Ich?

[coolcomfort]

As a new tank starter, I've had some issues with ich lately. My water parameters are good, and i'm running out of ideas on how to cure it. I have ich on my iridescent shark.

I have read that there is basically no easy treatment when it comes to catfish having ich. The goal is to catch it early. I believe I have caught it early, and now i'm trying to take the steps necessary to cure it.

However, I've read that you can't use medication or aquarium salt to cure ich on scaleless fish. So this leaves me with just upping the temperature to 85-86 degrees. Does this seem reasonable? Or should I try something else?

 

[phreeflow]

You can add some salt, do daily water changes to suck up the cysts, add extra aeration if upping Temp. You can probably use Rid Ich Plus...they use a zinc free chloride salt of malachite green...basically it’s less toxic and I’ve used it successfully with scaleless fish with no issues. But try the salt, heat method first.

Don’t take my word on it though...read up on it here: http://www.kordon.com/kordon/produc...ives-and-treatments-2/rid-ich#compatabilities!

Hikari Ich-X goes into less detail but also seems to use a less toxic formulation. I’ve never used it so I can’t vouch for it but it may be more available in your area. I just stock up on Rid Ich since I have had great success with it. Here’s info on Ich-X: http://hikariusa.com/water_quality_folder/ich_x.html

 

[kno4te]

I’ve uses seachem paragaurd and salt in scaleless fish and no probs.

Salt and heat should be pretty safe.

 

[Chefken]

If you have live plants the salt is very bad......I have had no issues with catfish and high temps (87f) and three teaspoons of salt per gallon. For a 120 gallon tank thats close to 3lbs of salt. For planted tanks or reef tanks I suggest Ruby's Kick Ick.

 

[Rocksor]

Add the total salt dosage over a period of 3 days. Day 1 add 1 teaspoon of dissolved salt per gallon. Day 2 increase total dosage to 2 teaspoon per gallon. Day 3 increase total dosage to 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) per gallon. Maintain dosage for at least 10 days after you no longer see the ich on the body. Gravel vac the substrate everyday, and add back in any salt removed (10g change requires adding back in 10 tablespoons of dissolved salt). Raise the temperature to ~87F

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Visit the Freshwater Diseases forum on here and read the stickies on ich, I'd recommend.

IME, the salt is tolerated by catfish just as well as their scaled tank mates and what you cite IMHO is a by far and large a myth, when it comes to catfish...... IDK about other scaleless fish in any sort of breadth but catfish I know a bit. Out of caution I start out with half of the max recommended dose and observe closely.

Ich always lives on all fish, just like staphylococcus bacteria in your throat and nose. It can never be eradicated. It is kept in check by a healthy immune system. By far and large most usual reason for seeing ich is a compromised immune system via stress, brought about often by shipping and rehoming, ammonia or nitrite in the water, and a host of other less frequent reasons.

Most likely there is a source of stress in your tank. For a possible list see "Read before posting health questions" among the same stickies in the same forum.

 

[coolcomfort]

Thank you guys so much for the responses. I will keep everyone updated on how it is going.

Here are some pics of the little guy!

As for what I have done, I bumped up the temperature on my aqueon heater to 88 (I imagine this will actually be about 85-86 for the general temp) and I have introduced salt. The recommended amount was 1 teaspoon per gallon. I did about 1/3 of that. May or may not increase it. I have some other scaleless fish in here that I am worried about.

 

[coolcomfort]

Quick update. I'm going to try to cure the fish without salt. I've just read a lot of stuff that says salt isn't necessary most of the time. I have the temp set to 88, which is really only doing about 86. The ich is starting to disappear from my iridescent shark. I've been gravel vaccing every other day the bottom. I plan on leaving it up for another week and a half, then i'll lower temperature back to 80 degrees.

Does this seem good? I'm mainly worried about it coming back. Ich functions off of cycles so it feels a little skeptical after a week and half to turn down the temperature. I'm worried i'll come back and see the ich returned, and even worse.

It doesn't seem like any of my other fish have been affected at all.

 

[Bonytang]

Quick update. I'm going to try to cure the fish without salt. I've just read a lot of stuff that says salt isn't necessary most of the time. I have the temp set to 88, which is really only doing about 86. The ich is starting to disappear from my iridescent shark. I've been gravel vaccing every other day the bottom. I plan on leaving it up for another week and a half, then i'll lower temperature back to 80 degrees.

Does this seem good? I'm mainly worried about it coming back. Ich functions off of cycles so it feels a little skeptical after a week and half to turn down the temperature. I'm worried i'll come back and see the ich returned, and even worse.

It doesn't seem like any of my other fish have been affected at all.

Bro change water daily til it's gone. Ich "explodes" into more ich when it's dormant so try keep temp up while changing water as much as u can w/out being to stressful for fish. I used salt & it was quick fix but if it's not too bad some over counter at pet shop should be cool. Or just take him out of main tank and grab a little quarantine set up.

 

[coolcomfort]

Unfortunately, I can't use my QT tank just yet. I am setting it up, about week 2, but it still isn't cycled yet. Been using seeded material, but still waiting. I want to introduce more seeded material but I don't want to grab ich from my aquarium and bring it to my QT tank.