Ich

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Sidney73 said:
My neighbor is watching the fish but it was complicated enough showing her everything else...
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Hello; Fri to tue is only five days. Many a time I have left fish that long and a few times a bit longer. They will not need to be fed in that time. I say this because getting non-fish people to take care of tanks so very often results in a disaster.
I have lost fish this way and many others have reported the same sort of bad experience. Most common is overfeeding by inexperienced folks. Were it my tank I would feed them some on Friday and not have anyone come by at all.
I guess by now you are tired of my interference, even tho well intentioned. I will mention some members by user name which will flag them and perhaps they can do better than me.

hello; Hendre Hendre ; pops pops ; J jaws7777 ; Drstrangelove Drstrangelove . They may be better able to help or can suggest others.
 
As many have indicated, a combination of a target temp (86 F) and a target salt level (3 ppt), sustained over a period of time (several weeks), is what is recommended. Adding other medications at the same time is inherently risky for a variety of reasons.

Be careful of cross contamination with other tanks, and / or re-introduction of the parasite, by using buckets, hoses, etc. in the infected tank, and then re-introducing the parasite from that secondary source. Also, watch the fish to note if they are having difficulty with the the treatment. Salt in particular needs to be introduced slowly so that the fish are able to acclimate to it, especially for those that have a low tolerance.

Maintain the level of treatment. Letting the salt and temps drop for a short period of time could allow the parasite to re-infect fish and extend the treatment time.
 
Skjl47, thank you so much! Don't feel interfered with at all... :) And thanks drstrangelove - I'll bump it up to 86.
 
Considering that all thermometers are not made equal, I strive for 87F so that ich will not reproduce. You need 90F + to kill ich swarmers. So at 86F, I add 1 tablespoon of salt per gallon is a little over 3ppt of salt. This can be added slowly over a period of 3 days, adding 1 tsp/gallon per day. So on day 1 the total dosage is 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon, day 2 it is increased to 2 teaspoon of salt per gallon, and day 3 is 3 teaspoon (1 tablespoon) of salt per gallon.

If using medication anything over 80F is fine, no need to deplete the oxygen levels by bringing it to 86F.
 
Let the salt do its job, when you return, do a water change with vacuuming, and replace % salt with new water, continue every couple days until the ick is gone.
May take 2 weeks, but if the fish are itching, or you see even 1 spot, continue another two weeks. One spot can erupt into up to 100 new ick parasites, and you need to kill them all before ending the treatment.
 
Thanks again everyone for your patience and advice! So, just to recap, over the last 3 days I bumped my temp up to 86, and gradually added a little over 4 tsp/gallon of salt (around a TBS - For my 100 gallon tank it was about 73 oz. if I did the math right.) I also added one treatment of the Imagitarium Parasite Remedy (before you all mentioned I shouldn't do both that and salt, sorry...) so perhaps I'll just leave the temp at 86 while I'm gone? When I get back, I'll do a 50% water change. And Duanes, are you saying that I add salt back in again after the change? 4 tsp/gallon still? BTW, I do have a pretty strong wave pump in there so that helps with the oxygen level I'm sure...
 
Sidney73 said:
Thanks again everyone for your patience and advice! So, just to recap, over the last 3 days I bumped my temp up to 86, and gradually added a little over 4 tsp/gallon of salt (around a TBS - For my 100 gallon tank it was about 73 oz. if I did the math right.) I also added one treatment of the Imagitarium Parasite Remedy (before you all mentioned I shouldn't do both that and salt, sorry...) so perhaps I'll just leave the temp at 86 while I'm gone? When I get back, I'll do a 50% water change. And Duanes, are you saying that I add salt back in again after the change? 4 tsp/gallon still? BTW, I do have a pretty strong wave pump in there so that helps with the oxygen level I'm sure...
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Yeah you add salt back in proportion to how much water you changed.
 
Yes you want to keep salinity up to at least 3ppt (parts per thousand), its that osmotic pressure put on by that salinity concentration that kills the emerging ick from the dormant stage. Anything under 3ppt does not create enough pressure to make them implode. The heat speeds up their life cycle, allowing the pressure to get them at a faster rate. The temp doesn't actually hurt ick.
 
Right, ok. Well i'm off to launder filter socks... I spend more time caring for these fish than my kids and dogs! Lol
 
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