Why Do I Keep Getting Ich?

[PrairieMom]

I recently lost all my fish to ich. I continued to treat the water, left the tank alone for a few weeks, then added a betta. He got ich too, and is now living in a hospital tank, with ich, and some sort of fin rot or something.

I emptied out the entire tank. (10 gallons) cleaned it out with bleach, rinsed it super good, then rinsed some more. Re filled it recycled it, then added 4 tetras and a snail. Guess what, we have ich again. What is my deal? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[PrairieMom]

bump!

 

[gourami_fan]

You can't treat ich when there are white spots visible on your fish. That is when the ich is invulnerable to medication. You have to wait for them to drop off the fish. That is when they become free swimming, and is the right time to use the medication. To make them drop off faster, slowly raise the temperature to about 84F to speed up the ich's life cycle. Make sure you have good aeration during this period since high temperatures holds less air.

For me when I got ich, I used the medication when they dropped off. After a few days, I did 20% water changes everyday for a whole week and a half. Afterwards I never saw ich again.

Heres a link to a thread on it
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical-Fish-Emergencies/128879/http-www-fishforums-net-index-php-showtopic-128879/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical...owtopic-128879/[/URL]

 

[tropicaltink81]

whats ich
soz to be thick

 

[drewry]

whats ich
soz to be thick

its white spot

 

[gourami_fan]

To be more precise, it is a parasite that attaches on the fish and builds a cone shape structure that makes the fish look like it has speckles of salt all over its body.

 

[PrairieMom]

yeah, but why do I have it again, in a whole new tank with new fish? I have already lost 4 to it, will loose the betta soon, and now have it in a new tank with new fish? Right now I have 4 tetras, a blue mystery snail and a chinese algae eater. is it safe to treat with salt and increasing temp ? what about garlic. is that safe?

 

[drewry]

yeah, but why do I have it again, in a whole new tank with new fish? I have already lost 4 to it, will loose the betta soon, and now have it in a new tank with new fish? Right now I have 4 tetras, a blue mystery snail and a chinese algae eater. is it safe to treat with salt and increasing temp ? what about garlic. is that safe?

it can survive on rocks ,in filters for 3-4 days without a host

 

[PrairieMom]

yeah, but why do I have it again, in a whole new tank with new fish? I have already lost 4 to it, will loose the betta soon, and now have it in a new tank with new fish? Right now I have 4 tetras, a blue mystery snail and a chinese algae eater. is it safe to treat with salt and increasing temp ? what about garlic. is that safe?

it can survive on rocks ,in filters for 3-4 days without a host

Can it survive bleach? I bleached everything, including the fiber in the filter. How frustrating.

 

[Jonno]

your tank probably isn't cycled fully and bad water conditions are causing stress on the fish.

leaving the tank for a few weeks/over cleaning it out will have caused your tanks biological matter to die off so you effectively started from scratch again.

what are your ammonia and nitrite levels?

 

[shang hi]

im guessing you are getting ich from low water quality. or stress on the fish, water changes should be caryed out with room temp water, you acheive this by making the water 24 hours before adding it, then removing the "old" water and replacing it, just toping up for evaporated water wont cut it because toxic metals in your water will build up (they dont evaporate) and can cause death.
weekly water changes are essentual, i'de say twice weekly both 10% so you do a 20% water change weekly.
try making life less stressful, when adding: on the journey your LFS should rap the bag o fish in a brown paper bag, this reduces the stress for the fish and helps keep the heat in, keep them in the quiet and warm. when adding them, float the bag in the tank for 20mins to equilise the temp then every 5(ish) mins add some tank water into the bag (open toped but still floating) so your fish can get used to your water. do this for 45mins then net them out the bag and into the tank, dont take them out of the water for more than 1 second because this will cause emence stress (the time in air wont kill them as fish can last 5-10 mins out of water). through away the water in the bag and keep the tank light off and in the dark for 2hours minimum (i usualy do it for 6+, by which time its bed time). dont feed them for a day or so, then start feeding once a-day with a small pinch of food.

diet (the high lighted are not nesasary, it will say what they are for)
diet should be varied to keep you fish in good condition.

