Ugh, Ich! (no pun intended)

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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G S P Freak
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 421
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:58 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: Figure Eight Puffers, Binks (29G)
Dwarf puffers, named "He-Puffer" (male) and She-puffer (female) (10g)
Non-puffer:
1 Red-eared slider, Tortuga (female)(100g)
1 rubber lip pleco
Location (country): USA, Indiana

Ugh, Ich! (no pun intended)

Post by G S P Freak »

So last week I added a rubberlip pleco to my planted pea-puffer tank, and after a few days he is COVERED in little ich spots. I've already started the salt/heat method using 1tbsp salt/5 gallons, doing 50% WC every other day, and have slowly ramped the temp up to 30C. This is my first encounter with ich, any advice? Will this level of salt harm my plants also? I plan to do this for 2 weeks until the ich is gone.
No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.
-John Ruskin-
"I have to laugh when people call fish-keeping a hobby, if anything, it's a science... and for some, an obsession." - Me
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Pufferpunk
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My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
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C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
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Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: Ugh, Ich! (no pun intended)

Post by Pufferpunk »

Don't forget LARGE WC, thoroughly vacuuming the substrate, every other day, to remove the free-swimming cysts & eggs.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
User avatar
G S P Freak
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 421
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:58 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: Figure Eight Puffers, Binks (29G)
Dwarf puffers, named "He-Puffer" (male) and She-puffer (female) (10g)
Non-puffer:
1 Red-eared slider, Tortuga (female)(100g)
1 rubber lip pleco
Location (country): USA, Indiana

Re: Ugh, Ich! (no pun intended)

Post by G S P Freak »

Ahh ok, thanks PP. Knew i was forgetting something. Ill make sure to gravel vac throughly with every water change.
No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.
-John Ruskin-
"I have to laugh when people call fish-keeping a hobby, if anything, it's a science... and for some, an obsession." - Me
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