Ich Breakout

[little hippo]

Request Help---i think i have ich. i am increasing the temp to 86F (slowly) and doing water changes daily. i read about doing a salt bath for 30 mins?. i think the catfish brought it and i dont want to kill them trying to get rid of it. (i now know about quarantine for fish for future). is this a good treatment? i dont live near a petsmart and they would be closed before i can get to them today.there are no pet stores in my town. petsmart is the closest.

Tank size: 29 gallon & 1 gallon
pH: normal
ammonia: normal
nitrite: normal
nitrate: normal
kH: ?
gH: ?
tank temp: 78F in both (started increasing temp it was at 80 when i left for work)

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): fish seem to have white spots that look like salt stuck to them. but not all fish.....i think it is ICH

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 25% water changes weekly. (did a 50% change yesterday and removed all decor and started increasing temp. going to 25% change today and increase temp some more)

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: ?

Tank inhabitants: big tank has 2 dwarf gourami, 5 zebra danio, 2 spotted catfish(new last week). small tank: 3 neon tetras 1 ghost shrimp

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 2 spotted catfish(big tank)

Exposure to chemicals: none

Digital photo (include if possible):none

 

[KittyKat]

Tank size: 29 gallon & 1 gallon

Dimensions?

pH: normal
ammonia: normal
nitrite: normal
nitrate: normal

Can you give us numbers?

For me, normal are the following:
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 ppm
nitrate: under 25 ppm

Normal pH for neons is 6.0 and zebra danios is 7.0, which is it?

KH is carbonate hardness and GH is general hardness, two measurements for water hardness.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: ?

Chemical additives and media could include medication, dechlorinators, carbon, nitrazorb, etc.

Tank inhabitants: big tank has 2 dwarf gourami, 5 zebra danio, 2 spotted catfish(new last week). small tank: 3 neon tetras 1 ghost shrimp

Zebra danios and neons should be kept in groups of at least 6 and ideally 10-15+. The larger tank may be able to take more zebras, but the small tank is too small for any neons at all.

What species are the spotted catfish? Is it a pleco? A Agamyxis pectinifrons? A Synodontis sp.?

It does sound like ich, but increasing the temperature is only going to speed up the rate of infection unless you are treating the tank with medication because at higher temperatures, ich has a shorter life cycle, which means that it multiplies faster. The temperature increase helps if there is medication because the medication can kill ich at only one stage of its life. Treatment will depend on the species of the cats, so it would help if we could ID them!