ich....I just dont get it

[robertoi]

Hi all,
last week my neon tetras started exhibiting signs of ich - they'd been in the tankl about 10 days. So I transferred them to a small treatment tank, with heater and filter, everything the modern cosmopolitan london fish could want when theyre sick. This tank is about 12 litres in capacity BTW.
I slowly pumped the temp up to 83 degrees to speed the life cycle along, and am also treating the tank with Waterlife Protozin (which I presume is a copper based treatment given its colour).
I did this all on Saturday, and have been adding 12 drops of protozin per day as per the instructions. Now, get this - this morning, one of the neons was floating around on the surface.

Correct me if Im wrong, but I was under the impression that Ich takes a realtively longish time to kill, and that usually fish will display other symptoms apart from the spots before they actaully expire. Last night, this dead fish looked fine, apart from his spots.

So my question is this - has anyone ever treated neons with Protozin and did you have any success? Am I using too high a dosage for these sensitive little fishes, and am I right in thinking that fish death due to Ich will take longer than a week usually?

I have now lost 2 out of six neons, and two dwarf gouramis since I started this hobby 3 months ago, all my water parameters are fine (zero ammonia, ph7.5). I am starting to get sick of losing fish constantly, if I dont get to the bottom of it soon I may just give up...

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I am not sure about the protozin but do you have any other fish in the tank that were with the neons? With ich, you should always treat the whole tank. Unless you have fish/inverts that cannot handle the meds?

 

[robertoi]

Hi,
I have a bristlenose catfish in there, and was under the impression that they cant take meds of this nature? It doesnt explicitly say on the bottle not to use with catfish, but it makes reference to 'scaleless fish ie morbotids' , or something like that.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Oh right, well don't use that but I think you should use something. I have plecs and other catfish as well as loaches and I use an Interpet med which is totally fine.

Maybe someone else can help...

 

[londreana]

hey... i also have neons with ick!!!

I'm so annoyed, i had them in quarentine tank for a week, then i transfered to the main tank, a week later they developed those white spots!!!

i'm on day 2 of my prozatin (cant remeber how to spell it now) i have scaleless fish on my tank, so im only giving a half dose as recomended, it may take longer but does the trick, the spots from the neons have disappeared and the platt has them, darn!!!

But once u start a med u must finish the course of the med off as otherwise the bacteria could become resistant to the mads and then u'd have an even BIGGER problem.

If i were u i'd bnut the neons back in the tank and treat the whole tank, coz its likely that the ick is in the free floating pore stage in the tank anyhow, so it too needs treatment.

Good Luck with it...

Keep us informed

 

[noelberg]

Copper-based ich and protozoa meds need to be used in half doses with tetras. Most state that on the directions, but some might not. Neons aren't the hardiest fish, so please don't get discouraged. It is also recommended that you add them to the tank 3-4 at a time. Add a bit of your water to the bag while they're being acclimated to the tank temp before you put them in the tank - this helps reduce pH and water quality related stressors.

 

[juwel]

With any treatment you need to put extra airation into the tank as the meds depleats the water of oxygen ive had to treat for this once in 6years and that was at the very start when i hadnt long set up, i used WSM which dosent colour the water and is 100% affective.

 

[robertoi]

Hi,
Have now lost all but two of the neons, dont know exactly what killed them. Im guessing the dosage of the protozin was too high. So I would advise anyone who is considering using this product - DONT use the recommended dosage on the bottle for neons. Im not sure if Id use it atall to be honest.

Yours, gutted, Rob

 

[Brenus]

Hello mate
Dont know all that much about the more fidly fish as i keep oscars if ich raises its ugly head in my tank i just use salt.Tried all those expensive meds and to be honest i don't rate them,they took bloody ages to reduce the ich you need to remove the filter medium and because this took so long the water quality dropped as tank cleaning ruins the mix ratio.Also its very easy to overdose on meds but with salt you could(although not advisable)use twice the dose before the fish even go off their food.New to this forum and relatively new to trop fish keeping (18 months)so if this seems unsound advise i appologise in advance.
Good luck bud