Ick Treatment And Water Changes...

[WillyRBeek]

I had an outbreak of ICK in my gourami tank(Long story short, brought a clown pleco home from the LFS last week which had ICK and I didn't really notice. It's since went on to infect pretty much the entire tank, killing 1 gourami and the infected clown pleco already and another gourami is now starting to look sickly). Anyway I put the ICK treatment in Sunday night, and on the bottle it says that it treats the tank for up to a month, but now it's time for the weekly tank water change...But should I still be doing the regular changes after I put in the ICK treatment, or should I give the medication more time before doing a water change?

 

[vinylman]

Tough call, but any water change you do will dilute the medication. Lesser of two evils, really; I think I'd complete the course.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Tough call, but any water change you do will dilute the medication. Lesser of two evils, really; I think I'd complete the course.

Roughly how long do you think that will be? The other clown pleco that I had in their before I got the sick one has still got ICK, and the Pearl Gourami has got it pretty bad too. I havn't noticed much/any on the other 3 gourami's though...

 

[vinylman]

Are there no specific dosing instructions, other than it treats the tank for a month?. If not, that's very unusual.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Are there no specific dosing instructions, other than it treats the tank for a month?. If not, that's very unusual.

Well it says to add 1 cap full for every 4 gallons...

 

[vinylman]

Blimey, those are really helpful instructions, aren't they?. I suppose (logically) that you should treat them until there are no visible signs of illness, then dose for a couple more days, but don't take that as written in stone. You could see if any of the staff at your LFS have ever used it.

 

[Bignose]

If it is the "treat for a month" kind, it must be copper based. None of the other ich medications are effective for more than 24 hours.

The solution is pretty simple, though. Do the water change then bring the concentration back up. I.e. if you take out 4 gallons in the water change, put 1 capful back in. If you take out 6 gallons, put in 1 and 1/2 capfuls, etc.