My betta has ick!!!!!

[canis_lupus]

My female betta Citrus has ick (i think) she has the little white spots on her tail and fins i bought quick cure cuz that's what the guy at the lfs said worked best.....but what do i do now??? it says to check water quality but i don't have the testers i only have ph........i also don't have a heater i can't afford one....my old one keeps sliding down and i'm afraid it will short circuit and kill all my fish! please help me i've never actually treated a fish 4 anything b4

 

[Calusa]

Isolate, add a pinch of salt, treat, and hope for the best.

 

[Scarab]

First of all...calm down . Ick is not the end of the world and quite common. The good thing is you caught it early. You don't need a heater (especially not in a 1/2 gallon...you'll fry the little dude). While some may say raise the temperature to speed up the ick parasite's cycle...actually you don't really need to. Some fish don't take well to sudden, large shifts in temperature. Just follow the directions that came with your Quick Cure (and if you have questions, just go to the manufacturer's website...it'll have dosage info, etc. And you can email them w/more questions if need be).

My first betta, Solomon, got ick not too long after I got him. I used Cure Ick by Aquarium Products (I believe the same makers of your Quick Cure). I gave him 3 dosage cycles over the period of a little over a week (read up on ick using your search engine or posts about it...you'll find that when the white spots disappear is your real window of opportunity...it's then that the parasites leave the fish's body and go down into the gravel to multiply then they'll try to reinfest the fish and start the cycle all over again) and he's all better now. Back to his active, happy self and making bubble nests.

Now that he's cured, I use Aquarisol in the water after his 100% water change that I do once a week (I also do a 25-50% change mid-week). The Aquarisol works as a preventative. And when Solomon got sick I immediately started using it in Samson's tank so he wouldn't get it.

I've read a couple of places that once a fish makes it through a first bout of ick that they sometimes develop immunity to it. I have no idea how true that is or not.

Just keep treating Citrus as directed and keep an eye on him. And use gloves while he has it, your medicating him and coming in contact with his water. I don't know about Quick Cure, but Cure Ick has some toxic, carcinogins (ok...I know I totally misspelled that) in it.

Keep us posted on Citrus.

 

[Scarab]

oh...and the salt's not necessary---some use salt baths, but it's not necessary, especially with a betta IMO.

and you definitely want to isolate her so you don't want to infect the other fish in the 10 gallon...get another 1/2 gallon and use it as hospital tank and medicate her in that

you may end up having to add Aquarisol or something similar in the big 10 gallon just to make sure your other fish don't get it

 

[canis_lupus]

so aquarisol is a preventative? k Citrus is in the 10 gallon right now (though she doesn't act sick) so i should take her out? but i don't have anywhere 2 put her!
well i'll check out the site but i don't think i can treat her 2nite the instructions say 2 add one drop per gallon daily on all fish.......so i shouldn't take her out just treat the whole lot? ugh it's soooooo confusing

 

[Liz05]

Aquarisol is supposedly a preventative, yes, but it hasnt prevented much in my case. If you think you'd still like to try raising your water temperature to 85 degrees, you might try leaving your light on... Thats how I control the temperature in my tanks, because I dont use a heater. And yes you should definitely take her out. If you need somewhere to put her, just go get a cheap fishbowl from WalMart or somewhere, that will be sufficient until she's cured. Don't worry, ick is pretty easily treated.

 

[canis_lupus]

i can't get to walmart 4 awhile......all the stores are far away......i'll ask at the pet store here.....they might have a bowl (kindof a small pet shop) i should take her out? so do i treat the tank 2? that's where it's confusing cuz if i don't treat the tank then the others might get it right? i guess that's where aquarisol comes in.....but it hasn't worked 4 u?

 

[canis_lupus]

oh one other thing her head is kinda orangy and so is her underside......is this velvet?

 

[canis_lupus]

i read a little more about velvet and i don't think it is phew!!!!!! but i'm still confused about taking her out or not......i don't want to wait 2 long so that i can't treat it

 

[wuvmybetta]

hmmmm, I dunno if I'd take her out , that will stress her even more

what I understand about ich is that ich is everywhere....aquariums all over the world carry it and it only rears it's ugly head when a fish becomes stressed and vulnerable to it, but I may very well be wrong. Now you have the dilemma of treating the whole tank or taking her out, a fish doesn't do well after living in filtered water and then going to a bowl so that's a tough decision. I've only dealt with ich once, when we 1st set up the 29 there was an outbreak during cycling & we were slightly overcrowded, it attacked some fish while not even phasing others, go figure. I treated the entire tank, but I don't use store bought med's, I prefer to use stuff that you can get at the health food store , there's a mineral to treat everything. We didn't lose any fish though
I've heard good things about quick cure & aquarisol so that should work for you, I hope you make the right decision and your sweet girl gets better soon


Scarab, your not going to cycle your betta tanks?

 

[Kossy]

ok...im sure u got enough advice im jstu asking how are your guppies getting along with a male betta. Also guppies are shoalers u need more off em.

 

[canis_lupus]

k i think i'm gonna treat the whole tank but i'll do so at lunch or something cuz i'm gonna ask i guy i know first and as for the betta with the guppies it's a female so she's pretty peaceful unless the guppies take her food....i've had bad experiences with male bettas and guppies so i won't try that again....i know guppies need more friends ...i'm gonna have babies soon...and around here guppies are hard 2 find as soon as a store gets em they're gone the next day, so i'll just make my own

 

[Alien Anna]

Hi - I seem to be in a minority here, but at the first sign of ich I just treat the whole tank. I've never known it to be on just one fish and it seems to spread like wildfire. I used some whitespot cure I got from Aquarium Supplies, based on methylene blue. The only problem is that I have to temporarily re-house my apple snails (mysteriously, it doesn't seem to kill wild trumpet snails - that would be too much to ask!).

I've only had ich when I've had other problems in my tank. The first time it was due to a broken heater, leading to cold nightime temperatures. The second time it was due to some bogwood going rotten on me and giving off sulphar dioxide gas (this presumably weakened the fish and made them susceptible to infection). That was in a different tank, however. More recently, my betta had whitespot but by then he was already sick with something else nasty.

 

[Liz05]

Canis, I treated my whole tank successfully just raising the water temperature and adding aquarisol. You should be fine. I just think that if it were a betta, I would have separated him... maybe because I had a bad experience with a betta as a community fish! At any rate your fish will probably be ok. Alien Anna- how do you get wild trumpet snails?? (My mystery snails are mating like crazy)

 

[Alien Anna]

Alien Anna- how do you get wild trumpet snails?? (My mystery snails are mating like crazy)

Hi - no idea. They probably came in on some plants. I'm not sure of the exact species, but that's what they call them round here. They aren't attractive and they voraciously eat all plants except the rubbery ones (java ferns etc.) They also breed like nothing on earth.