Treating ich, but with some complications

[Dave_davis1987]

Hi guys,

recently introduced some new fish, and have had an ich outbreak.
I know I know, I should have quarantined the new fish first, but I didn’t have a spare tank / heater / filter to be able to do this and am now paying the price.
I now have two tanks, the second of which I actually purchased for the purpose of giving my rainbows some peace while they were spawning, and to stop them continually chasing away the gouramis.
One tank (the smaller one) currently has a pufferfish in, which must be kept away from ich treatment. I put him in there to be able to treat my large tank.
I done a 90% water change on the large tank, Cleaned the gravel then began the treatment.
Currently on day 4 of treatment and for now I can’t see any ich attached to the fish. I also added some aquarium salt at the same time.

I moved the puffer to the other Small tank while I treated this largetank.
Now the small tank with pufferfish (and a few others) has ich too.
How can I treat both tanks and keep the puffer alive?
Any suggestions?
Is it worth putting the carbon filter back in the main tank (big) tank and stopping treatment, then putting puffer back in there after a day or so?
What’s your thoughts suggestions as some of you are so very knowledgable...

thank you, so much, I don’t want to lose any fish if I can help it.
The fish in the small tank have maybe a dozen ich attached today, my clownloaches have maybe 3/4 ich and the gouramis have none.

 

[Colin_T]

The safest way to treat white spot is with heat. Just raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The white spot parasites can't tolerate the heat and die. No chemicals needed and safe for all tropical fish.

Just do a big (75-90%) water change and gravel clean the substrate before raising the temperature. This dilutes the number of parasites in the tank and buys the fish a few days for the heat to work.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

----------------
The following link has information about white spot and various ways to treat it. The first post on page 1 and second post on page 2 might be of interest to you.

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

 

[Dave_davis1987]

Thank you so much Colin - this is exactly the kind of help and advice needed!
Will all my fish be ok to cope at 30 degrees?

I have gouramis, danios,a puffer, pleco, guppy’s, kribensis, blue acaras, rainbow cichlids, and some mountain minnows.

is it worth adding more salt to help fishes gill function?

 

[Colin_T]

Theres no need to add salt, in fact salt will reduce the oxygen levels further so don't add any.

Do you have White Cloud Mountain Minnows in the tropical tank?
If they are already in a tropical tank and the temperature is around 25-26C, they should be ok with 30C.

If the water temperature is below 24C, you will need to raise the temperature over a 24 hour period.

If the white clouds are in cold water (unheated tank), do not use heat for them. But for any fish that is already in a tropical tank with a temperature of 25C or above, they will be fine at 30C for a couple of weeks.

 

[Dave_davis1987]

Theres no need to add salt, in fact salt will reduce the oxygen levels further so don't add any.

Do you have White Cloud Mountain Minnows in the tropical tank?
If they are already in a tropical tank and the temperature is around 25-26C, they should be ok with 30C.

If the water temperature is below 24C, you will need to raise the temperature over a 24 hour period.

If the white clouds are in cold water (unheated tank), do not use heat for them. But for any fish that is already in a tropical tank with a temperature of 25C or above, they will be fine at 30C for a couple of weeks.

Yes White Cloud Mountain minnows in heated tank, the temps is usually around 27 degrees always.
Noted on the salt front, I won’t add any. I thought it was supposed to help with ich too, but will follow your advice here. Thank you!

 

[Colin_T]

If the temperature is already at 27C they should be fine going to 30C.

After 2 weeks you can reduce the temperature to 27C for a couple of weeks, then drop it to 25C for a couple of weeks. After that I would recommend keeping the white clouds and danios in cooler water (16-24C). If the air temperature is warm and the tank goes above 24C in summer, it will be fine, but danios and white clouds need cooler water otherwise they age really quickly.

Salt doesn't do anything to white spot

 

[Dave_davis1987]

Thank you for the advice as always Colin, very informative. Wish I’d known white clouds / danios needed cooler temps, I wasn’t aware of that.
Maybe I need a third tank now to keep them
in longer term then.
Time to work on the mrs and explain to her it’s needed for the fishes sake

 

[Colin_T]

Time to work on the mrs and explain to her it’s needed for the fishes sake

lol

Tell her the shop told you a fib and that white clouds are actually a coldwater fish, and danios are a cool water fish. Ergo you need a coldwater tank or pond for them.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I really don’t recommend using salt to cure ich. It isn’t doesn’t work.

I recommend to slowly raise the temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Also do often gravel vacuums and swirl the plants to release any attached parasites.

 

[Dave_davis1987]

Thanks for the advice guys, I’ll update over the next two weeks how I get on. Hopefully no losses, but my blue acara is a bit peppered, poor sod. Literally overnight.

 

[Dave_davis1987]

 

[Byron]

Salt is effective against ich and velvet, but since it can/will cause issues (and additional stress) for fish it should be a last resort. Heat raised to 86F/30C for two weeks should do the job.

I had to resort to heat and salt a few years ago, and I sought advice from Dr. Neale Monks who explained to me why salt was for most fish a better option than any of the so-called ich remedies, but only if something beyond the heat is necessary.