ICH
- Thread starter siklid1066
- Start date
Yes, ich (also known as whitespot) is a parasite that goes through numerous life cycles as it grows. During some of these stages in its development it is free-swimming in the water and not visable to the naked eye, while at other stages in its life it is attached to the fish and visable on the fish etc.
When you treat ich with meds, the meds can only kill the parasite off when it goes into the non-visable free swimming stage as this is when it is at its most vunerable, this is also why some people advise turning the temp of the tank up as by turning the temp of the tank up you speed up the life cycles of the parasite and thus make it easier and quicker to kill it off.
When you treat ich/whitespot, you should treat the entire tank as a whole as it is a very infectious parasite, most fish in the tank will be infected by it by the time you see it, so treating the entire tank is advised if you are to completely eradicate it from the tank efficiently and effectively.
It is also advised you treat the tank for a minimum of 3weeks as well- if you do not treat the tank for long enough, you will risk not completely eradicating the parasite from the tank and will risk it coming back to "re-infect" your fish. After you have treated the fish for 3weeks at the least, i would advise not buying any new fish for a further 2weeks after that as new fish are more susceptable (sp?) to picking up deseases/parasites as they will be stressed from the move.
Medicines like "anti whitespot" by Interpet is a very good anti-ich/whitespot med. Some people use marine salt when treating ich, however i would not personally advise this unless you research your fish very thoroughly/carefully, as fish vary a great deal when it comes to their tolerance of salt depending on the exact type of fish, salt can be lethal to some fish (its particularly bad for fish which originate from the amazon, as areas like the amazon basin tend to have no or very little salt naturally occuring in the water, and so fish which have evolved in such area's tend to have very little tolerance of salt etc).
When you treat ich with meds, the meds can only kill the parasite off when it goes into the non-visable free swimming stage as this is when it is at its most vunerable, this is also why some people advise turning the temp of the tank up as by turning the temp of the tank up you speed up the life cycles of the parasite and thus make it easier and quicker to kill it off.
When you treat ich/whitespot, you should treat the entire tank as a whole as it is a very infectious parasite, most fish in the tank will be infected by it by the time you see it, so treating the entire tank is advised if you are to completely eradicate it from the tank efficiently and effectively.
It is also advised you treat the tank for a minimum of 3weeks as well- if you do not treat the tank for long enough, you will risk not completely eradicating the parasite from the tank and will risk it coming back to "re-infect" your fish. After you have treated the fish for 3weeks at the least, i would advise not buying any new fish for a further 2weeks after that as new fish are more susceptable (sp?) to picking up deseases/parasites as they will be stressed from the move.
Medicines like "anti whitespot" by Interpet is a very good anti-ich/whitespot med. Some people use marine salt when treating ich, however i would not personally advise this unless you research your fish very thoroughly/carefully, as fish vary a great deal when it comes to their tolerance of salt depending on the exact type of fish, salt can be lethal to some fish (its particularly bad for fish which originate from the amazon, as areas like the amazon basin tend to have no or very little salt naturally occuring in the water, and so fish which have evolved in such area's tend to have very little tolerance of salt etc).