How soon to call ICK?

[Illbuyourcatfish]

I'm wondering how soon is too soon to diagnose ick? I took in 4 rescue discus yesterday and have been watching them like a hawk every minute since. Out of a total of 10 fish in the tank I can count approx 4 white dots, very very small on the ten fish in total with one fish having two. Maybe I'm paranoid but if it's ick I want to crush it right away. Tomorrow I'm going to buy and install uv sterilizer and then keep monitoring. I was going to start salt treatment tonight but decided I may be jumping the gun and I don't want to stress the fish any more than necessary.

So the question is how soon do you diagnose ick? One white dot? Two? Let me know if im being paranoid.

 

[alexmuw]

I know what your going through. Whenever I see a white speck on my fish, I have an urge to go whip out all my meds and start treating.

Keep an eye on them. Ich populates pretty fast, so you should be able to tell in a few days. Once you know they have it, smack it down while it's early.

Good luck!!!

 

[CCC]

For me if I see them rubbing themselves on objects in the tank it is almost always a sure sign they will be covered soon.
Go ahead and salt now it wont bother them only helps.
The other approach I have taken is to heat the tank.

Ick cannot survive at temps your fish can. Except one strain of it.

At 86 degrees ick can no longer lay eggs.
At 87 degrees these pest stop attempting to breed.
At 89.5 degrees they die.

this is what I have learned and found to be true.

Any temp increase lower than 86 will only act to speed up the 4 cycles of the parasite.

Have much air flow in your tank water and watch your fish closley as you get them to these temps to be sure they are ok with the temp change and go up gradually.
I maintained the 89.5 temp for 10 days with fequent water changes and salt, this fixed my problem. nowadays I just keep my tank at a solid 86 to ensure the ick can never lay it's nasty eggs on my guys again.
Hope this helped.

 

[Illbuyourcatfish]

Okay i started dosing, only at one tblsp per 5 gallons so far, in 12 hours if all is well ill add another one/5 ratio? Also uv sterilizer is installed, hopefully it will help control the spread if this is indeed ick.

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

ich is not a big deal and easy to treat, especially with hardy species (like most cichlids), just treat with heat and salt if it looks like ich

 

[Illbuyourcatfish]

Thanks that makes me feel a lot better, i'm prone to panic and have never had to deal with ick before. The temperature is sitting around 83 and slowly rising, all the fish seem normal with 1tbsp-5gal ratio so far, some plants are already showing signs of discomfort though. So in 12 hours its safe to but in another 14 tbsp? Its going to be hard for me to not change the water during treatment as i'm used to doing it every other day with the discus now. Im thinking about going 5 days and then doing a good clean/change and then adding more salted water and riding out the last 5 days.

 

[Illbuyourcatfish]

Update

This is the morning of treatment day three and ick is confirmed. It started off as a handful of spots but now it is many. On day one i brought the salinity level to .2, not the full three for fear of loaches and catfish not being able to handle it, the temperature was raised to mid 80's, 86.9 being the highest temp during the day. A 24 watt UV sterilizer was also added. The discus seem to be the only ones visibly infected.

Now Ive been told ick looks like its getting worse before it gets better so i hope that's the case here and it isn't me under treating the tank.

Thanks to you CCC I started treating at the almost invisible first signs!

 

[dannyboiiii]

yea i like to treat as soon as i see specks,
maybe just 4 or 5 ,i try to treat it early raising the temp,and adding some salt,
then bust out the meds if its not working,
a cpl weeks ago i had a super strain of it in my tank,
it took me 2 weeks to get rid of it,

 

[mamapuff]

Be careful how much salt you dose with discus. Also, keep all lights off, and go ahead and cover the tank with a towel to shut out ambient light, ( ich spores thrive on light..) Are these rescues not in their own quarantine tank? If they are, you need to go ahead and bump the temp up to 89-90. Discus already need warmer water than most fish. I don't use the normal dosing guidelines with my discus. I have used the no light method in combination with a bit of salt, and high temp. (i raise my tank to 90 if treating discus for ich).

Also, how often are you doing water changes during the treatment? You need to be vacuuming out the gravel to get rid of the ich spores that have fallen off or are forming.

 

[Illbuyourcatfish]

I haven't been doing any water changes which I find very hard becuae I usualy like to do them every 2nd day(more because I'm bored than because I find it neccessary) I was told not to change water during any treatments, but if that's what you suggest I'm thrilled and it's gonna calm my anxiety to clean it.

What % of water change would you suggest? And I have had the 4 lights on more than usual to help keep the temp up so this is also valuable info.
They were not quarantined as this tank was the only one with water params close enough to discus satisfaction, other fish in tank include syno cat and Raphael cat along with one loach and 7 oto cats. I feel the cats to be more disposable than my other fish including the discus so I felt quarantine wasn't needed, you could even call this they're quarantine!

So the salt content is sitting around .2 and the discus seem okay would you suggest leavng it here or adding more? Also if salt doesn't cut it is there a med you would reccomend based on the fish in the tank?