Peacock Bass Ich

[Bassjedi]

Hey guys. Unfortunately my new Intermedia had ich and now has infected most of my other bass as well as some of my Geos. I cranked the temp up to 88 four days ago and put in salt, but so far it does not seem to be having any effect and the ich is spreading. Has anyone tried a temp above 88 for bass? Could they take 90?

I've been resisting using meds because I have a catfish in there and I always try heat and salt first. However, it might come to that if I don't see some improvement over the next few days.

Any thoughts?

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Take the cat out, add a bubbler or two, keep doing daily water changes and bump it to 90.
That should do it, if not then use meds.

 

[Bassjedi]

Take the cat out, add a bubbler or two, keep doing daily water changes and bump it to 90.
That should do it, if not then use meds.

Taking the catfish out is definitely the most logical thing to do, but it is a huge tank (10ft long, 42" high) with lots of decor and it would be a major undertaking to try and catch any of the fish in there, especially the cat. Also, I have nowhere to put the cat if I did catch it.

 

[Chefken]

Had same issue with new Kels....Ich was bad and took 3/4 of my bass. Nothing else in tank got sick. I cannot use salt because of plants....P-bass are sensitive as hell....

 

[cigars]

90 is fine, give it time it needs to run its cycle once the parasite is in the water column the higher temp will kill it. You will need to keep temps up for a minimum of two weeks due to life cycle maybe longer to be safe what’s dangerous is when you finally see it the it’s most definitely on the gills this is what kills the fish so make sure there is enough aeration to keep o2 levels up if they are still eating they should be just fine. I’m sure you know this but you should quarantine all new fish I use a 40 gallon breeder, it’s cheap and has a decent foot print I use cheap filtration sponge filters home made 10 gallon sump what ever it works for all new fish. I even use it for newly acquired stingrays. Good luck it will pass

 

[Matteus]

I had my kels at 90 for 3 weeks with no issue when I had an ich outbreak. I used a half dose of salt to start, my cats and loaches seemed fine, so after a few days I went to full dose. Like others mentioned, make sure you have more airation, vac the substrate often. Keep in mind with this method causes ich to go worse before it gets better so don’t get too discouraged if that happens for a few days. Then it almost disappeared over night

 

[TheWolfman]

X2 on the quarantine on new fish. It’s going to take a lot of salt to get to the levels you are going to need to kill the ick in that monster of a tank you have. Keep that heat cranked, best of luck.

 

[LBDave]

Hey guys. Unfortunately my new Intermedia had ich and now has infected most of my other bass as well as some of my Geos. I cranked the temp up to 88 four days ago and put in salt, but so far it does not seem to be having any effect and the ich is spreading. Has anyone tried a temp above 88 for bass? Could they take 90?

I've been resisting using meds because I have a catfish in there and I always try heat and salt first. However, it might come to that if I don't see some improvement over the next few days.

Any thoughts?

I had 4 oscars with ich and p bass were flashing. Day 1 raised temp to 87.5. Day 3 added 20 oz salt to 110 gal tank with 20 gal sump (gradually over a day). Ich went down on day 5. Day 10 looked good. Remember that the ich will cycle quicker with the temp. Ich should die at 89 degrees but ittakes days. The salt should kill it with the lower temps. I know it took me a week to see good results. But after this I am going with ICH-X. Too much fear of ich that can resist temperature.

 

[Bassjedi]

Glad I held off on the meds. Bumping the temp to 90 seems to be working; visible ich is almost completely gone from all fish and none of them appear distressed. I have also been doing the salt; not sure if that is helping or not but everyone seems to be tolerating it fine. Everyone is eating well and has stopped flashing. Will keep it at 90 for another couple days and then lower to 88 for another week or two before dropping it down to 83 eventually. Thank you all for your input.

 

[Matteus]

I think you need to keep it at 90 for a week after all visible signs are gone to be safe. From what I have read, and what I have experienced was successful doing this. When I dropped temp too fast it came back later when other fish got stressed.

It seems to be a controversial topic of the cysts being dormant for certain periods. Some people say all fish have ich and it only affects the fish adversely when they become stressed, it’s kind of confusing with all the different people saying different things. I just know this is what worked for my tank.