Anyone else currently battling it? It popped up on my uaru tank earlier this week during our first snow. Funny thing is that I've got their tank at 82* and they managed to pick it up 1 day after a 50% waterchange. I added a bunch of salt that cured most of my cichlids and killed some plecos I forgot about (oops) that were sensitive to the salt (damn it.) It's such a %#@&ing annoying disease but it always manages to pop up even in the best of environments. I guess you can just say. ICK HAPPENS... I guess you can say I was glad to hear when my fish dealer told me today was going through the same thing at the moment (I'm not alone, lol.) The original uaru who got it does not look like he's got much time left but I can't add any more salt, do any more water changes, or raise his temperature any more. Any tips from the long time hobbyists? I've seen people pickup they're fish with a handful of salt and just rub their fish in salt, good idea or terrible idea? The fish looked like it was going to die at first but was fine 5 minutes later.
Ick season..
- Thread starter Camphilophus
- Start date
Did you dissolve the salt before you added it? How long did it take you to add salt? Adding salt without dissolving it and doing it rather quickly can indeed kill scaleless fish especially as the grains burn their skin and also add to osmotic shock which is caused by sudden rise in conductivity which the fish is unable to cope up.
You did not tell us if you quarantine your new fish or not. Quarantining for four weeks regardless of the circumstances surrounding it. As for rubbing fish with salt, that is horridly stressful to the fish and is not recommended.
You did not tell us if you quarantine your new fish or not. Quarantining for four weeks regardless of the circumstances surrounding it. As for rubbing fish with salt, that is horridly stressful to the fish and is not recommended.
No new fish were added, old fish were shuffled through the tank though but I've owned all of them for months. I don't measure my salt, I just guess my best at 1 tbsp and slowly add accordingly. I usually don't bother dissolving it. When I do add it I drop it in the back of my HOB filters and it dissolves there.
You're doing it the wrong way. Dissolve salt first before adding it to the tank. Use a cup of tank water. Keep stirring the salt in it until it is completely dissolved. Measure out the salt and dose by a tablespoon per 5g. You are probably adding too much salt which proved fatal to the plecos. How big is the tank they are treated in and how many tablespoons of salt did you pour?
Lupin;2415528; said:
The tank is a 40gallon, I've only added maybe 2-3tbsp's of salt in total. My water is not very pleco friendly to begin with, I've killed a bunch of different kinds of plecos just trying to acclimate them. It may not have even been from the salt that killed them but its a possibility. The species of pleco that died was a albino bushynose pleco. I've had 4 of them for about a year, lost 2 this week (1 before salt and ick, 1 after.) I've tested my water and it was fine both times.
I had ick about 2 weeks ago from my added id sharks. sadly one of them died from it. The other is cured and the rest of the tank is back to perfect. Just added a new fish today and i was srue the ick was gone first. I took my advice from Lupin. dissolved the salt first .. 2x tbsp for my 10 gallon (at the time) and it took about 7 or 8 days to completely go away.
I just noticed it this morning. Asked a buddy for help and he went today an got salt to put in and turned the temp up to 84. Going to turn it up to 86 when I get home and up to 88 before I go to bed. I am also going to add more salt when I get home. I have never had Ich before in any of my tanks. I did put in 2 new fish last week and those are the 2 that have it right now. Hoping I caught it early.
after about a week of 86* water everybody's cured! Just did a water change and bumped it down to 82*. Hope everything works out for you guys.