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Ich Treatment Help Please!


japanda
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I didn't want to take over someone else's thread in regards to my ich infestation on my fish since it seems specific on what I have for what I need to treat my fish.

I first noticed this a day after I got power back on, 4 days ago. My heater was off for a full day and the tank was quite cold. Only my neons have the white spots currently.

I have a planted 60g freshwater tank with upside down catfish, neons, gourami, corys, mollys, pleco. I have the temp set at 82* apx.

What would be the best route of treatment? I have an empty, heated 16g tank I could move someone into if ideal treatment is unsafe for a specific inhabitant. Pulling my plants out isn't an ideal option for a route of treatment either but...

Thank you

Edited by japanda
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Personally, I would treat the whole tank

Get it over with. The plants will take a bit of a beating but hey. Or you could pull the neon and try and treat them separately with a chance of having to treat the main tank anyways.

I'm lazy and would do the whole tank once and just get it over with....

Edited by Jayba
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I have had a few issues with ich as well but because I have some "scaless" fish eclipse/sun catfish and clown pleco I never used salt to treat ich. What I found that worked best was bumping the temp. of the tank to 86 deg. or so for 10 days. The increase in temp. helps speed up the cycle and hopefully stops the reproduction of the parasite in your tank. I also did 25% water changes every second day. Hope this helps.

Edited by sumadis
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Salt is not required nor is it a treatment for ich I've had ich in brackish tanks !

Salt simply helps with slim coat production allowing the fish to slough off more of the cysts on their own but it's not a treatment.

Temperature increase does work , at anything above 86f ich cannot complete it's reproductive life cycle . Typically upon increasing temps you'll initially see an increase in white spots as the ich already in the tank will rapidly hit free swimming stage and attach to fish . As those spots disappear they drop off and if temps are above 86 that's where it ends.

10 days is more then enough , you'll probably stop seeing ich half way through but keep it warm just in case. Key to success is that the whole tank must maintain a stable 86+. If there is a cold spot or a temporary drop in temps the ich rapidly gestate and start all over.

As an added tip you may also want to increase aeration for the duration of the treatment because as the temperature rises the 02 levels will drop.

Hope that helps!

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They say a pictures worth a thousand words so I made this up a while back while debating ich treatments on another site. I think understanding ich helps regardless of what treatment u choose to go with so ...

Untitled.jpg

Hope that helps!

Edited by DevonC
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remember just because you don't see spots doesn't mean it's over. That is the only visible phase of the disease, and if one fish has it the tank is infected, increasing temp won't get rid of them either, it just speeds up the cycle of the various phases of the disease. I am sorry but they live just fine about 86 F in both Marine and Fresh water environments. If you search on reef central for ich (and there are plenty of search suggestions) you will likely run across a very detailed posting done by a marine biologist who has done some basic research on this type of parasite. It also goes into the facts vs. myths regarding the disease and why so many people fall into misinformation.

They can only be treated after the visible sign of infection, then the free swimming parasite is vulnerable to chemicals.

Edited by uwish
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I won't debate the heat treatment lol learned that long ago . Your right there's all sorts of miss information and " experts" on forums who state all sorts of facts. The debate would just go back and forth.

I've done the research many times , and used the treatment many times myself over the last decade always syccessfully and I've never had a repete infection. I know many many many other hobbiest a who can say the same.

I've only ever found one research paper that indicated they had document ich in ponds in Florida at temperatures pushing an average temp of 90c. I've seen many "experts" take quotes from this paper as well over the years .

What they leave out is that if you read the whole paper it also states that it could have been the result of cooler pockets in the pond/fluctuations or it may have been a heat resistant strain. They go on to say either way ich typically would not reproduce in those temperatures.

In the end I won't argue it .I do encourage everyone to try it next time they have ich and see for themselves before loading a tank with medications unnecessarily. It takes ~10 days costs nothing and no risk. Only trick is you need constant steady temps day and night or it will fail and come back stronger.

Cheers.

Edited by DevonC
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fair enough wasn't meant as a 'trigger' or poking the bear kind of response. There is still much to be leaned about this parasite, in the end it is finding what may work for your particular situation. Just as a question though, you initiall stated 86f (30 C) and in your response it was 90C..

I don't know many organisms that would survive in that kind of heat (90 C)in general never mind a parasite!

Edited by uwish
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Oops my mistake , 90f not c , that was a typo. I also hope I didn't come across as argumentative just trying to be helpful.

Another thing worth mentioning that I didn't think of when first replying is that when I say "ich" I'm referring to Ichthyophthirius multifiliis which is the common fresh water parasite.

Marine "ich" is caused by a different species of parasite Cryptocaryon irritans . I don't keep salt tanks so I have no idea what the temperature tolerance or treatment methods are for that species . It's completely possible that heat is not effective on marine ich.

Edited by DevonC
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