Ick medication killed my fishes?

[Purplesmurf]

The best course of treatment with ick is raising the water temperature to 85-86 degrees and using a salt (3 tsp. per gallon) / Quickcure (malachite green/formaldehyde) combination.

The salt enables your fish to remain bouyant with minimal work while not over stressing them, it may also adversly affect the ich parasite as its immune system is not nearly as protecting.

The trouble with meds is that that ich parasite is only vulnerable to them during one of it's three stages of life.

Ich is introduced in fish in its adult form(it can only be introduced to a tank, it not always present as some people believe). The adult form of ich (attached to your fish) will detach (trophozoite / breeding stage of life) and produce cysts. Each cyst can give rise to 300 or so tomites (free floating, only form vulnerable to medications). As the parasite matures (take 3 days) it attaches itself to a fish's body and will burrow into and under the scales.

Raising the temperature of your tank will accelerate the parasites life cycle and minimize the time infected fish will have parasites attached. The medication will kill any parasites in the water column, and will exterminate the ich burrowed into your fish after they mature into the trophozite stage of life and re-enter the water column.

But there an important thing to remember about medication: disregard the instructions on the bottle, but take note of the dose amount. The bottles will often only have you treat once every twelve days, obvioulsy this will only kill the tomites in the water column at the time of treatment. All the adult parasites on/in your fish will still have a chance to produce more cysts and re-infect your tank. So instead of using one course of treatment you should 3-4 within a 12 day period (the length of the ich parasite life cycle). Make sure to do at least a 50% water change between treatments.

Peas help unclog your fish's digestive tract. Along with garlic extract (boil from garlic in water and dip your fish's food in it) they can be used to help rid your fish of internal parasites and the garlic also intices picky or sick fish to eat.


I hope that helps.

 

[Platinumpete]

my guppy died today... something beside ick killed it... his belly was pretty larger. So I tried to feed it peas but he wouldn,t eat at all. All I have left is my platy everyone died from other cases besides ick. I already stopped the ick medication, it,s making everything worst.


So should I use another medication like marcyn II for my platy? He hangs around in the water surface alot. He ate alot of peas yesterday but he is refusing to eat today. He looks normal and swims fine when I go near the tank.

 

[Platinumpete]

Maracyn-Two:


Broad-spectrum, nontoxic antibiotic tablets for infections of fin and tail rot, popeye, gill disease, dropsy, septicemia, secondary and internal infections. Effective even when fish won't eat in freshwater aquariums. No water changes, pH, or temperature adjustments necessary if readings are in ideal range.

1 Gallon Dosage:
For one round, dissolve one tablet into 10 teaspoons of water. For first day, add 2 teaspoons of concentrated mixture per 1 gallon of water. For days 2-5, add 1 teaspoon of the concentrate per 1 gallon of water.

Manufacturer: Mardel Labs

 

[Platinumpete]

ok ...........I going to trust my own judgement and use that brand. Im pretty sure it's some kind of internal parasite problem.