How to Treat Ich???

I've been in the hobby for almost 2 years now and luckily I haven't had to deal with ich at all, until now. I'm not positive that's what it is but every fish in my 75 gallon except my Gibbiceps Pleco, Striped Raphael Catfish, and Yellow Bullhead have white dots on them. No strange behavior or appetite changes but I'm pretty certain it's ich. I don't know how to treat it without using medicine which would probably kill all my bacteria, no? I can't use salt because bullheads are ultra sensitive to it. SO what should I treat with with this stock? I need advice ASAP before it gets any worse.

6 Giant Danios (2.5-3")
3 Cutteri Cichlids (0.75-1.25")
1 Striped Raphael Catfish (3.5")
1 Gibbiceps Pleco (5")
1 Yellow Bullhead (6")

Drstrangelove said:

Can the bullhead handle high heat? Heat (to 87-88F) is the recommended solution if it's ich, if all the fish can handle it and if salt is not useable. If not heat, then medications could be an option assuming all the fish are tolerant.

If you are not seeing any fish with flashing behavior it may not be ich.

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The bullhead probably could but that'd be very upper end. I honestly want to avoid going over 82 at any time with the bullhead present. Right now it's 76-77 F. What medications would you recommend that won't kill beneficial bacteria? And what is flashing? If that's where they turn on their sides on hard surfaces then I've seen a few of them do it but it's not all that often, never the danios, always the cichlids. It may be fight marks is another theory I have since the danios always nip each other and the cichlids. I'll try to get a picture but I'm sure you know how fast danios are.

Nevermind. Just looked at the tank nonstop for less than 5 minutes and saw a few danios and a cichlid turn on their sides off a slab. I guess they are doing it pretty often.

Drstrangelove said:

Yea, they are quick. And yes, that is flashing.

Also, in your posts (that I've read) it "seems" that you have acquired many fish recently (last few weeks.) If you have, any one of them could have had ich and it could have been transferred around unless you have dedicated nets, hoses, etc for each tank, so FYI on that.


Anyway, I personally haven't used medications to eliminate ich in forever, so I won't recommend any as it can have unwanted dangers or effects. Quarantine and heat have been my go-to plans for a long time. I know that people often have to resort to meds (for similar reasons), so I'd have to do the same thing if I was in your shoes and ask for medication advice.

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Alright thanks. Yeah I've been getting mainly natives lately but I wash my hands between tanks and normally wash the siphon and rinse buckets but I'll be extra careful now until it's gone. I'll try to get some meds advice.

Just found a bunch of white feces upon closer inspection of the tank if that helps determine whether it's ich or something else.

I have a big GPASI auction I'm going to on Sunday and have people bringing me some fish and hoping to get some rare fish as well. Problem is I'm setting up tanks for them using cycled sponge filters but both the filters are in my 75. Will the ich contaminate the sponge filters or does it just affect the fish in that tank? I'd like to be able to get the fish otherwise somebody else will just buy them. This happened at the worst possible time.

So far I've treated with 16 Tablespoons of Aquarium salt and just did the first of two treatments of API general cure which has metronidazole in it: a dewormer since I think they have an internal parasite as well. Danios already have slightly less spots on them and all catfish are still healthy