Curing Ich With Higher Temp?

[Ian H]

Just noticed my tank has had an out burst of ich Recently added 12 neons, so im assuming it came from them since my tank has been disease free for months??

Anyways its still quite early, only a coulple of fish have got some spots none of them are covered yet. The worst is a neon with 3 maybe 4 spots on it. I don't want to dose the tank as i have some shrimp in there i can't find normally never mind catch! and i don't want to burn my plecs

Anyway my stocking is:

1 x bristle nose plec
1 x common plec
1 x gold nugget plec (L-18)
22 x neon tetra
5 x pentazona barbs
3 x bronze cory
4 x cherry shrimp (possibly more, can't find them in all the plants!)
4x clown loach
3 x glowlight tetras
3 x black neon tetras
8 x black widow tetras
1 x german blue ram
1 x female cockatoo cichlid?? (can't remember actual name, possible apisto?)
4 x swordtails

Would any of these have a problem with the temp being turned up?? my current temp is at 82, i was thinking of turning it up to around 85/86?

I realise that all this will do is make the life cycle of ich faster rather than kill it instantly but im hoping its early enough to sort it out, like i said i dont want to dose with any meds.

Any advise would be great

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the tank as you have alot of fish there.
I would post this in tropical discussion as I would rather use a med then relay on the temp method.
You could always buy a plastic tank from the lfs for the strimps.
Also members might know of a med that you can use with the strimps as I think there are some that you can use with inverts.

 

[Ian H]

its 83 (UK) gallons

like i said i can't find the shrimp never mind catch them! might see them once or twice a week! also i was under the impression that scaless fish would get burnt by meds?

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Surely raising your temp by your recommended (plus/minus) four degrees Fahrenheit equates to a fraction which would probably go unnoticed by the occupants....... I've always had success by treating ich with raising the temp from my regular 27 degrees Celsius to approximately 32/33 degrees for about 3 days and then gradually back to 27 without discomfort to any community member (including corys and clown loaches...... It's effective and in my opinion safe.

 

[Gremily]

I don't really understand your problem, why do you want to turn the temperature up?

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Aah! Gremily....... You see (to make a short story long).... Ich is a little parasite that lives on and off the fish and thrives in colder water, but cannot tolerate the higher temperarure. Now when they fall off the fish onto the gravel, they multiply and infection spreads to all fish in the aquarium. If the temperature is higher, they do not reproduce and with an incubation period of about 3 to 4 days, their whole cycle is destroyed if the higher temp prevails for that period. It is then safe to reduce your temp (gradually) back to your normal level.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

ok my understanding behind it, is that it doesnt destroy their cycle but speeds it up, allowing a faster treatment time

 

[Gremily]

Ah ok, that's what I thought as well, although after some investigation it seems that 32 degrees pretty much kills it.
Incidentally I'm treating some fish with ich at the moment and have the temp at 30ish and also medicating above the advised dose with King British WS3 which seems to be going well and as always given me a 100% survival rate in the past, although obviously with shrimp this isn't really an option

Good luck with it, I'd be interested if raising the temp is successful for you, please keep us updated!

 

[ALEXF]

I actually am currently dealing with this problem... from my understanding from reading different things is that at the higher temps it does kill them. Basically what ludwig said. I also have inverts in my tank. I use ich-attack thou im not sure if your in the us of not. but you can order it from drfostersandsmith.com or possibly get it from your lfs. I called the people that make it as it says that it completely organic to find out what chemicals are in it and from my understanding it contains no copper. If you didnt have inverts the same company makes rid-ich which is supose to be better but has copper in it. Good Luck.

 

[Colin_T]

increase the surface turbulence as the higher temperature will mean a lower oxygen level in the water.

 

[ALEXF]

im not sure if i read that wrong but did you just say that increasing the the surface water exchange will lower the oxygen content? because eveything ive read said it would create more which is good because the heat takes out someof the oxygen???

 

[Colin_T]

if you can increase the surface turbulence it will compensate for the lower oxygen levels caused by the warmer water.

warm water holds less oxygen than cool water. By increasing the surface movement/turbulence, you are going to maximise the amount of oxygen the water can hold.

 

[ALEXF]

ok so i did read that wrong...higher temp more turbulance.

 

[Ian H]

What about my plants, wont they give the same amount of oxygen? im still injecting co2 so dont really want to be doing that!

 

[Colin_T]

Plants will only produce oxygen when they are photosynthesising (getting light). When the lights are off they use oxygen and release carbon dioxide.