Ich
- Thread starter liljag
- Start date
moodig;4910458; said:
Stressed fish will catch ich more easily but ich can also spread to healthy fish as well.
ICH CAN CAUSE THE FISH's DEATH! Did no one say this yet?
best removes with copper sulfate meds imo,
it is bad for the fish and bad for everything in general.
From what I undersstand of the bacteria (ich is a bacteria, right?)
raising water temp dosen't kill ich, in fact what it does is speed up the organisms' life cycle so that there's a chance the fish will get over it quicker. I'd imagine it could die if you boiled it, but of course that would kill the fish too.
imo best killed with weak antibiotic poisions, i use copper sulfate. the trick is to get just enough to kill the ich, this much won't usually harm fish. it is wise to take saftey precautions though (such as hosbpital tank)
best removes with copper sulfate meds imo,
it is bad for the fish and bad for everything in general.
From what I undersstand of the bacteria (ich is a bacteria, right?)
raising water temp dosen't kill ich, in fact what it does is speed up the organisms' life cycle so that there's a chance the fish will get over it quicker. I'd imagine it could die if you boiled it, but of course that would kill the fish too.
imo best killed with weak antibiotic poisions, i use copper sulfate. the trick is to get just enough to kill the ich, this much won't usually harm fish. it is wise to take saftey precautions though (such as hosbpital tank)
Ich is NOT bacteria so anti bacteria medicine would not do anything. Copper sulfate is not an antibacterial so it would not mess with your biological filter.
This isn't the best website I've seen, but it can help. Or try looking for information under it's scientific name to get legitimate resuts ; )
Also, be very careful with you catfish. It probably won't tolerate chemicals well at all.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ich.htm
-Kaila June
Also, be very careful with you catfish. It probably won't tolerate chemicals well at all.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ich.htm
-Kaila June
Ok, alot of myths floating around here, first off there are two prevailing types of the ich parasite the most common one dies at 86 degrees the less common florida strain dies at 90.
I found the heat treatment is not notably bad for your fish relative to any treatment you will incure on the tank otherwise.
I would recommend a method that worked for my 110 gallon fish tank, heat the tank up to 86 degrees then during a water change bring the tank up another 2-5 degrees(with warm tap water, not hot you might hurt your fish) to 90 degrees(that way you know you kill any strain of the ich parasite). Most good heaters won't heat over 88 so they turn off and you tank should cool back to 86 then you can turn the heaters down to the normal temp. In basically one day I'm able to kill a ich infection outright and not loose any fish. Be careful not to go over 91 degrees for very long that will kill your fish. I do find that a hot tank is not favorable but this seems to go down fine with cichlids, monos, and other larger bodied fish.
If you are treating smaller tetras and stuff I'd take the tank to 87 and combo with salt.
I know alot of people say things about ich not being a major issue but I've always found that as soon as you see ich it is a problem. Ich stresses your fish and can as such lower their immune system and expose them to other illness/infections. Ich is leathal if visible and left untreated. Soon as I notice ich in a tank I usually have 2 days before I start loosing fish so I typically try to treat ASAP.
I occasionally treat with salt and or cooper depending on tank mates but if you have loaches or scaless fish the 90 degree spike seems to not phase them and takes care of the issue in one shot.
I found the heat treatment is not notably bad for your fish relative to any treatment you will incure on the tank otherwise.
I would recommend a method that worked for my 110 gallon fish tank, heat the tank up to 86 degrees then during a water change bring the tank up another 2-5 degrees(with warm tap water, not hot you might hurt your fish) to 90 degrees(that way you know you kill any strain of the ich parasite). Most good heaters won't heat over 88 so they turn off and you tank should cool back to 86 then you can turn the heaters down to the normal temp. In basically one day I'm able to kill a ich infection outright and not loose any fish. Be careful not to go over 91 degrees for very long that will kill your fish. I do find that a hot tank is not favorable but this seems to go down fine with cichlids, monos, and other larger bodied fish.
If you are treating smaller tetras and stuff I'd take the tank to 87 and combo with salt.
I know alot of people say things about ich not being a major issue but I've always found that as soon as you see ich it is a problem. Ich stresses your fish and can as such lower their immune system and expose them to other illness/infections. Ich is leathal if visible and left untreated. Soon as I notice ich in a tank I usually have 2 days before I start loosing fish so I typically try to treat ASAP.
I occasionally treat with salt and or cooper depending on tank mates but if you have loaches or scaless fish the 90 degree spike seems to not phase them and takes care of the issue in one shot.
I just recently had my ich infestation problem. At first I didnt do anything about it (discus tank) I thought it would go away on its own.. Not! Lost 5 discus because I was too optimistic about it.. What I did was buy a heater, set it to 30 deg celsius, put methylene blue(?) and Rid-All. ( I was overdoing it I know, but I need vengeance! for my lost fishes..) Now after 9 days no trace of any white spots on the remaining 14 discus. But will keep medicating for 2 more days just to be sure. 
