Sick to death of ICK!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
You also might want to look fruther into stress issues.. For Example, a breeding pair of kribs can really harass other dwarf cichlids like the Rams. You also might want to take reading of your water parameters 4-5 times a day for a few days. With Co2 injection, your tank can become very unstable and pH swings might be causing these outbreaks.
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I agree. ich can often be present in a tank but a healthy, unstressed fish can keep the disease dormant with its immune system. however, when a fish becomes stressed the immune system will not be as strong and that's when disease can take over. adding medicines will treat the symptoms, but will not address the real problem. you need to figure out why your fish keep getting stressed. if you can figure that out and correct the problem then the ich should go away. I'm going to second the idea to take water readings several times a day to see if there are fluctuations in the ph, kh or anything else that could be causing stress.

aquarium salt is supposed to reduce stress so adding salt and the increase in temp should help cure the stress for now. however once the ich goes away, if you stop adding in salt during water changes without correcting whatever the problem is then the ich will come back again. :)
 
Tokalosh said:
:cry:

I seem to be getting very disheartened about this recurring Ick in my tank.
To a point I want to pack it in as it is stressing me and my fish out. I don’t know what is causing it to reocure all the time and there has not been a month that has gone by with out it.
I’ve tried all the remedies from the heat treatment to different types of medication, to no avail. The fish and I are so tired of putting medication in the tank. To make things worse my Ram has got hole in the head and my ghost cat has got fin rot. My tank is well planted and the plants are doing fantastic but all this medication can’t be doing the tank any good.

This is not the first time I’ve been down this road but last night I gradually raised the temp from 26 to 30, turned off the CO2 and turned on my air stones. I then added some Anti White Spot (Interpet) as well as some Melafix, what ells can I do. My water parameters are perfect as I do a 30% water change every week.

Any advice would be most welcome.

The Tank (NO MONSTER TANK, just a tank)
Modified TropiQuarium 88
JBL CO2 system
2 X 18 watt Aqua Glow Lamps (wish I had room for more)
130 L
Temp 30
pH 6.4 ppm
KH 3.5 ppm
GH 14 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
CO2 39.2 mg/l
Bubbles / min 36

The Fish
3 X Gold Rams
4 X Clown Loaches
2 X Panda Cory's
1 X Siamese Flying Fox
10 X Neon Tetras
10 X Cardinal Tetras
6 X White Fin Tetra
6 X Glass (Ghost) Catfish
3 X Kribs (1 x male, 2 x female)

Plants
Dwarf Anubias
Congo Water Fern
Green cabomba
Fountain Plant
Java Moss South-East Asia
Medium Amazon Sword

Filter / Heater / CO2
Eheim 2229 external
Eheim aquaball internal
JBL CO2 Profiset 500
200 watt Visitherm Heater


Thanks
Tokalosh
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whats the diet like?

most fish fall to disease easily when they have a nutrient poor diet.

thats wuit im guessing everything else seems fine.

my fish get a diet rich in vitamins minerals, carbs and protein, among other thing too. they have yet to fall to any disease.

a healthy diet also cuts down on stress, errrm, i mean makes them more tolerable to stress.
 
I swear by raising the temp to 85 F, adding aquarium salt, and Aquasol. Treat for two days should be gone by then, but I always treat for two days after for good measure. Works even on my senstive rainbows.
 
Thanks everyone for all the help.

One the weekend I used the temp and salt treatment with success. I’m also in the process of setting up a 200l tank for the clown loaches and Rams. This should alleviate some of the stress in the tank especially with the Kribs trying to make whoopee. I’ve transferred the sick Ram and sick glass catfish to a hospital tank where they are currently undergoing treatment.

Thanks once again and it looks like I’ll be staying in the hobby a lot longer.

Tokalosh
:thumbsup:
 
A good trick to use to further reduce the stress on your fish while treating the water is to cover the tank with a towel or blanket. Basically just block out all light, and leave the light for the tank off. remove carbon, raise temp., add salt, and treat lightly.
 
Never had a problem with Ick before but {my fault} i bought two new fish and only had them in quarentine a short time.. added them to the community tank and after 3 weeks the tank broke out in Ick.. the clown loaches were filled with it.. in their eyes and covered their entire body... the rainbows had it pretty bad too.. the rest of the fish had it mild... my main concern was the clown loaches.. they have no scales on their body so i could not just use any medicine.. i did the Aquarium salt and bingo after 4 days the ick was gone...and i mean i was sweating it...whew!!
 
Remember that it is always best to treat for a few days after the ick disappears.
 
Salt also helps the blood carry oxygen. Might as well just add a little bit to give your fish an advantage.
 
I did keep the remedy up for 10 days with the heat and salt... after reading about the stages of ick.. Every time i think about how bad it was on the loaches i could cringe... but never again will i put a new fish in the aquarium too soon... learned my lesson the hard way.
 
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