Ich Chronicals

[Spence]

Treatment Day 5
So its down to just the Gold Severum. He looks to have 3 remaining spots on the dorsal fin and not another sign of ich in the tank.
Honestly I'm not even sure what is on the Severum it looks more like a bit of a scar from ich spots that have already dropped off. But I'm not going to chance ending the treatment (better safe than sorry)
I'm going to keep everything right exactly the same for now with salt and temp.
Still need to make another nice 25-30% water change today.

 

[Spence]

Treatment Day 6:
Still just the Gold Severum with remaining spots. Kind of frustrating since all the others have cleared up so quickly, but I guess he did have the most cysts of any of them. However it could also be a scar. The spots almost appear flat and bigger than what I'd expect from ich. It is in an area where he had a pretty big grouping of cysts
Keeping temp and salinity stable at 1.002

 

[Spence]

Treatment Day 7:
Just those same spots remaining on the Gold Severum. At this point I'm going to assume them to be scars and not actual cysts. I'll try and capture a half decent picture to see if anyone can confirm if its spots or scars, but don't think my photography skills combined with my free phone will allow that to happen.
I'm going to run with the elevated heat/salt for 10 more days. If I notice the spots on the Severum drop off I'll reset the clock, but at this point it appears that I'm free from ich on all fish!
Seems early detection and a quick response saved the day on this case.

 

[Rocksor]

Still need to do another water change and bring the salt up to 1.002. (

How much salt did you add per gallon/litre to get the salinity that high? Was it added in one day?

 

[Spence]

How much salt did you add per gallon/litre to get the salinity that high? Was it added in one day?

I brought the salinity up to 1.001 on the second day of treatment. I have no idea on the exact amount of salt per gallon but thinking it was close to a tablespoon per gallon using aqaurium salt. From everything I read you can't really give an exact measurement unless you weigh the salt because grain size really effect how concentrated the dose would be.

I added the salt slowly by draining a few gallons of tank water into a 5 gallon bucket, added salt (6 tablespoons as I figured that would be about half of the salt I needed to get to 1.001), and mixed with a powerhead. This allowed me to keep the temp of the water pretty stable while adding the salt and not worry about figuring out how much Prime I would need to add.

After that initial dose I just kept mixing a few gallons of tank water to 1.001 and added it to the tank until it eventually got the tank where I wanted it to be (after a while I really stopped measuring with the tablespoon as I had a decent fell for how much to dump in). I had a refractometer handy from my saltwater days to get a good measurement but I guess one of those swing arm hydrometers would have worked out ok. All in all I probably raised to 1.001 over the course of 4 hours.

Since everything was looking good I was going to keep salinity at 1.001 and I did for a couple days, but got a bit careless after a water change and added a bit too much salt which lifted the levels up to close to 1.002 (pretty hard to tell on my refractometer the difference of .001). So the jump from 1.001 to 1.002 went pretty quick...probably a half hour. Fish didn't seem to care.

 

[Spence]

The above post should have said tablespoon per 5 gallons not a tablespoon per gallon

 

[Spence]

Treatment Day 8:
Heat 30 C Salinity 1.002
Same 3 marks on the Gold Severum otherwise I don't see any signs of ich in the tank.
All are still eating well.
Tetras and Green Terror have been a bit more aggressive than usual...think they may need a break from the heat.
Going to do another 25/30% water change today but need to pick up more salt

 

[Rocksor]

Treatment Day 8:
Heat 30 C Salinity 1.002
Same 3 marks on the Gold Severum otherwise I don't see any signs of ich in the tank.
All are still eating well.
Tetras and Green Terror have been a bit more aggressive than usual...think they may need a break from the heat.
Going to do another 25/30% water change today but need to pick up more salt

I would add more salt before dropping the heat. I seem to remember salinity needs to be at 3ppt to kill ich if you do not keep heat at 87F or higher to stop them from replicating.

I've had no issues with a GT being at 87F for 2 weeks.

 

[Spence]

I would add more salt before dropping the heat. I seem to remember salinity needs to be at 3ppt to kill ich if you do not keep heat at 87F or higher to stop them from replicating.

I've had no issues with a GT being at 87F for 2 weeks.

I was just saying that I think they would appreciate the dropping of the heat. They are going to have to deal with it for at least another week. Especially since I can't tell if the Gold Severum has spots or scars.

 

[skjl47]

just saying that I think they would appreciate the dropping of the heat

Hello; Interesting concept. I have had fish at high temps before with no signs of stress. Have to keep up bubblers or surface agitation to help with O2 exchange. If you are thinking along lines of an emotional response, that is what will be interesting.

One other thing I wish to add. I may have misunderstood the importance of adding salt to treat ICH. It has been my take that the salt is OK to add but not necessary. I have been under the impression the heat alone will do the trick.
There are exceptions I learned of on this forum from duanes . He resides in a warm tropical clime and told of strains that are adapted to the warmer waters. Heat alone does not work on them apparently.
This is a general question to those following the thread. Is the salt or some other chemical treatment necessary in addition to just heat?