See if Seachem Stability will work for you in seeding the media, since it sounds like you are doing a fishless cycle.
Ich?
- Thread starter coolcomfort
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See if Seachem Stability will work for you in seeding the media, since it sounds like you are doing a fishless cycle.
Hello; I may be reading more into this than necessary. Seems to read that you have had ich on only the one fish for a while? This may indicate the fish has some other problem than ich.
Hello; Again I may have mis-read. A seeded tank needs an ammonia source for the beneficial bacteria (bb) to be able to multiply. I usually keep a couple of extra sponge bases in the back of my display tank filters. I throw the bases in the QT and am good to go.
Hello; Two of these statements got me to thinking they do not match my understanding of the parasite we call ick. First being that the parasite is present at all times . That is not my understanding. Ick is a parasite and as far as I know it can be eradicated from a tank and it does not hang around in some way waiting for proper conditions. My take has been it must be introduced.
I also have questions about the use of a half dose of salt. My understanding is that the salt concentration has to be at a particular level so that when the free swimming stage first hatches out of an egg the osmotic pressure difference will kill it. The basic take has been that too weak a concentration is pointless.
I am not expert on this so did a brief search and found backup for my notions in the following link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyophthirius_multifiliis
I also get that this subject appears to have a lot of conflicting information floating around. I do know there are many threads about ick (ich) in this forum and there is sort of a consensus that the heat alone is not enough and that some sort of meds needs to be used. Too bad such a state exists and that we cannot get straight credible information.
Good luck
thebiggerthebetter said:
Ick may have different strains which are virtually ubiquitous in ponds, lakes streams and other natural freshwaters, but it cannot survive in those waters above a certain salinity or above a certain temperature. (Freshwater ick).
Once introduced to a tank, it can be eradicated. But the tank must be treated ... that is, the water - not the fish.
It's unfortunate thatskjl47 said:
Rocksor
gave spot on instructions and they weren't followed out. Also
kno4te
.Treat tank with 3 teaspoon salt per gallon at 86º. Continue treatment for 10 full
days after all ick has disappeared.
Is there really consensus that heat is not enough? Most threads I read said heat and water changes can be enough.
I feel like a fool for not adding salt. However, i'm worried about my scaleless fish. I have a clown loach and an RTC. I do not want them to be at risk of death due to salt.
I feel like a fool for not adding salt. However, i'm worried about my scaleless fish. I have a clown loach and an RTC. I do not want them to be at risk of death due to salt.
No unfortunately my other fish passed away from ich. It was very hard to tell whether it was ich or not on the gulper. It appeared gone for a couple weeks and I went away, only to come back to see the fish covered in ich.
I'm trying to prevent it on my iridescent shark but not sure whether to use salt or not. I don't want to kill the fish since they are scaleless, but I am willing to blindly take information from the internet since you guys are the experts (lol). It's just so far I've read in many places that salt is no necessarily needed to cure ich.
The consensus is heat will increase the lifecycle of ich. High heat can kill but it may kill ur fish as well but there have been ich living in temps that normally should be lethal. Seen it happen on fb fish groups several times.
If the fish isn’t too sick and I suspect clean water and heat can get rid of a small infection. If the fish is too stressed then recovery won’t happen.
If the fish isn’t too sick and I suspect clean water and heat can get rid of a small infection. If the fish is too stressed then recovery won’t happen.
Ok well the spots are completely gone off the fish. I'm just worried about preventing it from returning. I'll keep the temperature like this for another week.
If more spots return, then I may be forced to use salt.
Keep ur water clean. Good food. Get fish from a trusted source and keep fish that get along in a appropriate space. That’s the best way. Hard when it’s happening in episodes like this. Ich is in most tanks and just not impacting healthy fish.
I submit that you probably know more about ich. It does sound that you are correct and that it can be eradicated after a thorough proper treatment.Ick may have different strains which are virtually ubiquitous in ponds, lakes streams and other natural freshwaters, but it cannot survive in those waters above a certain salinity or above a certain temperature. (Freshwater ick).
Once introduced to a tank, it can be eradicated. But the tank must be treated ... that is, the water - not the fish.
It's unfortunate that
Treat tank with 3 teaspoon salt per gallon at 86º. Continue treatment for 10 full
days after all ick has disappeared.
In practice, however, every new fish, plant, invertebra, etc. introduces ich back into the tank from which it was supposedly cleansed out. That is unless you subject every new fish, etc. to the ich-killing treatment in the QT tank. But people don't do it unless it does show ich. And many don't do it even if it does show a mild case of ich because in the absence of any stress, a healthy fish overcomes ich without any help, again most usually. There are always exception but let's leave them out for now.
I stopped treating for ich a long, long time ago while I had been the first to worry and start treating right away before that.
Thus, my statement needed to be corrected and I thank you for it but in my tanks and practice it stands. I don't subject every new fish to an anti-ich treatment at all, whether it shows it or not, so ich is always present in all my tanks.
From here on, I believe the rest of my spiel to hold water.
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As for the half dose of salt... I said "start out" and "observe closely". If all's adequate, I increase to the recommended dose. If not, I may choose longer time, higher temp, or an alternative treatment.
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Hope it makes some sense.
