Ich Treatment Question
Forum rules
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.
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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Pufferpunk
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Re: Ich Treatment Question
Higher temps speeds up the metabolism/lifecycle of the parasite, getting it off your fish ASAP.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: Ich Treatment Question
Just wanted to update you guys on my F8. These spots on him are going away and he's still being super active and eating like a little pig. I plan to keep the tank temps up at 86 just to make sure. 
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fugu99
- Figure 8 Puffer
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- Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:29 pm
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Aramis (juvenile Red Wag Platy) - Location (country): United States
- Location: Hampton, VA
Re: Ich Treatment Question
I just went through this with my two F8s. Here is the process I went through.
I raised the temp to (it was recommended 86 degrees) and mine rested around 87 degrees (it was hard to get the exact temp with this heater, stupid thing.) However even at this high temp, my F8s didnt seem that stressed out. They werent surface breathing or lolling at the bottom, you may notice them glass-surfing though. I could see very obvious stark-white salt grain spots on their fins and body, besides the dots that are their spines. My fish were still eating hungrily and swimming around and hunting, showing normal behavior. So Im assuming it was still the first bout of ich, not the secondary bout. I raised the salinity as recommended to about 1.008. You can go as high as that anything higher is probably dangerous for these brackish water fish. So for a five day period I kept the tank at this level, doing DAILY 10% water changes, attempting to vacuum the gravel as much as I could even though I wasnt removing that much water. A 50% water change will reset your tank, you could do this at the end of your 5 day period but I dont recommend doing it daily. 10% ought to be enough. The important thing is to keep things at this level after you see the spots disappear, because they are in swimming stage and this is what will kill them, the salt and the stressful temperature. Theres a possibility that even after this 5 days that the ich might not all have died and might come back, so you may have to do this again. Be patient and try not to do anything to cause further stress to the fish. Dont overfeed. Dont add chemicals if you are doing the salt treatment. My fish recovered and are doing just fine now, so just make sure you follow the steps and test your tank daily to make sure you are keeping the treatment up. Remember to salt the new water you add when you do 10% water changes so you dont have a drop in salinity.
I raised the temp to (it was recommended 86 degrees) and mine rested around 87 degrees (it was hard to get the exact temp with this heater, stupid thing.) However even at this high temp, my F8s didnt seem that stressed out. They werent surface breathing or lolling at the bottom, you may notice them glass-surfing though. I could see very obvious stark-white salt grain spots on their fins and body, besides the dots that are their spines. My fish were still eating hungrily and swimming around and hunting, showing normal behavior. So Im assuming it was still the first bout of ich, not the secondary bout. I raised the salinity as recommended to about 1.008. You can go as high as that anything higher is probably dangerous for these brackish water fish. So for a five day period I kept the tank at this level, doing DAILY 10% water changes, attempting to vacuum the gravel as much as I could even though I wasnt removing that much water. A 50% water change will reset your tank, you could do this at the end of your 5 day period but I dont recommend doing it daily. 10% ought to be enough. The important thing is to keep things at this level after you see the spots disappear, because they are in swimming stage and this is what will kill them, the salt and the stressful temperature. Theres a possibility that even after this 5 days that the ich might not all have died and might come back, so you may have to do this again. Be patient and try not to do anything to cause further stress to the fish. Dont overfeed. Dont add chemicals if you are doing the salt treatment. My fish recovered and are doing just fine now, so just make sure you follow the steps and test your tank daily to make sure you are keeping the treatment up. Remember to salt the new water you add when you do 10% water changes so you dont have a drop in salinity.
"It is never easy, sweet child, to have a real gift: something else is withheld to compensate."
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fugu99
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 183
- Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:29 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Herbie (Figure 8)
Otto (Figure 8) *deceased
Henry the Figure Eighth (Figure 8)
Other: Luna (Panda Platy)
Io (Panda Platy)
Ganymede (Panda Platy)
Ocelot (Albino Pleco)
Aramis (juvenile Red Wag Platy) - Location (country): United States
- Location: Hampton, VA
Re: Ich Treatment Question
oops heh heh I guess I should have read to the last post. Glad your fish are doing better! Hopefully though anyone else having trouble will read my post 
"It is never easy, sweet child, to have a real gift: something else is withheld to compensate."