Catfish ich help

[Slippery K]

Hey MFK, been a while since I've posted. I recently (Friday) got two Jaguar catfish 'Liosomadoras oncinus' who had a few small white specks on them upon arrival. Today I came home to find ich on all my fish. I havn't had ich in this tank ever before. My issue is these catfish, being a scaleless fish who prefers lower 70's and sensitive to aquarium salt, what is the best method to treat? A lot of info says higher temps will cause this species to stop eating, and I havn't seen them eat anything yet in the 3 days I've had them.

This was a expensive purchase, and I would like to treat them properly with minimal stress, but am unsure which route to take. I don't have a vast medical collection as I rarely encounter health issues in my tanks.

 

[kno4te]

Api makes an ick cure which can be used if not wanting to rise temps and add salt.

 

[Charney]

any chance you can remove them to separate tank for treatment? This way you can treat the main tank as normal and easier tailor treatment to the cats.

 

[Slippery K]

No I dont have another tank for the cats to go into unfortunatly. So im pretty much stuck to whatever method would be best for the cats.

 

[Charney]

your options are to start with a low dose of salt and work your way up to a full tablespoon per 5 gallons or half dose a ich medication. I would personally do salt. Leave the temp where it is. The higher temp only speeds up the lifecylce. Salt alone will work fine but you just need to treat longer.

 

[Slippery K]

So far all I've done is a 1/4 dose of Paraguard last night, and today after work. Temp is holding firm at 75, but I'm still iffy on using salt because of the cats sensitivity and I'm not 100% confident in calling this Ich. Today comming home from work, both goldfish (only other residents in this tank) had open wounds on their body and were very lethargic. Neither the cats or goldies are showing any classic signs of ich aside from the white spots. Whatever it is, its getting worse and I fear I may loose everything in a few days.

 

[Slippery K]

I tried asking the supplier about it to get his opinion, but he has since stopped contacting me once I informed him of the problem. Which is disconcerning as he's well known here.

 

[Charney]

I wouldn't do salt on top of the medication. Do you have any pictures? Maybe dealing with a bacterial infection.

 

[Slippery K]

I think im going to just go with a 1/4 dose of paraguard with minimal salt, keep the lights off and go from there. Cant really get a decent shot, but im going to keep the temp at 75 for now too and see how that is. I dont mind waiting longer if I see progress.

 

[Slippery K]

It has been a few days now and it looks like things are starting to clear up. I did two 1/4 doses of paraguard, and a half dose of salt spread over two days. I dont plan on adding any more meds, since my waterchange night is Mondays, I will just keep up with the salt and let the meds dilute overtime with new water. I still havnt had any luck getting them to feed though, and im not comfortable leaving food in overnight.