ich in the tank now!!!

[newfishies]

i noticed that my female betta (in the tank described below) looks like some one sprinkled salt on her. i am currently treating one fish in isolation, using aquarium salt. my quesion is, should i try the salt or go with a med specifically for the ich? i am not sure if the fish i have cold tolerate the salt. please help!!

 

[jrd77]

If you are worried about salt sensitive fish, I would try using something specifically for ich. You might treat only the Betta alone or the whole tank as a preventative. The sooner you treat the ich, the better chances you have of solving the problem and preventing an outbreak.

Good luck.

 

[BobK]

Salt will burn the cories. They don't have scales.

 

[newfishies]

now i am confused. the ich meds that i bought (wardley's) said that they shouldn't be used on scaleless fish. i already treated them last night with the stuff, now i don't know what to do!!! help, please!!!!

 

[WILDER]

You can half the dose for scaleless fish, abit of salt in the tank shouldn't harm the cories to much.

 

[newfishies]

the med says to stop carbon filtering while medicating. what should i do ? i have a penguin biowheel. should i just pull the filter media out? will that make my tank uncycle? please help, i don't want to undo all the work i did setting this up!!

 

[lizard]

If you have carbon in your filter and if it's been in there for less than four days, you need to remove the carbon. If the carbon has been in there for more than four days, it shouldn't affect the meds. I would suggest using a half to three-quarter dose of the ich medicine, since you have Corys in the tank. I've heard some people say to not use any salt with Corys and I've heard some others say that Corys aren't as sensitive to salt as people say they are. I don't know the "correct" answer - it may very well depend on the fish themselves, the contents of the water in the tank, and other such variables. It could depend on the variety of Cory.

If you want to reduce the concentration of the ich treatment in the water, do a water change, but don't add more ich treatment. Next time, add half the amount of treatment that's recommended for the amount of water you're adding. For example, if you're replacing five gallons of water in your tank, put enough treatment in for two-and-a-half gallons of water.

If your fish with ich isolated from everyone else, or is she still in with the Corys and the other fish? Either way, I would suggest slowly raising the tank temperature to 86* or so. Ich supposedly can't live at the higher temperature (once it falls off the fish).

Good luck

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[k2snowboards88]

When some of my fish had ich, i just raised the water temp to 84 degrees. That seemed to do the trick better than medicine ever had. If your fish can handle it, you should try adding just a bit of salt to get more oxygen to the water as hotter water holds less oxygen.