to keep the temp there for the complete life cycle of the ICH, the higher temp also increases the life cycle of the ICH. I haven't done this myself but have heard of people successfully using a salt dip treatment for individual fish. Another thing that helps the fish build up their immune system and recover is to premix food with garlic. I have used UV filters with no ill effect to my plants.

[nautilus]

Do you think it was the UV or the salt that was affecting your plants?

[/quote

As Cale262 says UV didn't affect plants, prob the salt then

[Ishkabod]

The salt will kill plants it bleached my hardy hornwart when i had to dose my tank a few years ago but it bounced back. UV is completely fine for plants in fact many people use it to keep algae down in their planted tanks. The salt treatment and heat is the best method but ONLY works if used properly. Most fish can tolerate more salt than you might think and the increased heat doesn't hurt either if you increase it at a slow rate. Ich is only able to be killed in a short period in its life cycle. The Ich on the fish is untreatable due to the slime coat and the eggs in the substrait and on any decorations/glass/filter is also untreatable. The stage that is treatable is the stage when the eggs hatch and are swimming around looking for a host. Salt will kill these swimmers and from what i remember it will kill the eggs too but i'm not 100 percent sure about that. The life cycle can be as long as 4 weeks but increaseing the heat can shorten that to 2 weeks which is very benificial if you want the fish healty as soon as possible. ANY treatment that says it'll work in less than 2 weeks is LIEING as far as i have been able to reasearch there still isn't any treatment that will kill the ich in all its stages but won't kill the fish. There is a form of ich that is salt ant heat resistant and you might have that one. I'd treat the tank as directed but be sure to re treat the tank 2 weeks later and again 2 weeks after that to be sure as little of the ich actually survives. salt and heat won't treat the ich on the fish but can prevent them from being reinfected aka no more additional white spots. Before you do any treatment for ich always do a water change and try to vaccume as much of the gravel as possible and to clean off as many of the decorations as possible.

here are some helpful sites i have found since understanding ich is the easiest and safest way for you to treat the problem. the same goes for any disease if you can properly diagnose it.

Here is a great formula for treating ich step by step

treatment

understanding

Ignore these links if you want but if you desire to get rid of the problem and not worry about it again then read it through. Ich in my experience was really really easy to treat and get rid of but only because i read up on the basics. I have read through many articles and these two are pretty much the best for summarizing and giveing everything you need to know to kill it. The chemical reccomended in the article has been reccomended to me from more than one respected source includeing a Vet specializing in fish treatment.

Good luck

L

Edit If you are worried about plants then remove the fish or the plants to a quarentine tank. For fish treat them and the main filter with the ich treatment and dose the tank heavily with the chemical but not the salt and increase the temp to at least 33 Degrees C SOMEONE WHO KNOWS PLANTS HOW HIGH WILL KILL THEM?

Edited September 24, 2010 by Ishkabod

[Kronosdelsol]

As Cale262 says UV didn't affect plants, prob the salt then

That's good to hear. I never had a problem with my UV on my plants. I also never had ICK or tried the salt method on the planted tank before, so I thought I ask.

[hustler]

anyone vouch for ridich? Seems its all the rage on google for just about every forum when it comes to ich After the salt and heat ofcourse

Edited October 8, 2010 by hustler

[medhatnoobee]

Purchased some clown clown loaches last week, noticed darting and flashing mid week, 2 days ago noticed the dreded spots. First ich outbreak I've had to deal with. This morning I have gotten the heat up and the salt (4 tblsp/5G) all added. Going to go see what the lfs has for ich treatments. Wish me luck.