Help!!! My swordtail Frys have Ich on them!!!

[eugene]

Hello everyone

I am a novice in fish keeping and this is my first time in this forum. i am writing in coz i need some advice on the steps to eradicate Ich from my tank.

i have a small tank which houses 16 swordtail frys. just recently, i discovered white spots on them. after some research, i undestood that these white spots are the so-called Ich.

i have bought the Ich medication and has just started using it. my concern is that should i remove all the artificial plants, my gravel and the biochemical sponge filter that i have in my tank? will the sponge react with the medication and make it ineffective?

are there any more effective and quick way to stop this diesease? its very saddening to lose anyone of them...

Regards,

Eugene

 

[Alien Anna]

I'd put the temperature up to 80F/28C and add salt. I wouldn't remove anything from the tank. Apart from the fact that this is fry, which makes a difference, I don't normally consider ich to be a terribly serious infection. I'd be concerned about using ich treatments in this case, depending on the age of the fry.

Do keep an eye on your water parameters, particularly ammonia and nitrite - water quality problems are frequently a trigger for ich.

 

[Dragonslair]

Ich usually occurs when the fish are,"under the weather", because that is when they become suseptible to pathogenic infections. If you have a look at the beginners quesions and see the pinned topic,What is Ich, you will probably understand a little more about the infection. There are ways to eliminate all pathogenic bacteria in the water. I use one of them. The easiest is to use a UV sterilizer unit and the cheaper alternative is to use an Ozonator. Both methods burn bacteria to death leaving you with almost bacteria free water. In both cases only the water carriyng the bacteria passing through either the air bubbles or the UV light are destroyed. Bacteria in the filters are unaffected.

 

[eugene]

i thought the babies were recovering, coz there were less white spots on them now. but now, 9 of them are dead...i am afraid more will come.

i have been applying the white spots medication and has lessen the dosage since they are frys. and i do a 50% water change every day and added in the medication to maintain its concentration in the water...i think it help coz less white spots where seen, but i discover that some of their fins and tails are like disintegrating. some of those that died have a fin no working anymore when it swims...


Regards
Eugene

 

[Feline]

Oh sorry to hear about the losses Eugene

Fins disintegration (or is it fin rotting?) can be a secondary infection. I'll hav the same suggestions just as Alien Anna said, and those that Dragon said is a good idea as well.

The salt content should be 1 tablespoon per 18.9L more or less.

Hope all the others will go thru this. Good luck!