Ich

[Toki]

I don't know much about my water parameters because I don't have a testing kit of my own. I took the water to Petsmart tonight and they told me the pH was high but that was all. This is a relatively new tank, only 2 months old. I only let it go a week or so before I put fish in and I started with 3 platies and 2 black skirt tetras. I got rid of the platies (took them back to the store) and put in fancy guppies (4). First I had a ton of algae growing, so my friend had the bright idea to buy a pleco for it. This is a 10 gallon tank, mind you. I figured it wasn't a big deal since I have a larger tank I can transfer him to when the time comes.

Only now the black skirt tetras have white spots all over them. On Monday I did a 25% water change and added water from my other tank and Tuesday I did a 50% water change, using decholorinated tap water. They actually seem WORSE now, because they look like their tails are falling apart, like they have finrot. I'm hesitant to use a medicine but the Petsmart salesperson gave me a product called "Ick Clear" which are fizzy tablets. Should I avoid these and keep doing water changes or just use the tablets? None of my other fish show signs of ich.

Also, I read in the Ich sticky that once they have the spots, it's too late to kill those parasites. Does that mean my fish are going to die or that they'll have those spots forever no matter what?

 

[Sasha]

Ich can only be treated when it's in a free swimming stage. The parasite first attachs itself to the fish, which appears like grains of salt. The Ich then leaves the host and falls to the bottom of the tank to reproduce. After it reproduces, it finds a new host. Raising the temperature up a couple degrees (to about 80 - 81 degrees) speeds up the life cycle and makes it faster to treat.

I recommend using a medication called Quick Cure to treat Ich. I used it several times and had great success with it for treating Ich.

Hope this helps!

 

[Salt Freak]

When you put the medicine in the only time that medicine is effective is when the ich are at the freefloating stage of there life cycle this is when the cyst on this fish have hatched into more young and it killls the young so it cant reattach to the fish. a good treatment for ich is copper.

 

[Toki]

So I should just euthanize the poor suckers and let the ich die from lack of hosts, eh?

 

[firedragon_1999_2002]

i was told to wate till the spots fall of or disapere, then start treating the tank. i used quick cure for 3 weeks(the sunny hill pet center told me to) then stoped the treatment, also added 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt and raised the temp to 82 degrees. it worked and i havent had it back, but it will stain silicone sealents and air hoses.

 

[Redbled]

So I should just euthanize the poor suckers and let the ich die from lack of hosts, eh?

No, don't kill them, ich is one of the easiest things in a tank to cure, as long as you treat it soon. Use quick cure, I wouldn't wait for anything to happen first.