Ich Chronicals

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11/20 'ish':
I finally got my tank completed added my Pictus cats and Buenos Aires Tetras (they really look great with my Green Terror and Severums) Now I can sit back and enjoy my new show tank!

11/27:
Did my Terror just flash against the sand? Hmm maybe just a show of aggression as he claims his turf. I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Tetras aren't schooling today like they did the last week. They are all over the place. Maybe they don't feel threatened and are just spreading out comfortably in the tank.
Uh oh Terror just flashed against the sand again...better keep my eyes on him

11/28:
Yup spots on the Tetras, Severums, and Terror. Time to crank up the heater and pick up some aquarium salt. Lots of 'white stuff' floating in the tank that looks like microbubbles but isn't. This can't be ich in the water column can it?
Uh Oh...I moved a decoration into my other tank with the Electric Blue Dempsey (no spots that I can see) the other day. Ugh lets go crank the heat up there as well just in case.

11/29:
Tank hit 30 C. 50% water change and brought Salinity up to 1.001.
Gold Severum looks the worst of the bunch as there are spots on all fins guessing 100 total. Green Severum has about 50 or so. Tetras move so much I have no idea how many spots, but each of them seem to have at least a few spots. The Terror only has about 20 that I can see. Don't see much of anything on any of the trunks of any fish.
Appetite on all fish is great. With the heat and salt I get a nice crap storm after feeding. No need to worry about them getting blocked up.
Ordered Rid Ick + just in case the heat and salt don't seem to take it out and I can go with meds in an emergency (Amazon says Friday delivery)
Hmm...a controller would be real nice to help treat this...better get that added to my cart as well (Inkbird 1200W should do the trick)


11/30
Looks like the temp jumped to 30.5 ish C overnight (that controller would be great but the Jager thermostat seems pretty good)
Pictus are certainly out and about today. Fist time I've really seen them in the front of the tank since they were added. Don't see a single spot on any of the 3. Wonder if its just the heat making them search for food. As I assume that all these guys do...hide and look for food
Gold Severum still looks pretty bad with just about the same amount of cysts as yesterday.
Green Severum looking better as I can only count 20 spots...definitely less than yesterday.
The Terror looks about the same maybe a few less but hard to tell...but so far no flashing thinking the salt may be providing a bit of relief
Tetras are schooling a bit better today and don't look too badly infected so far.
Still need to do another water change and bring the salt up to 1.002. (Not sure how the pictus will handle the salt so I'll monitor them for signs stress)
Everyone still active and eating with a frenzy
Noticeably less 'white stuff' floating in the tank...no idea what it could be.
Still no signs of ich in the Dempsey tank...still treating with heat and salt there just in case

 

[tlindsey]

You are on top of things.

 

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Treatment Day 3
Temp is holding steady at 30 C
Gold Severum has noticeably less spots this morning. Looks like there are about 50 or so remaining.
Green Severum is looking good with only about 10 spots remaining.
The Terror has 1 remaining spot.
Tetras still have a few spots and are still darting all over the place.
Pictus all still look ok.
Haven't seen any flashing since treatment started, and appetite is still fantastic
Where things are getting better at 1.001 Salinity I'm going to keep it where it is as I've read Tetras and Cats don't handle salt well (even though they look perfectly fine at 1.001), and I'm not certain it does any thing but provide some comfort to the fish unless salinty is drastically higher.
Missed the water change last night so that will get done today (25-30%)
Dempsey tank is still ich free that I can tell, but I'm keeping the temp at 30 C there as well.

Everything I read on ich treatments is that it gets worse before it gets better, but I did not see that to this point. Guess getting the temp up quickly to 30 C prevented a larger outbreak.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Good job. Keep in mind to continue the heat treatment for a time after the last spot(parasite) is seen. Have to give the eggs time to hatch out and be killed.

 

[Spence]

Amazon came through and got me my controller and bottle of Rid Ich as promised. Rid Ich says its good until 2020. Since the heat and salt treatment seems to be working really well, I'll store it away in case I ever need it (fingers crossed).
I did just get that 30% water change in today so I'm going to keep my hands out of the tank for now and wait until later or maybe tomorrow for the controller.

 

[skjl47]

Amazon came through and got me my controller and bottle of Rid Ich as promised. Rid Ich says its good until 2020. Since the heat and salt treatment seems to be working really well, I'll store it away in case I ever need it (fingers crossed).
I did just get that 30% water change in today so I'm going to keep my hands out of the tank for now and wait until later or maybe tomorrow for the controller.

Hello: A word of caution. You are currently using heat and salt. Please do some checking before adding the rid ich at the same time. In the future if you get another outbreak and decide to use the rid ich, then it may not be wise to add salt at the same time.

We had a thread a while back about ich started by a young lady. She apparently was adding salt and other ich medications at the same time. I and a few others spent some time trying to give some guidance about this. She kept coming back with how much she loved her fish and this was why she had to go against the advice and try multiple measures. Not sure how it all worked out as the thread stopped when she quit posting.

Give the heat time to work and keep it up for say ten + days past the last visible parasite. The adult parasites and the eggs can not be killed easily. It is the free swimming larvae after they hatch and before they attach to a fish host that can be killed. So the last bunch of eggs can take several days to hatch out.

 

[Spence]

Yup that's the plan...I will not be adding the Rid Ich unless things take a turn for the worse. I got it just to have on hand if the heat/salt method failed, but so far it looks like it will work. If for some reason I do feel I need the Rid Ich I'd make sure salinity and heat were back down to regular levels before adding it to the tank.

 

[skjl47]

I do feel I need the Rid Ich I'd make sure salinity and heat were back down to regular levels before adding it to the tank.

Hello; Sorry I was not clear enough. It is my understanding that the heat can be used along with the other things. In fact it is my understanding the heat alone can be enough.
What I am trying to say is heat + salt =OK or heat + rid ich = OK. What is not recommended is heat + salt + rid ich + other stuff.

Not sure if this has been mentioned but a QT (quarantine tank) is perhaps the best investment a fish keeper can have. I place all new fish in a QT for a long time before putting them in a display or other tank. It seems some do not like to wait the 4 to 6 weeks which is seems the better length. I started at 14 days QT and have moved to the longer time in the last few decades.

 

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Treatment Day 4
Wow...so things are looking really good today.
Temp holding at 30 C and salinity at 1.001
Green Terror, Tetras, and Pictus Cats all appear spot free
I was able to see 1 small spot on the Green Severums tail
The Gold Severum still has a small cluster on his tail looks to be about 5 small spots and 1 rather large spot
The Terror has been especially bossy over the last couple days. It appears he has claimed the entire tank as his own. He makes sure both Severums move when he wants them to move. It'll be nice to get through this and drop the temps and hopefully calm him down a bit.

 

[Spence]

Got the controller hooked up. Temp from the controller read at 30.3 C so the Jager thermostats were even better than I thought. If anyone is interested in a dual plug controller the Inkbird was incredibly simple to set up. It has options to set a day and night temp which I don't think I'll ever use. Hopefully it holds up over time.
So what is the agreed upon time to treat with heat once no spots are visible on fish? I was planning on keeping temps elevated a week past the last signs of ich, but I've also read 10 days (as skjl47 had mentioned).