German blue rams ich???

Av3206 said:

Yes I am aware of the temp requirements I was planning on keeping it at 81-82 I have panda Corys and some Plattys will they be harmed from 86? I also have two air stone working now. I was planning on changing on air stone to a ziss bubble bio. It’s. 75 gallon tank. The angels are farm raised from Florida.

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Byron said:

The cories cannot be at that high a temperature on a long-term basis. And Corydoras panda particularly so because they inhabit cool water mountain streams in the Peruvian Andes and their metabolism will be hard hit with temperatures at or above 80F. They can handle temporary increases such as dealing with ich, but not going forward.

Platies have a temperature range of 20-28C/68-82F. This like all ranges does not mean they can thrive at the lower or higher ends long-term; these fish are better at temperatures in the lower to middle part of the given range, say 72-78F/22-26C.

While we're on that, the angelfish will be healthier in the range of 76-78F/25-26C as these are tank-raised fish.

Temperature is critical for fish because they are ectothermic and the water temperature drives their metabolism, and each species has evolveed to function best in quite a narrow range.

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Av3206 said:

Thanks for the info should I bother with the tank going above the 82-84 range and not use ich-x or just spike the temp. Not sure what the best course of action is. I know my mix of fish is probably not ideal.

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Byron said:

These are two very different issues. Raising the temperature to 86F/30C for two weeks will (or should) kill the ich and the fish will be fine. Increase surface disturbance via the filter which helps oxygen get into the water. I did this in my cory tank with some 50 wild caught cories including pandas and they were fine, and the ich killed.

As others also said, do not use medications for ich. Some do nothing, many will harm fish, some kill them. I can assure you that the rams and the cories will find ich-x way more stressful, and it might finish them off. The rams are already highly stressed or they would not have ich, so any additional unnecessary stress is a serious issue for them. And cories are quite intolerant in general of chemicals/preparations in the water. The heat is far less stressful; I have even had to use salt once, plus the heat, and the pandas and other cories got through that fine. Stress is the direct cause of 95% of disease in aquarium fish, so keeping it minimal is always better.

Going forward, you have to decide on what is best for the fish, and obviously removing the rams to their own warm space is what should be done here. Rams maintained below the 80F will never live their normal lifespan because of the effect of too low a temperature. And increasing temp for the other fish also weakens them because they are then literally working too hard to maintain ordinary life-essential processes.

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Byron said:

These are two very different issues. Raising the temperature to 86F/30C for two weeks will (or should) kill the ich and the fish will be fine. Increase surface disturbance via the filter which helps oxygen get into the water. I did this in my cory tank with some 50 wild caught cories including pandas and they were fine, and the ich killed.

As others also said, do not use medications for ich. Some do nothing, many will harm fish, some kill them. I can assure you that the rams and the cories will find ich-x way more stressful, and it might finish them off. The rams are already highly stressed or they would not have ich, so any additional unnecessary stress is a serious issue for them. And cories are quite intolerant in general of chemicals/preparations in the water. The heat is far less stressful; I have even had to use salt once, plus the heat, and the pandas and other cories got through that fine. Stress is the direct cause of 95% of disease in aquarium fish, so keeping it minimal is always better.

Going forward, you have to decide on what is best for the fish, and obviously removing the rams to their own warm space is what should be done here. Rams maintained below the 80F will never live their normal lifespan because of the effect of too low a temperature. And increasing temp for the other fish also weakens them because they are then literally working too hard to maintain ordinary life-essential processes.

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Av3206 said:

Should I feed the fish some more during this?

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Byron said:

Not more than normally. I don't know the normal feeding schedule, or the foods fed, but I have continued my normal feeding during ich treatments. I have two fast days each week, but the quality of the food is important.

You mentioned starting with water changes. When I decide ich is bad enough to warrant intervention (usually it goes away by itself if the fish are not stressed as they can deal with it) I do a major water change and raise the temperature a few degrees via this, then increase the heater setting to achieve the rest. I do the next water change one week later. More frequent water changes probably won't hurt, and some do and some don't with these. Clean water will always aid in overcoming problems for fish but I have preferred to given them peace and quiet in between quite large changes (75%).

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Av3206 said:

I feed sera products flake both tropical and color then a few Sera cichlid. I feed in the am M-F and then normally not on weekend unless I come to the office and in these times it’s not often. I do toss other things in from time to time like blood worms and sera great mix. What’s is your target temp and what temp is the water you change your tank with?

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