Catfish With Ich

[CRain626]

Hi All! I'm a newbie, so please be patient with me I have 4 Pictus Catfish with Ich, and I would prefer to treat them with salt and heat method. I know some people disagree with that but I have done research and IMO it is what I feel safer with. My question is for people with experience with Pictus Cats, Bronze Cory Cats, Rubber lipped Plecos and Cherry Barbs who have treated Ich(preferably with salt). My question is what are the recommended dosages/times/temps for this treatment for salt sensitive fish??

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Tank size: 25 gallon
pH: 7.8
ammonia: 0
nitrite: .5
nitrate: 25
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 78F

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): I noticed yesterday that my Pictus cats were acting strange(one was hanging out by the water return, one was staying over the bubble rock one was hiding in his cave and one was thrashing about off and on), and after watching them for a few minutes I noticed the white specks covering the littlest ones body and on the sides of all 3 others, but not on any of the other fish.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: I have been doing 50% water changes every day to every other day depending on the readings I got for Ammonia, now that the Ammonia is subsiding I got a Master test kit and tested for Nitites and Nitrates and have been doing 20-50% water changes since the readings have not been very high.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: I've been adding Nite-out(also read mixed beliefs on it, but wanted to try giving a boost to new tank), Stress-zyme/Tetra Aquasafe, I was using Prime but not now.

Tank inhabitants: 4 Pictus Cat, 3 Bronze Cory Cat, 5 Cherry Barbs, 1 Rubber lipped pleco (I know now that this is overstocked, however they are all juveniles and not even the largest ones are over 3" yet. I am planning on getting a larger tank within the next couple of weeks.) I had a Banana Plant but moved it to another aquarium with a Bully Gourami, 1 Amazon Sword, 1 Broad leaf ludwegia(I believe), 1 Anubia, 1 that looks to be a java fern but I'm not sure.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 4 Cherry Barbs on Friday with 2 fake tank decorations (one looks like driftwood w/plants and one looks like a log with plants), and 2 of the Pictus Cats and 2 Bronze Cory Cats a couple of weeks ago.

Exposure to chemicals: None

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[raptorrex]

I'm sorry. but you need to split them up and then treat.
even at the sizes you state. your tank is well over stocked now.

I know, personally, how hard this is.
my first tank was badly cycled, massively miss stocked and suffering from consistent illness. (that was before i bought it.)

though stress cant cause ICH. it can allow a small infestation (one in a healthy tank you may not of even noticed) to run riot.

again, I'm sorry. but i consider the Pictus and probably the cory as too sensitive for a salt treatment. as scales catfish. hence the need to split the stock.
that said, they are sensitive to meds too.

beyond the above, i can only wish you the best. keep us up to date!

 

[CRain626]

I'm sorry. but you need to split them up and then treat.
even at the sizes you state. your tank is well over stocked now.

I unfortunately at the moment have no way to split them up. I don't want to infect my Bully Gourami in the 10G I have since he does not appear or act infected. And yes, sigh, I know that my tank is overstocked. I really had no idea there was this much to fishkeeping before I became one I love my little (or should I say not so little) guys and want them to be happy and healthy, so I am planning to get a new larger tank in the next week or so.

I know, personally, how hard this is.
my first tank was badly cycled, massively miss stocked and suffering from consistent illness. (that was before i bought it.)

This is the 1st illness I've had, not the 1st death unfortunately but I believe one or more of those was due to either the badly cycled tank or my Bully Gourami whom I did not realize was a bully for several weeks. I actually thought he was the chill one since all the others swim frantically naturally lol. They all seemed pretty happy right before this happened. I did have a territorial issue with one of my Pictus(he chased my little one and dragged him 2"or so by his barbel) that made my other little Pictus turn almost completely white. Once I got them a matching cave and a couple of buddies they were all swimming together and eating together(and the little one regained his color). All was good until the Ich outbreak.

though stress cant cause ICH. it can allow a small infestation (one in a healthy tank you may not of even noticed) to run riot.

I do realize this now. I am becoming fastly educated mostly through sites like this one and other peoples personal experiences. The pet stores were almost no help. The only local fish specialty store was disgusting and the kid who was the freshwater specialty guy at the store told me to not do water changes for over a month on a new tank! I even know that that would almost certainly kill my fish.

again, I'm sorry. but i consider the Pictus and probably the cory as too sensitive for a salt treatment. as scales catfish. hence the need to split the stock.
that said, they are sensitive to meds too.

Again, I know these things from doing research and talking to people with Ich and Pictus/Cory experience and the info is very biased and half and half. I bought the Coppersafe, but couldn't bring myself to use it. Ultimately, I decided to use low salt amounts (1 tsp per 3 Gallons of tank) diluted with tank water over a 36 hour period with raised temp to 84 gradually and watch them closely. They all seem to be doing fine so far(the catfish anyways, I lost a barb last night but I'm not sure how), the Corys don't seem affected at all and the Pictus look about the same. I also aerated the water to make up for warmer water oxygen loss, and did a large pwc and vacuumed the gravel before I started. So we shall see...

beyond the above, i can only wish you the best. keep us up to date!

Thank you for your reply! I will let you know how things go. Hopefully it will be good news.

 

[Davo86]

Personally I would first be attempting to rectify the water quality issues, (nitrite reading of 5) and then attempting to treat simply with the use of heat, darkness and aeration,

Salt is less than ideal for the catfish and 1/2 dosed treatments such as myxazin seem to be far more effective and far less risky

 

[fishprotector]

I have personally dosed against ich with JBL Punktol at full strength for 10 days and my pictus were unaffected by it.

 

[CRain626]

Personally I would first be attempting to rectify the water quality issues, (nitrite reading of 5) and then attempting to treat simply with the use of heat, darkness and aeration,

I am attempting to rectify, but it is still cycling and has to go through its phases. I have been doing water changes every day to every other day to keep the levels down, and from my understanding since the nitrate is showing up the cycle is nearing completion. I am doing all I can right now as far as I know. I am testing daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and doing water changes accordingly. Please if there is more I should be doing let me know.


Salt is less than ideal for the catfish and 1/2 dosed treatments such as myxazin seem to be far more effective and far less risky

I have read and talked to several people who say that at half doses the chemical treatments are not effective with a bad infestation and that they still killed their catfish. They treated with low doses of salt and higher heat with Cory's and Pictus and had not lost any fish and the Ich cleared up, this is why I chose this method. I know that the salt is not ideal for the freshwater cats, but at low doses with time to adjust and short time frames is it not safer than a chemical treatment that may not work since they are very sensitive to chemicals as well?? I am torn, I don't know what to do, everyone disagrees. And very few people from what I have found swear by the heat alone method and are on the fence about whether Ich actually dies at 86 or not until 91, I'm afraid my Cory's won't take the 91 heat.

 

[turtlegirl]

Get a Rubbermaid tub to split them.