How screwed am I

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Hybridfish7

Hybridfish7

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Dec 4, 2017
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Have you tested your water?
Yes
If I did not test my water...
  1. ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.
Do you do water changes?
Yes
If I do not change my water...
  1. ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.
So one of my 40s has an ich outbreak. I have been told that ich cannot actually kill fish, and that any time there's deaths with a "white spot disease" it's actually epistylis. It actual ich, I'm well familiar with the visual difference, but that's not the main issue here. I had the temperature at 85 in that tank, until last night, when the heater's plug fell out of the power strip and dropped the tank to 70, killing a few of the fish. I stuck my fingers in to move stuff around/look for the fish... And without thinking after a few minutes stuck my hand in the (heavily populated) 125 to fix the powerhead. I cranked the heat up to 83 in there in preparation, this is all literally half an hour ago... What are the chances of a full blown outbreak from just that touch? Any other way I can stop it early? I'm aware that any ich in the water column is in the vulnerable stage so now would be the time to act. I'm hoping my tank's matured enough for the few tomonts to get eaten by my microfauna.
 
If your 125 is relatively healthy, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. There are always pathogens about but a healthy immune system usually keeps things at bay.

If you’re worried about an opportunistic infection, you can throw salt or a dose of RidIch Plus or Hikari Ich X as a preventative
 
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I wouldn’t be super worried. Ich is generally going to be on the fish or substrate. Minimal amounts will actually be in the water.
That said, it can never hurt to treat both tanks assuming the fish/plants/inverts would tolerate it. Salt and heat is generally well tolerated.
 
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Deadeye said:
I wouldn’t be super worried. Ich is generally going to be on the fish or substrate. Minimal amounts will actually be in the water.
That said, it can never hurt to treat both tanks assuming the fish/plants/inverts would tolerate it. Salt and heat is generally well tolerated.
Click to expand...
phreeflow said:
If your 125 is relatively healthy, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. There are always pathogens about but a healthy immune system usually keeps things at bay.

If you’re worried about an opportunistic infection, you can throw salt or a dose of RidIch Plus or Hikari Ich X as a preventative
Click to expand...
Big problem, it is in fact epistylis, does this change everyone's answer?
 
I don’t know enough about epistylis to comment for sure, but either way the small amount transferred shouldn’t be an issue.
 
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The problem with raising the temp for ich (that is often times Epistylis) is that the secondary bacterial infection (Epistylis and others) thrives at those higfher temps.
For me, a 3.5 ppt salinity without raising temp is enough to kill ich, but at the same time doesn't fire up those secondary infections that can be harder to deal with.
You probably didn't transfer enough protozoa to cause an ich outbreak, but
if you did, instead of trying to raise temp (that really doesn;t effect ich that much) in a 100+ gal tank, just use 3.5 lbs of salt per 100 gallons.
Here in Panama we have strains of ich that are totslly unaffected by temps in the mid 80s, in fact when I take temps in the river water, most temps are over 82'F, and ich thrives
IMG_6870.jpeg
To me the risk of bacterial infection is much greater raising temps, than not.
I know everybody says pump up the heat, to me thats BS, but 3.5 ppt (parts per thousand) salinity is much more effective..

Because different grains of salt yield different salinty, using tsps, or TBPs are not reliable, if you use the weight method you can't go wrong.

I cured this in a week using just salt
before above
after below
 
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