My coldies have the ICH

[BIGMAC]

Can anyone tell me why my cold water fish have suddenly got the ICH? Thay have been in the tank together for over a month now and have been fine,i introduced one new fish a week ago but that one looks ok.I have added a treatment to the water lastnight which i have to repeat in 48 hrs,but i dont know where the ICH has suddenly come from.One of the fish looks real unhappy just hiding in the corner of the tank.Any ideas?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Sorry to hear about that,

Could just be stress of the new one coming in. From what I remember you have quite a few in your tank don't you? Hmmm moors, comets and bubble eyes? Oh and a weather loach!

What are your parameters like?

 

[BIGMAC]

Hi again, you are right i do have a few in do you think its too many? the tank is 36"L ,12"W,15"H, an i worked out it holds 20 gall. Thats if i worked it out right,maybe im wrong.

 

[BIGMAC]

Sorry forgot to say my water perameters are all ok i have checked them.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

There are a few different opinions on how much water cold fish need. Most agree that they need more than tropicals.

Coldwater fish such as moors get very big if given the chance and I have seen sites recommend a minimum of 8.5UK gallons per fish. This is not because of the size as much as the amont of waste they produce and so they need more water to dilute their waste to safe levels.

Saying that, I do not follow this and I house my goldfish in a 35UK tank. They were in a 16UK before that I personally think, and many argue against me, that as long as the parameters are ok and the fish all have enough room to swim then there doesn't need to be 8.5UK per fish. I think if someone is keeping one then they should have a 8.5UK anyway, so the fish has room to swim but I think the bigger the tank the less gallons per fish needed. Have I made sense? LOL

Are the fish big? I would think that they would need more room as they grow. I do not think that this will have caused your ich outbreak necessarily but it's worth keeping in mind.

HTH

 

[BigSteve]

For what it's worth, those tank dimensions equal about 24 gallons.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

For what it's worth, those tank dimensions equal about 24 gallons.

Is that US though? As that's 20UK.

 

[BIGMAC]

the only fish thas big is the moor,all the others are pretty small.Thanks for giving me advice onceagain .I will just have to keep an eye on my fish and hope the ICH treatment works.
Thanx

 

[Cheese Specialist]

the only fish thas big is the moor,all the others are pretty small.Thanks for giving me advice onceagain .I will just have to keep an eye on my fish and hope the ICH treatment works.
Thanx

Good Luck!

 

[BIGMAC]

I have looked at the fish again tonight and the white spot has got worse even after i put the treatment in 24hrs ago,is this normal or is there something else i can do to help the ICH? I really dont want to loose my fish,can anyone help please?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I am not sure. I know that ich thrives more in coldwater but I am not sure you should heat the water.

Do you have aquarium salt? Although you have a weather loach...

Hmmm I am not sure. I think you should keep the light off and maybe cover the tank. Ich does better with light and heat. Be sure to treat for at least 21 days to beat the cycle especially as you won't be heating the water.

Sorry I can't help more.

 

[BIGMAC]

I am not sure. I know that ich thrives more in coldwater but I am not sure you should heat the water.

Do you have aquarium salt? Although you have a weather loach...

Hmmm I am not sure. I think you should keep the light off and maybe cover the tank. Ich does better with light and heat. Be sure to treat for at least 21 days to beat the cycle especially as you won't be heating the water.

Sorry I can't help more.

I will turn the light off as you suggest,and just keep on with the treatment and hope it works.Sorry for been such a pest with all the questions.
thanks again.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

You are not being a pest, and it's no problem!

Keep me updated if you have time.

 

[cation]

I have looked at the fish again tonight and the white spot has got worse even after i put the treatment in 24hrs ago,is this normal ...

Yes, this is normal. The medicine you add will not help the white spots on the fish. An important thing to know about the disease is that ich has 3 distinct life stages, and the meds are only effective against one of these.

The ich spots you see on the fish could be considered the "first" stage, although it's a cyclical process, not a linear one. the white spots contain many tiny "sacks" containing the new immature ich form. When they are ready, the sacks fall to the substrate, and the ich inside spends some time rapidly reproducing. At this point the white spots on the fish are gone, and the ich is invisible to the eye.

The sacks then burst open, and the ich organisms become free-swimming. They must find a fish host and begin the cycle again in a short period of time (a few days) or they will die.


Ich meds are only effective while the organisms are in the free swimming stage.

 

[cation]

I am not sure. I know that ich thrives more in coldwater but I am not sure you should heat the water.

Not to be a poophead, but ich doesn't really "thrive" in cold water. The benefit to increasing the temperature is that the life cycle turnover rate is increased, which means you can get the ich to a free-swimming life stage more quickly. This is the point at which salt and/or medications are the most effective, which is why raising hte temp works.

In all honesty, they could be considered thriving in warmer water, because if they were to proliferate unchecked by meds or salt, and had an endless supply of stressed out fish to infect, they would be able to shorten generational time and increase ich total biomass in warmer water, resulting in more ich, not less.