Ropefish may have Ick - how do I treat it?

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G

g2orange

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 10, 2011
34
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Florida
Hi All,
I've had my share of troubles with the ropefish lately. One escaped last week, another was lost due to getting trapped in a hollow ornament. Now the one that escaped appears to be shedding. And a south american puffer that is in the tank with him has tiny white spots that appear to be ick. The tank is about 2 years old and I have not had an ick outbreak in the tank before now. The puffer and a new ropefish was introduced to the tank last week. Here are the details of the tank:

30 gallon freshwater with live and plastic plants, malaysian driftwood, sand substrate (all fish will be moved to a larger tank soon)
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
PH = 7.2
Temp = 78F
Nitrates = 20ppm
Filtration - cascade HOB filter rated for up to 45gls with carbon and sponge.
Stock:
2 ropefish (one is showing signs of shedding; the other looks healthy - the one that is shedding is the one that escaped last week - he was looking fine and now he is not)
1 south american puffer - showing signs of ick - it looks like its covered in sand - also is acting sluggish and sick.
1 Rosie Barb - healthy - no signs of ick
1 small oscellifer catfish - healthy - no signs of ick
1 small blue ram - healthy - no signs of ick

How do I treat this?

Thanks
 
We've just finished going 10 rounds with ich ourselves and it totally sucks! Here's what we learned...
So basically, there are two main methods for treating ich.

You can either:
1. Raise the temperature to above 85 and add more salt than usual. Do frequent water changes and keep up this process until 3 days after the last symptom is apparent.
OR
2. Use some sort of treatment (we like rid ich +, but there are other options out there) and follow the dosing instructions carefully. Also, make sure that your fish can handle chemical treatments, because some are too senstive for it (especially scaleless fish).

A few important notes:
1. Some people just remove the sick fish and quarantine it, but honestly, from our experience that's not a good idea. If you've got ich, whether the other fish are showing symptoms or not, you need to treat your tank.

2. Do not do both treatments at the same time! Both the chemicals and the increased temp/salt reduce the amount of oxygen that is in your water. I would suggest adding an airstone if you've got an extra pump and air stone around to try and increase the oxygen levels in your water during treatment regardless of the method you choose.

3. If you have other tanks, be very very careful not to use the same nets in multiple tanks unless they are completely dried between uses. I'd also be careful about residual water in syphon hoses etc... In other words, be on your guard not to get ANY water from the sick tank into your other tanks.

4. Secondary infections may occur due to the fish being sick. When ours had it, some of them also got bacterial eye infections. However, these secondary infections did not require additional treatments. Either of the options above will get rid of the ich and the bacterial infection. Just wanted you to know that sometimes it'll get worse before it gets better.

5. Treatment can take a long time...like up to 10 days or more. Just stay on it and you should be able to make it go away.

6. There are many previous posts on this topic and you may find those useful as well

Good luck! I hope this helps you! :)
 
Thanks Bigcatlover. I think the ropefish might tolerate the salt treatment and I'll keep researching about them. I'm about to start raising the temp now.
 
Anyone out there ever had a ropefish with Ick? What do you think? Add salt or not?

I'm raising the temp gradually to above 85F. Also adding more aeration. But I'm not sure about adding salt or how much.
 
turn the temp up....ich cant live above 80*.....DO NOT HAD CHEMICALS LIKE RID ICH.......the catfish cant handle chemicals like that...as for salt i think the ropefish would be fine with a dose of salt in the water, it'll help promote healing....good luck
 
The ropefish are doing much better but are not completely well yet. I am so excited about their progress so far.

I started treating the tank for ich 5 days ago with heat and a small amount of salt. The ropefish are doing very well. We lost the puffer, I moved the rosie barb because I didn't think she could handle the heat and I moved the blue ram because he was nipping at the ropefish. This left the catfish and two ropefish in the tank.

I've had the temp at 31C (about 88F) for 5 days (I use two heaters to do the job; one wasn't getting it done) I've been keeping 2 tablespoons of salt in the tank. The tank is 29gallons but I had to compensate for the plants, driftwood and sand. I didn't want to over do it with salt. I have two over sized air pumps pumping a lot of air into two bubble wands. And I keep the water level about 2 inches below the filter so that water splashes from the filter and puts even more air into the water. I've been doing 50% water changes every day for the last 5 days.

The ropefish are tolerating the heat very well. They do, however, hang out more at the top. They are very active and I hope it's because they feel better.

They got worse before they started getting better and several times I actually had the net in the water because I thought one or both of them were dead.

Now they still have a few ich spots on them. And they have sores where the ich has fallen off. But the sores seem to be healing quickly.

I'm planning to post a before and after picture when all the ich has fallen off and the sores have healed.

It's been a tough 5 days. I have plans for a quarantine tank in the future. Something I've never had before. I've never had to treat ich before either. I think the ich came from the puffer.
 
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