Ich in my 4FT tank!!!

[faewyn]

Ok I have a 3 week old completey cycled 4 ft tank (err 65 Gals)
I added 4 tiger barbs, a female betta & a Algae eater jsut to inhibit the tank for a week before I stocked it with Cichlids.

Now last night I found that the female better had Ich, and 1 of my tiger barbs also has it too. now more then 4-5 spots on there bodies
So I take all the fish out of tank, and raide the temp to 30degrees and does it up with Melafix (thinking if any is free swimming, it will kill it off)

Does this sound like enough? My cichlids are coming in 3 days Will it be enough time before the Ich is gone?

FYI I have no activated carbon in my filter so the meds wont be flushed.
Would raising the temp this high kill my plants, (maybe they will enjoy the CO2)
How long in hte free swimming stage, if it is in it will it take to kill the parasite with a high temp and melafix?

I am stressing because of the Money I have paid for the cichlids, trust me to put fish in hte tank after doing a fishless cycle

My params are perfect as can be, My guess is the betta had ich (even though she was in her QT barrack before this and I have no disease with other bettas) I am thinking she was a little stressed out being in the tank.

TIA
faewyn

 

[faewyn]

anyone?

 

[heresmike]

Sorry I can't answer all your questions. But I do know that Melafix is an anti-bacterial, and won't do anything with ich, which is a parasite. As you know high temps will speed up the ich life-cycle, so that's a good start. Your plants might be a little stressed from it though! Some tolerate high temps better than other, so it's hard to say w/o knowing what you have. Also hard to say if the ich will be gone in 3 days time.

 

[smpthy4thedevil]

melafix will do nothing for the ich. you need rid-ich+ or another ich medication.

you need to medicate for 3-4 days (with rid-ich+, anyway) after the last sign of ich is gone, so no, you wont be able to put new fish in there in 3 days. it took about four for me to see the visible signs of ich disappear on my fish, and i medicated for another 3, so expect it to be about a week before even thinking of putting new fish in there.

i've got no idea what the high temps will do to your plants. it depends what kind you have. but the high temps will help to speed the life cycle of the ich. this is necessary because the ich is only vulnerable to the ich medication for a couple days out of... i think a 12 day cycle in the 70-degree range, and if you raise the temp to 80-85, it gets shortened significantly, so there are more frequent opportunities for the medication to kill the ich.

i'm not sure how long the ich parasites are in the free-swimming stage.. honestly if i were you i'd have left at least one afflicted fish in the tank so i'd have visible proof of whether or not the medication was working.

how are you treating the fish that currently have ich?