major problem with ICh, help!

[scriptwiz05]

ok i got some copper safe and put in in the tank following the instructions as my fish have the white spots, well anyhow, i wake up today, one of them is dead, (tetra), and 2 platys are seriously antisocial and rubbing against gravel, should i take the coppersafe back and get something else? is it safe to put something like rid ich or something else in there if the coppersafe is already in there? will that over do the water? or does the coppersafe take a couple days to kick in? what do i do?

nitrite .05
ph 7.4
temp 80 degrees
am 2.5

[gearbox22]

hi scriptwiz05 i had problems with ich and i was told to take carbons out before meds turn heat up 30 degrees and i treated them with ws3 which i gave them according to leaflet instuctions and they were better in no time , im sure someone will correct me but ich will not live over 30 degrees they are just suppose to die of at that temp any how good luck

[scriptwiz05]

yes i read on some of the medications to take the carbon filter out, but on the coppersafe, it did not say to do that, so i didnt, also, it didnt say to raise temperature, if i raise it a bunch , wont it kill the fish? as its already 80 degrees in there.

[gearbox22]

your fish should be fine but i would check elsewhere as i have all gourami and as for ws3 medication it even tells you to raise temp i put mine on throughout the medication period which lasted around 7 days in all ,i raised my temp to exaxtly 31 degrees NO MORE THAN THAT also you will need oxygen in there while temp is high like a bubble curtain . i tried other white spot meds but ws3 was theonly one that worked for me

[scriptwiz05]

but im wondering is it ok to try something else? as i already have the coppersafe in there, i dont want to kill the tetras. help?

[spudbuds]

I'm not familiar with coppersafe, but I don't think the medication will show any noticable results right away. Others can correct me if needed, but I believe the medication does not treat the ich that's on the fish, it treats the ich that is incubating in the substrate. The ich that's on the fish has to run through it's lifecycle and the fish will either make it or not. Increasing the temperature will speed up the lifecycle of the ich on the fish.

- Bill

[digital3]

My fish had Ich about a month ago. There's this stuff I got called, Mardel Maracide. I primarily got it because it is safe for plants. Anyway, I found a good article where several different types of medications were tried. Here it is:

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The Maracide seemed to win out.

Raising the temp in your tank shouldn't hurt your fish. What it will do is speed up the life cycle of the Ich. Definitely get the carbon out of your tank when medicating. For the Maracide you need to medicate every other day for about 5-10 days. Technically it's only 5 days, but some people add another week just to be sure. The trick is, before every dosing of meds, vacuum your substrate. One of the stages of Ich is where it will actually fall off of the fish and lay on the substrate, after a while it will multiply and re-attach itself to your fish in GREATER NUMBERS. I believe this is why some people will feel their Ich is cured when they don't see it anymore, but then it comes back. This is also why some people will medicate for 10 days instead of five. Just to make sure the Ich is really gone. Vacuuming the substrate will take care of any Ich stragglers.

Here's another article on the Ich lifecycle and other treatments:

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Other folks may come on and give some advice on more "natural" methods of treating the Ich. That probably works as well. This is just what worked for me. Hope it helps.

:c5: