The worst ICH infection I've ever seen

[Narideth]

The Kanaplex isn't arriving until Monday. I have to get them to somehow survive 2 more days untreated. I will be treating both the tank and the fish though.

 

[seangee]

Increasing temp reduces available oxygen in the water.
Adding salt reduces available oxygen in the water.
Most meds reduce available oxygen in the water.

Don't do all at once.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Salt actually improves gill function. If you have an air stone, add it. I would continue with clean water (70% water changes daily) and aquarium salt at 1 tablespoon per every 5 gallons until meds come in.

 

[Colin_T]

I assume the fish are dead by now but the ruby barb in the picture has white spot, not epistylis, which would be treated with salt.

If you get white spot in a tank, do a massive water change (80-90%) and a complete gravel clean before raising the temperature. This reduces the number of parasites in the water and means fewer parasites to infect the fish.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

You can do a 90% water change and gravel clean every day during treatment if it is a bad case of white spot. Again the big daily water changes help dilute the number of parasites in the water.

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If the white spot is not responding to heat treatment (30C/ 86F) for 2 weeks, then use Malachite Green or Copper to treat it.

Warning: Malachite Green is a carcinogen (causes cancer) and should be handle with care. Try to use a liquid version instead of a powder form because it is safer to handle. Wash hands with warm soapy water after handling Malachite Green or working in an aquarium containing Malachite Green.

Copper is poisonous to invertebrates (shrimp, crabs, crayfish, etc). If you have inverts in the tank, remove them before using copper, and do a few big water changes and gravel cleans before putting them back in the tank.

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In cases that aren't responding to heat and when you can't get chemical treatments, you can move the fish into a clean container of water each day for a week. The parasites drop off the fish and when you move the fish into a clean container with clean water each day, you move them away from the parasites that have fallen off and they become free of white spot after a few days to a week.

The following link has more information on white spot and these methods for treating it. See first post on page 1 and 2.

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

 

[Narideth]

Update: All of the fish in the tank died. I have since then treated the tank with an antibiotic amidst various water changes, and now there is a clean, healthy stock of fish that have been happily swimming disease-free for 2.5 weeks. They were all attained from the same location and quarantined together.

To the idea that this was simple white spot (ich): I don't believe this is the case. The tank was under treatment for a week without visible signs of improvement - including hot water, salt and two different medications. Under all of these anti-ich measures, the infection not only got worse but spread to all of the fish within a very rapid amount of time. Further research online verified that true ich is rarely deadly to the degree that this infection was, and I've handled ich a few times through the years and never lost any fish to it. Salt alone is usually sufficient to kill any outbreak.

I was successful in not allowing the disease to pass to any of my other tanks though through not sharing of tools back and forth, as well as disinfecting them once the tank was under medication. I'm still being cautious to not share tools even now, but there have been no losses of life and no signs of any illness or infection amongst a variety of different species. This was just one of those awful lessons we learn as hobbyists, and quarantining is the name of the game from here on out.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help - it was greatly appreciated to be able to come here and gather information and support. Onwards and upwards.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I am so very sorry that you lost your fish. I’m curious, what do you think was wrong with your fish if not ich? I do need to correct one statement you made...ich does sadly kill fish . I lost several during my recent bout with it. If it gets into their kills, you often don’t see it and the fish succumb to it. Also, as the fish fight, their immune system breaks down and often causes the fish to die. Ich is a deadly disease if not caught early enough. There are some tough strains of ich out there right now. It took 5 weeks for me to rid my tank of ich. I wish you the very best with your new batch of fish.