Ich

[Musho3210]

I see some ich looking things on my neons and cardinal tetras in my planted tank, but there are no signs of ich on my other fish (kribs, pearl gouramis, bristlenose plec, and cories)

Anyway ive turned on my UVS to maybe kill some, should i do a heat and salt treatment or use medication? Obviously i want both my plants AND fish to survive.....

 

[fry_lover]

Unless your tank is 100% Java Fern which i doubt! i Wouldnt bother with the salt, its my understanding that very low doses dont harm most plants, but with the meds available there is no need to risk it, over the years i have used Waterlife Protozin, King British WS3 and Interpet without noticing any effect on the plants

Me personally, i would up the temp to 84-86F with extra surface movement (quite bit extra) and add a recommended treatment such as Protozin

If i did have salt tolerate fish and a non planted tank or plants i didnt care for, i would use salt as well in the treatment

EDIT: when i say "no effect on plants" i mean it, but thats just my experience, and i mean well planted tanks and more than once with anti-parasite meds (the curse of livebearer LFS fish!!!!)

 

[garuf]

I could be mistaken but I seem to remember upping the temp kills the ich but i dont know if this is with or without meds

 

[Musho3210]

upping the temp speeds up the life cycle but wont actually kill unless it gets really high....

Im not going to medicate yet, see if my UVS can keep it away as well as me feeding food with garlic to help the immune system a bit. If nothing gets better and/or gets worse, i will look into meds.

 

[Musho3210]

actually, looking around i remembered that a while ago i got ich medication. Checking the expiration date it says 04/2008.

Its API Super Ick Cure, its got 3.6 mg malachite green and 60mg of nitrofurozen per packet, each packet treats 10 gallons,

The instruction says that you dose the needed amount, then wait 48 hours, then dose again, then wait 48 hours, then change tank water and start running carbon. Well this treatment is only for 4 days, and i know ich life cycle is aprox 2 weeks. Is it safe to leave the meds there for 2 weeks? And should i dose half the amount due to my cories and pleco? Should i have my UVS on when dosing?

 

[Kay1123]

I wouldn't use anything with malachite green in it. I have a planted tank and it just scares me that it will kill the plants and my smaller fish. I'll just tell you what I use and you can go from there. Ich Attack by Kordon. Safe for all fish and plants.

 

[Musho3210]

should i run UVS while medicating? What is are other good medicines to use that you can find in the US?

 

[Kay1123]

The two I've had success with are Ick Guard by Jungle and Ich Attack by Kordon. You can get them both online if you can't find them at your LFS. This site has both for sale.
Meds (Ich attack is on the very last page where as the Ick Guard is on the first page). Just depends on how much you want to spend. If you have saltwater tanks then I would suggest the Ich Attack because it will treat more in both salt and fresh.

Not sure on the UVS. Hopefully someone else will know. I usually keep my lights off and raise the temp.

 

[Musho3210]

dont trust products that cure both fresh and saltwater ich, they are different diseases and saltwater ich needs much more powerful treatment like hyposalinity or copper.

 

[Kay1123]

I've had absolutely no problem with them and I'm not going to stop using them when they have cured Ich many times with little loss of fish compared to products that use malachite.

 

[lljdma06]

When my 20g had ich last year, I used Rid-Ich by either aquarium pharmeceuticals or Kordon. The main active ingredient is formalin, I think. It's got a little of the other stuff, but not nearly much. It takes a little longer, but I used it half-strength and then did a 25% water change before each treatment, which I think the directions recommend anyways. I purposefully did not raise the temp too high, as I had cories in the tank and why stress a fish out and make it sick. The cories also explain the half-strength concentration. It was at about 80 degrees F for the treatment. I also didn't stop treatment until the cysts had disappeared from the fish for about 5 days. Probably overkill, but I haven't had an occurance of any disease since then, and I still have the cories and the plants. Kills some algae as well, which was nice. I didn't inject CO2 during the treatment, upped the filter current, and reduced the photo-period. It was already a low-light tank.

llj

 

[arvlyn]

When my 20g had ich last year, I used Rid-Ich by either aquarium pharmeceuticals or Kordon. The main active ingredient is formalin, I think. It's got a little of the other stuff, but not nearly much. It takes a little longer, but I used it half-strength and then did a 25% water change before each treatment, which I think the directions recommend anyways. I purposefully did not raise the temp too high, as I had cories in the tank and why stress a fish out and make it sick. The cories also explain the half-strength concentration. It was at about 80 degrees F for the treatment. I also didn't stop treatment until the cysts had disappeared from the fish for about 5 days. Probably overkill, but I haven't had an occurance of any disease since then, and I still have the cories and the plants. Kills some algae as well, which was nice. I didn't inject CO2 during the treatment, upped the filter current, and reduced the photo-period. It was already a low-light tank.

llj

I'm using Kordon Rid-Ich+ right now for my 37 gal. tank, as recommended to me by a vet friend. She says she researched a lot of Ich medications and has used this one herself with success so she now recommends it to her clients. I'm slowly raising the temperature to 78°. I did a 50% water change/gravel vacuuming last night before the first treatment and will do a 25% change every night before adding more Rid-Ich for the next 9 days, then I'll report back to her. All of this is as per her instructions.

 

[Musho3210]

i dont have the guts to medicate, im going with a heat and UV treatment. Temperature is up to 87 degrees, fish seem fine at that temp. That high of a temp should kill the parasite and if not, hopefully the UV can pick out the ones that got away. I increased surface agiation by A LOT since theres probably not much oxygen in the tank....