Have white spot in the tank with RTC

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Blackviper2023

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Jun 28, 2023
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Hi I have white spot which I want to treat.
I don’t want to use meds due to the RTC

I have read up and people say to put temp upto 86f but I don’t no if that’s any good for the RTC

can anyone help me on this
No info online at all about it
 
Blackviper2023 said:
Hi I have white spot which I want to treat.
I don’t want to use meds due to the RTC

I have read up and people say to put temp upto 86f but I don’t no if that’s any good for the RTC

can anyone help me on this
No info online at all about it
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Fishman Dave Fishman Dave
thebiggerthebetter thebiggerthebetter
 
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Raise temp 1 degree per hour till 86. Add salt 3 tsp per g and keep till 10 days after the last spot has disappeared. Replace any salt with the amount water change removed.
 
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How big is the tank, how big is the redtail and what occupants?
Oh and which are showing signs?
Some fish don’t fare well with salt but red tails tend to be ok and temp wise 86 should be fine. If you have a redtail you won’t have Cory catfish so no issues there (myth or not I avoid using salt with them-old school)
 
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Fishman Dave said:
How big is the tank, how big is the redtail and what occupants?
Oh and which are showing signs?
Some fish don’t fare well with salt but red tails tend to be ok and temp wise 86 should be fine. If you have a redtail you won’t have Cory catfish so no issues there (myth or not I avoid using salt with them-old school)
Click to expand...

I don’t use salt I prefer the temp method

redtail is 2” baby in a grow out 150 before transferring to my 10x6x3 pool

occupied in the growout tank is, 2 peacock bass kelberi, 1 giant snake head and a emperor snake head. I have a Midas in there which is the onethat I can see the white spot on
 
Mmmmmm ok, Now you have me !
I’ve been doing this a LONG time and never come across a successful temperature method that doesn’t involve either meds or salt (other than REALLY cranking it up but never tried that one).The idea of the rise in temp is generally to speed up the lifecycle as you can only kill ich in the free swimming stage. Hence crank up the temp and use either salt or meds to kill free swimming stage.
I might have missed something but to my mind only cranking up the temp to 86 alone with no salt and no meds just speeds up one spore turning to 1000, then each in turn turning to 1000 more and hence soon everyone is completely covered. Only way I can see this working is if the fishes immune system fights off the infection itself, and if this was the case you wouldn’t have needed to crank up the temperature to start with.

However, some fish won’t catch it, even in the same tank , so stress, immunity, immune system, etc . All play a part.

I’m ready to learn more (unless it’s some you tuber saying this is how you do it - then no thanks).
 
Fishman Dave said:
Mmmmmm ok, Now you have me !
I’ve been doing this a LONG time and never come across a successful temperature method that doesn’t involve either meds or salt (other than REALLY cranking it up but never tried that one).The idea of the rise in temp is generally to speed up the lifecycle as you can only kill ich in the free swimming stage. Hence crank up the temp and use either salt or meds to kill free swimming stage.
I might have missed something but to my mind only cranking up the temp to 86 alone with no salt and no meds just speeds up one spore turning to 1000, then each in turn turning to 1000 more and hence soon everyone is completely covered. Only way I can see this working is if the fishes immune system fights off the infection itself, and if this was the case you wouldn’t have needed to crank up the temperature to start with.

However, some fish won’t catch it, even in the same tank , so stress, immunity, immune system, etc . All play a part.

I’m ready to learn more (unless it’s some you tuber saying this is how you do it - then no thanks).
Click to expand...

What would the best med would you recommend (I’m in the UK) and I’ll give that a try
 
I've cured Ich on a number of occasions using just heat; the temperature that was always bandied about as being the minimum was 86F, and I usually kept it at 87F just to allow for inaccuracies in my measuring equipment...which was usually a cheap glass thermometer. Using salt or not seemed not to make much difference in my results, so I tend not to do so any longer.

I wish I could explain the how's and why's of this method, but I can't; it was something I picked up decades ago from a very knowledgeable aquarist who nurtured my fledging involvement in the hobby, and I don't recall ever hearing the explanation of why that temperature was critical and what happened to the parasites when it was achieved. Maybe he didn't know either? But I know it works.

I have also read in recent years that there are strains of Ich which do not respond to this treatment, perhaps having grown resistant to heat similar to the way that some bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.

Like any treatment for Ich, it requires that the temperature be maintained for a couple weeks after the last spot is observed, in order to kill all the newly-emerged mobile infective stages of the parasite, so I assume it only kills that stage just like other treatments. I've done this with many different species over the years, including RTC; some species suffer at the high temp, but most including RTC seemed fine. I always provided a great deal of aeration to help make up for the decreased O2 in the warmer water.
 
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jjohnwm said:
I've cured Ich on a number of occasions using just heat; the temperature that was always bandied about as being the minimum was 86F, and I usually kept it at 87F just to allow for inaccuracies in my measuring equipment...which was usually a cheap glass thermometer. Using salt or not seemed not to make much difference in my results, so I tend not to do so any longer.

I wish I could explain the how's and why's of this method, but I can't; it was something I picked up decades ago from a very knowledgeable aquarist who nurtured my fledging involvement in the hobby, and I don't recall ever hearing the explanation of why that temperature was critical and what happened to the parasites when it was achieved. Maybe he didn't know either? But I know it works.

I have also read in recent years that there are strains of Ich which do not respond to this treatment, perhaps having grown resistant to heat similar to the way that some bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.

Like any treatment for Ich, it requires that the temperature be maintained for a couple weeks after the last spot is observed, in order to kill all the newly-emerged mobile infective stages of the parasite, so I assume it only kills that stage just like other treatments.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your input, how long did you have your heat on for 87f?
 
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