Ick

[Litespeed]

We just discovered yesterday afternoon our pictus catfish have Ick . We immediately went to the fish store and bought some medication and aquarium salt. How many days does it generally take to notice an improvement with the fish? Is Ick always fatal when a fish gets it or can they actually recover from it?

[CAX474]

Ick takes about 4 days depending could take a week, and yes 99% of fish survive a bout of Ick.

[Litespeed]

Thanks for the info, one of the pictus catfish is looking REALLY sick, hope he pulls through.

[Nautilus29]

I would watchout using salt on catfish many of them dont have scales and salt can kill scaleless fish.

[squirt_12]

what is your temp. at right now?? i would put it at about 85 and keep the light off more often. when it disapears you can lower the temp and keep the light on during its normal hours again.

[SkarloeysMom]

keep the light off more often. when it disapears you can lower the temp and keep the light on during its normal hours again.

I think you might be thinking of Velvet. Keeping lights out during velvet treatment reduces energy to the chloroplast that velvet has in the free swimming stage so it has less chance of finding a host.

[Litespeed]

We have the tank temp at 84 right now. Our house has no heat except for a wood stove which we run during the day and make sure it is stoked up just before we go to bed to keep the living area warmer (where the tank is). I did read one thing on line that sounds a bit strange, where the guy said to cover the entire aquarium with newspaper so no light could get in, that way the parasites couldn't find a new host. With thousands of parasites, you would think they would bump into another fish even in the dark.
I just hope my pitcus catfish don't starve to death before they have time to recover. One is still eating but not the other two, they just continually swim in the bubbles. I really feel sorry for them, they must be miserable.

[squirt_12]

I think you might be thinking of Velvet. Keeping lights out during velvet treatment reduces energy to the chloroplast that velvet has in the free swimming stage so it has less chance of finding a host.

o hhmm....maybe...i heard somewhere (not on this forum) that you should turn the lights off when you have ick??? maybe not....hmmm.

[SkarloeysMom]

o hhmm....maybe...i heard somewhere (not on this forum) that you should turn the lights off when you have ick??? maybe not....hmmm.

Either way, turning the light out can't hurt. Lets the fishies rest more when they're feeling sickly.