Salt And Heat To Cure Ick?

[kristalynnd1]

Hello all! I've been a long-time lurker but have decided that I have a question I cannot find an answer for. About 3 months ago i started a fishless cycle. Once it seemed all good to go (a bit over a month for good measure) I added 2 black mollies. One died suddenly that day, the other became infected with ick, and I used jungle labs tablets for treatment (of course also followed instructions to do water changes and remove carbon). Well he ended up dying after a week of treatment. So, continued treating the tank for ick and doing water changes for the next 4 or 5 days. (the ick is supposed to die by then with no fish, right?) Anyways I put 2 giant danios in, they did excellent and still are! So recently, about 2 days ago, I added 2 tiger barbs to my main tank with the danios. One now has ick. I have quarentined them for 3 days before adding them.
Since I am now terrified that this has come back into my life to kill everything in my tank I am now open to all options of ridding this disgusting parasite from existance.
I tried the jungle lab tablets before, for a week I treated and it actually got worse, not better. I have heard there is copper safe that is available but also malachine (sp?) green, but also heard that the safest most natural way is to gradually turn the heat up and put in aquarium salt. Everyone says one of these techniques works well, but is is safer for the other fish in the tank to use medicine or salt and heat?If using salt and heat, do I perform water changes regularly or more frequently?

 

[fishyfeet]

The easiest way to treat ich is to use protozin, that malchate green and quinine both effective against protozans. You can raise the heat to speed up the life cycle of the parasite, on its own its worse and you just speed up the breeding cycle of the ich and it kills your fish quicker, salt can be used as a supportive to be effective you need a very high volumme which may not be suitable for your fish.

Another way if natural is what you want, is a tranfer method where by you move the fish daily into a clean fresh filtered tank the parasites that fall off the fish are left behind and discarded after 7 - 10 days the fish would be free of parasites and can be moved back to the main tank, assuming that the main tank from which it came from as no free swiming parasites in it. They are not visable with the naked eye so you would have to be very sure even if no other fish are showing symptoms. This also stresses both fish and fishkeeper.