All fish died from Ich

My last fish in tank died from Ich and possibly secondary illness. I have one live plant I do not want to rip out, otherwise everything else is out of tank. What now???

the life cycle of ich is not that long, wait a week or so and i think it should be clean.

You do not want this to spread again by using contaminated stuff. I would throw out all filter media and get new. Disinfect everything with a bleach solution and hot water. Bake the rocks to kill any of the bad stuff in there. As for the live plant, Im not sure, I suppose the little cysts could get on it... Not sure what to do with it.

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When ich matures it falls off of the fish, and releases a few thousand "tomites" these are free floating parasites that attach to the fish and create new white spots. per the article above ->

"These tomites move about looking for a host, which they must find within 2 to 3 days at 75° F (24° C) or they will die."

The ich itself not so much the concern, sometimes the secondary things like bacteria can still live quite well on any fish waste and stuff in the gravel. Im pretty sure that is what I had going on in my tank. Contaminated gravel could be a breeding ground for something else. If its a small tank, why risk it, just disinfect to be safe. I just got through baking 135lbs of gravel and at least now can feel safe about that.

DMD123 wrote:The ich itself not so much the concern, sometimes the secondary things like bacteria can still live quite well on any fish waste and stuff in the gravel. Im pretty sure that is what I had going on in my tank. Contaminated gravel could be a breeding ground for something else. If its a small tank, why risk it, just disinfect to be safe. I just got through baking 135lbs of gravel and at least now can feel safe about that.

I'm thinking about taking out all the gravel and doing a deep clean then try to get the temp up high and use salt or med., they say that Ich cannot live outside water and hosts, so I don't know how stuff that has been sitting out for 2 days could be infected. I will probably still soak in vinegar and boiling water.

Better safe than sorry. Soaking the gravel in boiling water is still a good idea.

Sorry for your loss. Dont get discouraged, hang in there.

DMD123 wrote:Better safe than sorry. Soaking the gravel in boiling water is still a good idea.

Sorry for your loss. Dont get discouraged, hang in there.

Yeah I'm actually kinda bawling right now, I've barely slept in two days and I lost my two dojo's I've had for 5 years!!! I've never had Ich ever and I got it from new fish at the store, really upset, and now have lots more work to do!!

clean from ich is easy, it will die on its own after just a few days without a host. as for other stuff such as bacteria from 2ndary infections, that is anyones guess. what kind of plants are they?

OK I've decided to do a complete overhaul on tank including new gravel. How do I save the two healthy plants that I'm taking out and make sure they are clean from Ich????

See my above post, i think you reposted/deleted?

keri_75 wrote:

DMD123 wrote:Better safe than sorry. Soaking the gravel in boiling water is still a good idea.

Sorry for your loss. Dont get discouraged, hang in there.

Yeah I'm actually kinda bawling right now, I've barely slept in two days and I lost my two dojo's I've had for 5 years!!! I've never had Ich ever and I got it from new fish at the store, really upset, and now have lots more work to do!!

I too recently had a loss of an entire tank of fish including some I had over three years. Same kind of situation, newly introduced fish infected my tank. I now have a separate quarantine tank to make sure this never happens again.

I think ich is always in your tank/ fish. And it just takes the right stressors, or conditions for it to be active.

interesting article in Ich
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This second article talks about plants and cleaning them of snails and micro bugs which should also work with Disease
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Thanks for the article. I now happen to need it. Just got two Oscars from Petsmart and one shows a very light amount of ich. Just started treatment with Seachem Paraguard and salt. Just the one is showing it and it is very light at this point.

No Problem DMD I hope it helps. I love finding new articles on the internet. Whats funny is I found another article on RES care and I found out something new.

I have had ich in a few tanks... never gutted it and got new stuff..... or baked gravel..... thats seriously overkill..... reallly just raise temp above 90 for a week.... then do a few vacume and water changes.... should be fine....

Good luck with the new fishys.

I wasn't in my right mind when I decided to break it all down. I forgot how long it is to cycle. Although I did want to change the color of gravel and do deep clean, etc. I was really attached to my Dojo's. The fish, shrimp and frogs that I have are my pets, it's not a hobby to me!!!! Hopefully I won't have to go through this again but now I've learned some hard lessons.