Ich & Snails

[KCHawkeye]

I had an outbreak of Ich last week. I was treating it with a Petco brand of "Herbal Ich Treatment."

1. I recommend that you NEVER use this treatment, as nothing improved.
2. I had all 3 of my Sunset Fire Platies die.
3. The rest of my fish (only a few) also had the Ich really bad. I euthanized them, as the treatment was not working (yes, I'm sure).
4. My question is: will the large, yellow snail I kept also allow the Ich to keep breeding, or do Ich not thrive on the flesh of snails?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[danfloun]

Dunno about the snails, but keep in mind that the success in medicating fish is largely dependant on detecting the illness soon enough and taking appropriate action quickly. There is also the issue of stressing an already stressed fish by adding chemicals to the water, moving to quarantine tanks, bigger/more regular water changes, etc.

I lost 8 fish to ich not one of them showed any external symptoms, it was only about four days after the last death I saw other fish with some external symptoms. Of course, there may have also been an internal parasite at work.... too much guess work unfortunately. I started treatment at first sign of ich and touchwood lost no more, but you can't fight a disease when there are no early signs.

Salt and gradual temperature increases are good for medicating ich apparently, though I'm yet to try it.
Forums will tell you more about that.

 

[fishychick77]

if they are those little pest snails then there is a treatment that will kill them off without harming your fish or get a goldfish to eat them but sometimes goldfish can be jerks and spike nitrate and be mean to other fish

for ich do water changes and gravel vaccum will clean out alot where the ich is starting. use a good treatment like specifically for ich

i used kordon rid.ich plus , disease treatment worked really well