Potential Ich; Trying to Determine If and How to Treat

[Tempestuousfury]

I set up a new 55 gallon tank with established media. It had several fish for a week without an increase in any of the pertinent levels. Yesterday I added a few fish that I purchased (I do not have a quarantine tank) and although every new fish seems fine, one of my older cherry barbs flicked against driftwood twice. I am not sure how to proceed, but I did a partial water change and have currently set the heater to 84F, and it is slowy climbing.

Stock that I am worried about:
3 yoyo loaches; golden ram pair, half-dollar sized angel.

Tank parameters:
0 ammonia; 0 nitrites, 5 nitrates; pH 8.2 (yeah, I'm definitely working on lowering it)

With these fish, it seems ike a bad idea to even do salt, so I am currently toying with keeping the water warm and doing several water changes. However, is this advised, or should I wait for spots or more fish to flick?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Fishmanic]

bump up the heat to 86 F and keep it there for 2 weeks...doing as gravel vac and at least a 50% WC every 7 days . I just got over a bout of ich - the heat cured it.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

bump up the heat to 86 F and keep it there for 2 weeks...doing a gravel vac and at least a 50% WC every 7 days . I just got over a bout of ich - the heat cured it.

Thanks. I’ll give it a shot. It’s at 84 now; I’ll raise it a bit tomorrow morning.

 

[Colin_T]

The following link is about white spot and post #1 and #16 are worth a read.

What is ICH?

This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it? The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot. It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and...

www.fishforums.net

 

[DoubleDutch]

Again : Is it wise to start treatment for one fish flashing? There are several reasons why I fish could flash.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Update: It definitely was ich. 88F for several days and water changes didn't work. I dropped the temperature once fish were gasping at the top. It's at 84F with two other fish at the top. Readings are still 0/0/5 with plenty of aeration. I'm using half the dosage of the API ick cure for a few days now; no changes clearly. I did a 50% WC, it's clearly not helped if the issue is oxygenation.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

The following link is about white spot and post #1 and #16 are worth a read.

What is ICH?

This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it? The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot. It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and...

www.fishforums.net

Thanks for the information. I've definitely come across most of this in my research. I've essentially done everything you'd suggested save vacuuming the substrate as it is sand.

Specifically: 87-88F with water changes, dropping to 86F with malachite green, dropping to 84F with 50% wc over the course of the week.

I've lost a cherry barb, which is strange as I have more fragile fish in the tank. However, they are all showing the most fin clamping and lethargy. The most I've seen of the ich is three cysts on a barb, so it's definitely gotten out of control. Now with gasping, different temperatures, aeration, water changed, and the medication (half dosage)... I've run out of apparent options I think?

 

[Byron]

I will not guess as to what it might be, but if you had the temp at 88F for two weeks, ich would be dead. You would not see what you have described from ich under those conditions.

Be careful with the so-called medications...malachite green is very dangerous for many fish, and if memory serves me Colin mentioned once that it is carcinogenic. API ich cure is useless, especially if heat did not kill the ich. But then, it would not seem to be ich. I hope other members may have suggestions.

 

[Colin_T]

You need to keep the water warm (86F) for several weeks, or at least one week after all the white dots have disappeared from the fish. 88F is fine too if the fish can cope with it but if they are gasping, reduce it to 86F.

After the white spots drop off the fish, they sit on the substrate and the parasites inside the white dots, reproduce. After a few days of multiplying inside the white dot, they hatch out and re-infect the fish. The white spot parasites can only be killed during the free swimming stage before they find a new host to attach themselves to.

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If you are using chemical medications (Malachite Green or Copper Sulphate), reduce the temperature to 24-26C (75-79F) so there is more oxygen in the water. Chemicals reduce the oxygen level just like raising the temperature does.

Make sure there is no carbon in the filter when using medications.

If you clean the filter, gravel clean the substrate, and do a huge water change, it removes a lot of the parasites from the tank and there will be fewer to re-infect the fish. This will buy you time to try and treat it.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Mcostas]

Mine had ich, I tried heat and salt and lost 4 neons. Two I think have a secondary infection of epistylis. It's hard to catch tiny fish in a planted tank so I'm taking their evasive prowess as not being sick enough yet. The others finally seem cured. I had success with ich-X and kanaplex.

I'm glad I didn't lose the plants, I think of it more like a water garden, or a piece of river, than just an aquarium.

 

[Colin_T]

The others finally seem cured. I had success with ich-X and kanaplex.

Kanaplex is an anti-biotic and does nothing to protozoa like white spot

 

[DoubleDutch]

Update: It definitely was ich. 88F for several days and water changes didn't work. I dropped the temperature once fish were gasping at the top. It's at 84F with two other fish at the top. Readings are still 0/0/5 with plenty of aeration. I'm using half the dosage of the API ick cure for a few days now; no changes clearly. I did a 50% WC, it's clearly not helped if the issue is oxygenation.

Uhhhhh I am puzzled.

It was definitely Ich but not any treatment against Ich have had any result.

How can you be sure it was Ich then?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Uhhhhh I am puzzled.

It was definitely Ich but not any treatment against Ich have had any result.

How can you be sure it was Ich then?

Multiple fish have been flicking including my yo-yo loaches. The cherry barb that died had a few spots on it, as had the female ram that was the first to die.

 

[FriendlyGeek]

Esha Exit is a very good product and is shrimp / snail safe

 

[Colin_T]

If your tank has a stubborn/ resistant strain of white spot, use copper. The parasite cannot tolerate copper and has not developed any resistance to it.

Just remove any shrimp or snails you want to keep and put them in a separate tank before treating with copper.

After treatment is complete and the fish are free of the parasites, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. And clean the filter.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

After a week of water changes, add some activated carbon to the filter and leave it in there for a week. Then throw the carbon away and put the shrimp/ snails back in the tank.