Tank is constantly getting ick

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Industrial

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 22, 2010
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Buffalo, NY
Since July my south american predator tank has been getting ick. In the beginning I bought a hydrolycus tatauaia with ick and that gave my tank ick. I treated with salt then left town for about 10 days. Not long after I came back the tank got ick again and again, I treated with salt. Maybe three/four weeks ago I saw a little bit of ick on my Juruense catfish. I treated and in two days it was gone.

Now today I just bought a glass knifefish and while it was floating I noticed my Juruense catfish has ick yet again.

Each ick outbreak quickly spreads to the Juruense. The tat had it twice and the barracuda in the tank got it once, but the catfish had it each time.

The tank is a 40 breeder, I had a powerhead, HOB and sponge filter. Now I cut the powerhead filter fabric and put it in a XP2 and turned it to have volume. I still have the original HOB filter and there is a new sponge filter. The new sponge filter is 2 weeks old, the canister is 3-4 weeks old. The tank has a 6" tat, 6" acestrorhyncus falcirostris, 5" juruense catfish, 5" nandus nandus, 4" midnight catfish and 4" spotted raphael.

What I want to know, is why my tank is constantly getting ick.
 
A couple suggestions......

Set up a quarantine tank to quarantine any new fish you buy, this way you can monitor the new fish for any signs of sickness and treat only them.

When you treat for ich, elevate the temperature to greater than 86F (I go to 87-88F), and leave it there for at least 10 days past the last ich spot you see on a fish. I do not find it necessary to use too much salt, temperature is the key. You may not be treating for long enough and this is why it reoccurs.....

HTH....

Burt :)
 
Burtess;4527564; said:
A couple suggestions......

Set up a quarantine tank to quarantine any new fish you buy, this way you can monitor the new fish for any signs of sickness and treat only them.

When you treat for ich, elevate the temperature to greater than 86F (I go to 87-88F), and leave it there for at least 10 days past the last ich spot you see on a fish. I do not find it necessary to use too much salt, temperature is the key. You may not be treating for long enough and this is why it reoccurs.....

HTH....

Burt :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I tried setting up QT tanks in the past but due to my lack of restraint and interest in breeding then end up as conditioning and then species tanks. With larger more claustrophobic fish I would probably need to set up a 30br for QT, but I really don't have much room for that unless I got rid of the fish in one of my tanks.

I think next time I will continue treatment longer. It looks like I may be getting a 165 (6x2x22") so it would be a lot easier to raise temps without worries of suffocating the fish.
 
Sounds like you're not getting it again
you constantly have it

Get a heater.
 
you will want to rid yourself of any ick before introducing your fish into a new tank raise temp and add salt if you really want to make sure i would get some rid ich from your LFS it will turn your tank bluish but if your getting a new one you dont really need to worry about that the bottle is only a few dollars and can treat up to 400 gallons should be gone in 3 to 5 days with temp in the mid 80's
 
+1 on not treating long enough.

When raising temp, add an airstone. That way your fish will have O2.

You may want to continue treatment for 3-5 days past the last ICH dot seen. That way you will know any ICH that is free floating or in the substrate will be killed.
 
Copper is the only thing that really *kills* ich. Copper sulfite based medications. Is there any reason you're not using it? Salt just helps the fish and the temperature just speeds up its life cycle, enabling them to get over it quicker. But copper has always done the job for me.
 
I hear that payara and catfish are very sensitive to most medications so I try to avoid using them as possible. If there is a minor error in CuSO4 dosage you can destroy your bacteria colony which would be much worse than a few ick spots on one fish.

I have good filtration and I add the powerhead back to the tank when I treat it. I also have a sponge filter which aerates the water pretty well.

Salt doesn't just help the fish either. The salt dissolving on the bottom of the tank causes large local fluctuations in salinity acting like a saltwater dip to all of the ick parasites in that area. The heat speeds up the life cycle so you aren't treating it as long.

I think I will just do the salt treatment for a few days after I see the last ick spore to ensure that it is all gone.
 
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