Cold water ich problem

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piranhaman00

piranhaman00

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Sep 15, 2009
1,920
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Wisconsin
How can i go about treating ich in a coldwater native aquarium? if i cant raise the heat then how should i do it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



EDIT- the ich is only visible on one fish so would it be safe to isolate him in another tank or will the ich be present and attach to the other fish?

180 gallon tank

white bass infected with ich.
 
it would be best to isolate that fish and treat him. The ich can still be in the 180 and can infect the other fish. Big water changes for the next few days will help get rid of the ich that is still in the tank. Raising the temp speeds up the life cycle of ich but is not a requirement for treating. When my cold water tanks get ich I treat it in the normal ich fashion except for heat. Add salt to the water to kill free swimming parasites and keep up with the water changes. It should go away in a week or so. in my experience, there are a few coldwater fish that are very susceptible to ich and I have had a very low success rate with curing them, the hardier species recover quickly and easily.
as an example, When ich broke out in my tank, I lost 90% of my smallmouths, but every largemouth recovered in a short few days
 
Mmm thats interesting...ya the whitebass seemes fine! Hes eating good and swimming around. how much salt should i add per gallon? ~thanks!
 
just because you cant see spots doesnt mean the other fish aren't infected....I think ich appears in the gills first....what kind of fish are they? native fish here in florida can with stand higher water temps like 80-85* and thats how I ussually get rid of ich is upping the temp to the low 80's for a few days to a week. Maybe add some aquarium salt.

heres more info on the disease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyophthirius_multifiliis
 
pictures? i would consider treating with clout.. ive had great success useing this to treat parsites in native and coldwater species in general. if it is ick, it wont kill the cyst, but will kill the resulting free swimming larva. heat is applied to treat ick to speed up the life cycle of the parasite.. the frequent water changes are what actually get the job done. except in rare instances where ick parasites exposed to higher temps actually are killed. the biggest concern when treating cold water species, and natives is often dissolves oxygen.
 
i can kill the free swimming larvae with salt though so meds seem unnecessary.
 
for salt, start with 1 tablespoon per 5 gallon. you can slowly up it from there. i do use malachite green and formalin on occassion, but that can be an aggressive way to treat(and I have overdosed with m. green). if its only a few fish and not a heavy infection, I would just stick with salt and water changes. might take longer to cure but its less stressful on the fish. and as stated before by spadoc79, ick isnt just on the outside, it can be on the gills or even internal.
 
My tank that had ick when the heater gave out was treated at around 65 degrees. I just used aquarium salt and ick cure tablets. I might have just gotten lucky though.

-Andrew
 
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