The aftermath of Ich?

[mudbuttjones]

Hey guys. I've been keeping fish for about a decade and this is the section on the forums I never want to start a thread in. I've been lucky and I've been pretty safe. I've had 1 run in with Ich about 5 years ago and no other major illnesses.

I just setup my 125g and my tank situation was in disarray.

I hit up the fish place in town for a few supplies and saw they had gold sevrums in stock. I've never seen them locally and although i didn't have a quarantine tank setup, I decided to roll the dice.

bad call and a lesson learned. the sevrum died within 2 days and not long after all of my fish showed signs of ich.

I decided to treat with heat and salt. i didn't want to use a medication because they have been known to be very stressful for some fish and can stain silicone and other decor in the tank.

over 48 hours I increased the tank temperature from 76° to 85° and slowly added in brine made from aquarium salt. total concentration was approx 2 tsp/gal.

my 6 year old jack dempsey died the following morning.

my 9 year old oscar is just hanging on. the white spots are gone but she is missing lots of scales and has open sores. she will not eat and has green stringy stuff hanging out of the fish's "butt".



the other fish in the tank seem ok. is there anything else i can do without stressing this old fish? Parameters seem ok. i haven't done a water change in 6 days. I don't want to mess with re-dosing the salt and changing the salinity. I was going to let this course of treatment go for about 10-12 days then slowly lower the temp back to 76° and do water changes every few days until the salt levels go back to normal.

I've heard things get worse before they get better. what am I doing wrong?

 

[kno4te]

Test ur water. With fish dying and potentially releasing harmful waste and other pathogens in the water....my first suggestion would be water change and redose the salt.

Maybe trying some food soaked with garlic to intice feeding.

Likely just from the ich. Hope ur Oscar recovers.

 

[mudbuttjones]

parameters are fine, nitrates are still low. but who knows what else is in there that we don't have a test kit for.

the 125g has a 75g sump, i figured there was around 140 total gallons in the system. I'll do a 50% w/c and add salt for 70 gallons.

I'll try the garlic method. hopefully that helps.

I got that Oscar about 7 years ago at my LFS. she was traded in when a family moved out of state. she was about 2 years old at the time and in terrible shape. must have been kept in a small tank. she had horrible fin rot and what looked like HITH. I nursed her back to health. fin level daily water changes and melafix for a few months. she's tough. let's hope she pulls through. I cant imagine Oscars living much past 9-10 years but you never know.

 

[kno4te]

Older fish are susceptible to disease and may not respond well in recovering as well. Hope it works out.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Give your oscar some deshelled peas as well as it helps clear out the digestive system

 

[duanes]

In order to bring your tank and sump (200 gallons if the sump is full) up to the proper salinity to kill ick (3ppt). You would need to pour between 5.5 and 6 lbs of salt in the tank. (I use rock salt or water softener salt, around $5 for 50 lb bags)
If you used less, there may still be dormant ick hatching out, and attaching to the inside of the gills.
With the proper dosage of salt, it can take a couple weeks of treatment to get rid of all ick, with constant vacuuming to help remove unhatched ick in the substraight, and the addition of salt with each vacuuming to keep salinity high enough to kill newly hatching ick.