ick

[fish_keeper2]

i have a 10 gal with 2 fantails, a shubunkin and a sarrasa commet. today i noticed ick so i had my water tested. ammonia 0 - .5, nitrate 40-80, and nitrite 0-.5 strips were used so its not too accurate. anyway the only thing ive done differently lately is that i used to have 2 shubunkins instead of the sarrasa commet and 1 shubunkin died mysteriously( i saw no sign of dissease or anything) and i replaced it with a sarrasa(stupid idea) so i guess the ick came in with it. i know this is overstocked and i will be getting a 29+ by christmas so plz dont bother me about that.....anyway i want to know if treating the ick is any dif from tropicals. im using rid-ick does anyone have experience with it. how much will it matter without a heater? right now the temp is 78-80 f also will it be ok if i dont feed or feed very little untill the ick is gone

 

[black angel]

If you knew you were overcrowded then why buy a fourth fish? You should have wauted until you got your new tank and even then you will be overcrowded with the three fish you have.
The number one cause of fish disease is overcrowding, and even when you manage to get the ich under control something else will come along as the fish will be stressed in the small tank.

Now to your current problem. To get rid of ich quickly the water needs to be at around 80-82f all the time to speed up the cycle of the parasite. Using the meds you have is fine but dont have any over head light on during the treatment and vac the gravel between doses. Add extra aeration as well. At the end of the treatment do small regular water changes and add carbon to your filter.

Salt is another way to go and you could add 1 level teaspoon per gallon for the first 12 hours and do that again twice more to get a .3% solution. Take out any live plants.
Every 3 days do a 50% water change doing gravel vacs and remember to add back the salt you took out.
So if you take out 5 gallons replace with 15 level teaspoons of salt. This way will take around 2 - 3 weeks to kill all the parasites.

Once thats all cleared you will need to up your water changing as you are registering values for ammonia and nitrite, and your nitrate level is climbing too.

 

[fish_keeper2]

it was one of those stupid impulse buys and this is the first time i have ever had problems with this tank. since i dont have a heater will it be ok to take one of my heaters from my other tanks(room temp is around 76) for a short while untill the ick is gone. how come there should be no light on during treatment? aeration isnt a problem becuase i always have an air pump in my tanks becuase i like the look of the bubbles moving. thanks for the help Black Angel.

 

[black angel]

Well i suppose when we go into the pet store and see those cute faces we just think aww one more wont harm. Thats why i dont look in the goldie section any more.
Anyway, you can use a heater from another tank for the short term. Keeping the light on deactivates the meds for some reason, never found out why. It was also thought best to cover the tank with a blanket to keep it as dark as possible so the ich couldnt see its prey, but thats been knocked on the head as apparently they dont have eyes.
Keeping the fsh in a dark tank will also keep them calm as well.

Good luck with the treatment and let us know how it goes

 

[fish_keeper2]

thanks for the help. i just wanted to tell that one of fantails has become so week that it keeps getting sucked up against the intake of the filter i dobt itll make it untill tonite

 

[black angel]

I'm sorry about your fish. Ich is a really nasty disease and leaves them wide open to other secondary infections. If you can, put him somewhere quiet where theres no strong current. Does he have much ich on him or not?

 

[fish_keeper2]

he does have some ick. he also has some fin rot now probly due to the filter sucking him up agains the grill thing on the intake pipe. so i just removed him from the tank. he didnt even struggle the poor thing. on a better note the others are doing just fine and have less ick than last night so hopefully i wont have to treat very long(my last battle with ick in another tank lasted almost 3 weeks)

 

[black angel]

Keep doing the treatment right to the end and maybe a day or two extra of gravel vacs.