ich

[Knuc dog]

using danios to cycle my tank and they now have developed ich...... i am a student and just gave all my money to my school.... i am getting my new fish extrememly soon and wonder if there is a cheaper effective way to get rid of the disease?

 

[clutterydrawer]

a prime example of why fishless cycling is better

anyway

you really need some medication. have you read the pinned topic on ich?

 

[new fish lover]

Recommend Mardel's coppersafe. raise your temp to about 80 degrees.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Rid ich should also work.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Knuc dog

How are your fish doing now?

The old fashioned way of curing ich is to add aquarium salt at the rate of 1 Tbs. per 5 gallons and raise the temperature to 80 - 82 degrees. Keep it that way for a week or so after all symptoms are gone.

If you can get any of the ich medicines, I suggest you do what I described above and add the medicine too. Ich can be persistent and difficult to get rid of, so don't stop the treatment too soon. If you read the article about it, you will understand why.

Good luck and please let us know how your fish respond.

 

[yhbae]

Hi Knuc dog

How are your fish doing now?

The old fashioned way of curing ich is to add aquarium salt at the rate of 1 Tbs. per 5 gallons and raise the temperature to 80 - 82 degrees. Keep it that way for a week or so after all symptoms are gone.

If you can get any of the ich medicines, I suggest you do what I described above and add the medicine too. Ich can be persistent and difficult to get rid of, so don't stop the treatment too soon. If you read the article about it, you will understand why.

Good luck and please let us know how your fish respond.

Hey Inchworm,

Have you ever tried high-temperature method before for treating ich? Since I started the hobby, I only experienced ich once (thankfully!) and I treated it with high temperature with no medication at all. It worked great and lost zero fishes during that time...

Just curious...

 

[Inchworm]

...Have you ever tried high-temperature method before for treating ich? Since I started the hobby, I only experienced ich once (thankfully!) and I treated it with high temperature with no medication at all. It worked great and lost zero fishes during that time...

Just curious...

Hi yhbae

No, I've never tried just raising the temperature. I never even knew it could be done that way until I joined the forum.

Since then, I've been getting more corys and not replacing my other fish so I haven't had the problem for quite some time. Corys are usually resistant to it, thank goodness!

I can see one big advantage that just using heat would have, and that's the ability to do frequent water changes without altering the level of salt or medicine. This would be especially useful in preventing a further complication of a bacterial infection setting in on fish who are already stressed from the ich. Since raising the temperature provides a favorable environment for the reproduction of bad bacteria, lots of water changes would be a help in preventing it. So would the addition of an airstone to increase the oxygen content of the water.

Just how would you use heat to cure ich? How warm would the water need to be and how long would you need to keep it up to get rid of the ich?

 

[yhbae]

I did it by leaving it at 89F (raise 2-3F per day), and leave it there for two full weeks.

Since higher temperature means less O2, I had to lower the water level by 2 inches so that Aqua Clears will create more water disturbance.

During the "treatment" time, all fishes acted great - in fact, they were more active than usual, probably the side effect of having a high temperature. They ate more as well.

After about a week, one by one, ich started to dissapear and in two weeks, completely gone. It has never come back again.

I didn't even have to do more frequent water changes - typical weekly WC was ok...