• the main foods it should comprise of are:
• live bloodworms every few weeks - months (optional, but recomended)
• frozen bloodworms once a week
• live brine shrimp every few weeks - months
• most live foods
• a pea or two every 2-4 weeks
• flake food for top feeders
• micro pelets for mid feeding fish
• fast sinking tablets for bottom feeders such as corys and catfish
• algae wafers for algae eating fish and snailes

keeping water quality should be a key, and keep filter maitinence up, a cloged filter wont work at full pase. find the cause of the problem and work on from there.

hope this helps, shang hi

PS. i wasn't saying you dont do water changes or dont feed your fish well, its just some help.
EDIT: forgot some food types

 

[Mikaila31]

Water are your water stats in ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite? Also what med are you using to treat the ich?

 

[PrairieMom]

Water are your water stats in ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite? Also what med are you using to treat the ich?

I don't have a test kit, my store will test for free, but I just discovered the ich in my 10 gal tank this morning, and haven't had a chance to have it tested yet. I had been using ich guard plus, but since I redid my tank I haven't used any meds. I wasn't sure if it was safe with that snail in there.
As for the betta, he is in a one gal "hospital" bowl and I am using rid ick +, with 10% water change daily. Is water smells really foul and is very couldy. He isn't doing well tho, I don't think he will make it through the night.

im guessing you are getting ich from low water quality. or stress on the fish, water changes should be caryed out with room temp water, you acheive this by making the water 24 hours before adding it, then removing the "old" water and replacing it, just toping up for evaporated water wont cut it because toxic metals in your water will build up (they dont evaporate) and can cause death.
weekly water changes are essentual, i'de say twice weekly both 10% so you do a 20% water change weekly.
try making life less stressful, when adding: on the journey your LFS should rap the bag o fish in a brown paper bag, this reduces the stress for the fish and helps keep the heat in, keep them in the quiet and warm. when adding them, float the bag in the tank for 20mins to equilise the temp then every 5(ish) mins add some tank water into the bag (open toped but still floating) so your fish can get used to your water. do this for 45mins then net them out the bag and into the tank, dont take them out of the water for more than 1 second because this will cause emence stress (the time in air wont kill them as fish can last 5-10 mins out of water). through away the water in the bag and keep the tank light off and in the dark for 2hours minimum (i usualy do it for 6+, by which time its bed time). dont feed them for a day or so, then start feeding once a-day with a small pinch of food.

diet (the high lighted are not nesasary, it will say what they are for)
diet should be varied to keep you fish in good condition.

• the main foods it should comprise of are:
• live bloodworms every few weeks - months (optional, but recomended)
• frozen bloodworms once a week
• live brine shrimp every few weeks - months
• most live foods
• a pea or two every 2-4 weeks
• flake food for top feeders
• micro pelets for mid feeding fish
• fast sinking tablets for bottom feeders such as corys and catfish
• algae wafers for algae eating fish and snailes

keeping water quality should be a key, and keep filter maitinence up, a cloged filter wont work at full pase. find the cause of the problem and work on from there.

hope this helps, shang hi

PS. i wasn't saying you dont do water changes or dont feed your fish well, its just some help.
EDIT: forgot some food types

I have only been using flake food, and have never put any other food in there, but should I? with tetra's, CAE and a snail specifically?

 

[gourami_fan]

This is not concerning the ich, but a chinese algae eater will get quite large when it gets older. Also, when it matures, it will get very territorial and aggressive towards its own kind and other fish. It may kill them. If there are larger fish, it will latch onto it and suck the slime coating on it and may damage or wound the fish. They don;t make good community fish, so I would return it and swap it for a different fish.

 

[PrairieMom]

This is not concerning the ich, but a chinese algae eater will get quite large when it gets older. Also, when it matures, it will get very territorial and aggressive towards its own kind and other fish. It may kill them. If there are larger fish, it will latch onto it and suck the slime coating on it and may damage or wound the fish. They don;t make good community fish, so I would return it and swap it for a different fish.

Its the only healthy fish I have. Through all this it has never once gotten a white spot, and really doesn't care what I do to it. I have a feeling that the others will go to the great pond in the sky, and he may be the only one I can keep alive.