Can't get rid of ich!

[MDMAN]

Hey all,

My 20g long has come down with a case of ich. The odd part is, only the cardinals are showing any symptoms. The cories, and pleco are completely fine and behaving normally. I already tried a malachite green based treatment and didn't have any luck. Since cardinals are sensitive fish, I did only use half about 1/3 of the reccomended dosage.

I've been thinking about trying a salt treatment and am wondering if the cardinals would be able to handle it?

Here's the specs:

20g long
AC50 hob
8 remaining cardinals (started with 12)
6 assorted cories
bristlnose pleco
lightly planted

Also, I've had the heat cranked up to 85 for the last few days.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[smaug]

Use ap products quick cure.It works very well.Then try salt.Just make sure to follow the instructions to the letter.

[MDMAN]

Did you mean to say api? If thats what you meant I will give it a try. The salt treatment will be safe for my cardinals?

[Mvjnz]

Salt wouldn't be safe for your pleco. Catfish and loaches usually don't respond well to medication and salt in the water.

If you didn't have cories I would suggest trying the heat treatment, it's always worked really well for me, but cories don't generally respond well to that kind of heat.

Could keep it in mind as a last resort tho.

[MDMAN]

I've already had the tank at 85 for the past 5 days or so. The cories and pleco have been doing very well. Eating and scavenging along the bottom as usual. Its just the cardinals that are full of spots.

[MrDrums]

Keep doing what you are doing for at least 10 days....you should see some improvement, just be patient. Make sure you take the carbon out of your filter during treatment. After all treatment is finished, do a water change and you can put the carbon back in to filter out any residual meds.

[Lady Hobbs]

With salt you turn the temps up but with medication you don't. Medication depletes the oxygen some and so does turning the heat up so you should not do both. With salt you should turn the heat up, tho.

I have used salt with corys and loaches successfully with no problem. They can handle salt easier than they can medication IMO.

[johnpeezy]

well did you remove your carbon from the filter?


Also ich cannot be killed while it is present on the fish, its during the free swimming stage that ich is sensative to things like formailin and malachite green. You have to continue the treatment for a few days.

Honestly thats why everyone tell you to turn the heat up while performing a salt treatment. It is supposed to speed up the life cycle of the ich parasite to get it into the vunerable stage of the life.

If you have an aggressive airstone (never in my life would I have ever thought to see the word aggressive and airstone use back to back W/E) you could possibly get away with adding that and kicking the temp up a notch.

oh and one other thing when using meds on fish follow the instructions.

[MrDrums]

I agree with Lady Hobbs - I use salt all the time as part of the regular maintenance of my tank (usually add a few tablespoons every 2nd or 3rd water change)....my pleco and other cats do just fine with it. Just dissolve it before you add it to the tank. If you choose the salt route you'll be fine.

Haven't had ich in my tank for a long time now....when I first got my severum home I discovered he had ich....I had to treat the whole tank as I have no QT tank. I used Rid-Ich I think, for 10 days, no prob. It did not seem to cause the pleco any undue stress. As stated, follow instructions exactly on bottle.

[Commodore 64]

As stated, follow instructions exactly on bottle.

In the case of malachite green, do NOT do this. Figure out what dosage you need to achieve 0.05ppm. In the case of Rid-Ich, it's about half the dosage on the bottle.

At your aquarium temp, you need to treat for 3 days after the last cyst falls off the fish. The ich should have a 3 day life cycle at that temp, but is only vulnerable at 1 stage of the cycle.

Add a bubbler, remove carbon, and turn off the lights and your malachite green med WILL work, and it will be safe at 0.05ppm for everything in your tank, including the bacteria in your filter.

[smaug]

No I mean AP products quick cure,its a 2-3 day fast cure .i have used it with with many catfish,just follow the directions.

[MDMAN]

Thanks very much for all the help everyone!

I have turned the heat back down to around 78, and am continuing treatment with the medication mentioned earlier. The cardinals are slowly dying off, but still no sign of any symptoms with the cories or pleco. Hopefully after this round of treatment I can successfully re-stock.

Also, I don't run carbon, but I did use it to remove the meds after the first round of medication. I took it back out and started round two.

Thanks again for all the tips!

[MDMAN]

One more question:

In order for my malachite green treatment to work, I need to turn my lights off correct? How long will my java ferns and java moss survive with no light? I know they're tough plants but can they take three days of darkness?

[Commodore 64]

One more question:

In order for my malachite green treatment to work, I need to turn my lights off correct? How long will my java ferns and java moss survive with no light? I know they're tough plants but can they take three days of darkness?

The malachite green is photo-degradable, which is why you turn off the lights. Last time I treated for ich, I only had java moss...and it was fine for 6-days without lights.

[MDMAN]

Ok thank you, I've left them off for the past few days and everything is fine. The fish are getting better, it won't be long now.

[MDMAN]

Even though only one of the original 12 cardinals survived, he is now ich free, thanks for the help everyone!

Now on to re-stocking. I'm thinking I'll go with some rummy nose tetras this time. The cardinals were always scared because the tank is in a somewhat high traffic area (the living room). I beleive thats the reason they got ich and nothing else in the tank did. They were always stressed out and were more vulnerable to disease.