Cardinal Tetras With Ich

[cowgirluntamed]

Posting this from my phone, sorry guys no pictures. I just bought some cardinal tetras today, one of which has passed due to jumping out of the bowl I had doing the drip method, but the other four are swimmimg fine. But I noticed white spots on them after I got them home. I'm pretty sure it's ich. I know they say to raise the temp of the water but I can't with the heater I have(non-adjustable from walmart) I can get aquariun salt but how much should I put in and for how long? My temp stays around 75 degrees. If I need to buy another heater I will but i'd rather not have to if I can help it. I'm getting ready to go to work so can't test water now but I will in the morning. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Ryan10]

If you can't heat up the tank, you are probably going to have to use some meds for ick.  Do you have other fish in the tank with them?

 

[Ninjouzata]

I'm not sure how effective just the salt would be. I'd pick up an adjustable heater.
 
If you want to use a medication, I used QuICK Cure successfully. You can find it at wal-mart.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

No other fish in the tank but the cardinals. I'll try to get an adjustable heater at petsmart tomorrow then if that would help for sure. What temp should I set it to? (And I should raise the temp gradually, right?) I'll look for the quick cure as well but I'm not sure I saw it(I work at walmart). We do sell something called Ich Guard though but it says not to use on small fish. I'm assuming that means tetras too.

 

[Ninjouzata]

You may want to double check but I think you want it at 86. Yes raise it gradually.
Hmm, well the QuICK Cure looks like THIS if that helps any. Although mine had a yellow cap.
 
I think it may have said something about using half a dose for tetras.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks Ninjouzata! I'll pick some up and get some salt just in case I may need it. Hopefully my new fish can survive this!

 

[Ninjouzata]

You're welcome. I hope they make it.
 
Remember not to use the med, heat, and salt all at the same time. It's too much.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Ok. Thanks again. by the way, do I use the med 3 days in a row or just dose them with it once and wait? It said max dose is three days.

 

[Ninjouzata]

O.O I must not have read that. I think I dosed it for 2 weeks. So am not sure how to advise you

 You should follow instructions on the bottle though.

 

[ScubaMolley]

Did you buy the fish from Wal Mart? I'm assuming you did because you work there. Every fish I ever bought from Wal Mart 2-3 days later have Ich. I bought some Silver Dollars a week ago and sure enough they ended up having Ich. The ONLY thing I had luck with from Wal Mart is Ghost Shrimp.
 
Just my 2 sents worth.
 
I followed the directions on the Ich Tx bottle and I ended up still wiping out half my tank. My Mollies and Glass Cats died within minutes of the 2nd treatment. Even though my Platies and Guppies didn't have any problems with it. That's just my experience.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

No, I didn't get the fish from walmart but a newer local pet store. Guess I won't buy from there again and I'll just stick with petsmart from now on. You just can't rely on what fish they get in though but oh well...I will do my best with the treatment with the quick cure plus up the heat too. I'll post again with hopefully good results!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Update on my ich problem. It's been just over 12 hours after I put the first dose of QuICK Cure in the tank. (And I did read the directions wrong at first. You can dose it longer as long as you do proper water changes and such.) So far all four of my tetras are alive. Though none of them look so well. They seem to be having trouble swimming and are lethargic. I've seen them resting completely on the bottom(I thought one had even died because it seemed to be stuck in one of my fake plants but after 30 seconds of sitting there it got out of it). I also noticed on one of them that the right gill flap seems to be missing...so I don't know if these guys are gonna make it but I'm trying. I got a new adjustable heater so when I got up tonight I went ahead and turned it up a hair. I didn't want to stress these poor guys out any more than necessary so I didn't turn heat up when I put the first dose in. I'll try to gradually turn the heat up to at least 80 to help with the cycle of the ich if these guys can stand it. I'll keep doing the treatment, more than likely for longer than the three days as long as I do the water change(though I'm a bit worried with that as my tap water has 0.25 ammonia in it so I had been using the carbon/ammonia neutralizer duo from marineland and had to take it out so I could use the med). Anyway, I'll update again if things change for better or worse. I'm hoping these guys make it through cuz they are beautiful fish.

 

[Meeresstille]

If they are having such a hard time with the meds I'd reduce the concentration a bit to see if it makes a difference. You could also try to raise the oxygen in the water by adding an air stone or lowering the water level if you have a waterfall type filter. The bigger splash as the water falls back into the tank increases the oxygen in the tank. This is especially important if the heat is set higher, warm water holds less oxygen than cool water.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I've only dosed it once so far. It's just a once a day dose and I'm using the recommended for tetras. I just think maybe they've had this ich for a while at the store even though it couldn't be seen and maybe it's just too much for them. Only one of them right now isn't doing so great, it keeps getting pushed around by the current. It probably won't make it but I'm still waiting to see. The others seem to be just staying near the bottom and only just barely get pushed around by the current but they seem more stable. I just upped the temperature again as it only got up to like 77 in the last couple of hours. Trying to figure out the new heater and all with that. I did bump up the air flow in my airstone(and if needed I can do a little more too) but I just don't want the current pushing them around to much since it seems like they aren't swimming well. When my airstone is full blast it leaves tons of bubbles at the top, i had to decrease the flow of it so that wouldn't happen because i didn't think the fish I used to have could eat well with that many bubbles on the top. And that's another thing, since I got these Monday, they haven't eaten. Should I wait to feed them more until they seem to start to get better(if they do), or keep trying a tiny bit once a day? Another thing I am doing is leaving the light off unless I'm checking up on them. I read somewhere that it's less stress for the fish if kept off while treating them.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Am not sure if using heat and medication is too much or not. :c
 
I'd try to feed them. Even better if you can soak their food in garlic. If they don't eat it you can use something like a turkey baster to get uneaten food out.