Great...my tank has ich!

That's what I get for getting Petco fish So tomorrow I will be doing a water change before I go out and get some medicine. Any recommendations on what brand? Also, my tank is set at 78°F but I've been told that setting it at 82°F will help speed things up. Will this harm any of my neons, black neons, apple snails, nerite snails, betta or live plants? If you have any more suggestions please let me know!

the nerites no there in my cichlids tanks at 80-82 once up to 86 and all still doing good

When my tank had ich all I did was add aquarium salt, and turn up the heat. It wont hurt them!

And girl you didnt quaranteen them? Those things are just swimming parasites

I know I know...I was pretty dumb.

Exactly, get your tank up to about 84/86 slowly, and just dump in aquarium salt.

If you're going to treat, use Quick Cure. I've only ever seen it at Petco, but it could be at other LFSs.

If you DO treat, remember to take out the carbon and leave just the filter.

If it doesn't go away within a week or so, do a water change and start the process over.

Once the ich is gone, I'd do about a 50% water change. Your snails should all be fine, aquarium salt CAN affect scaleless fish (like loaches/catfish) but that's if it's in insane (brackish) levels.

I've never had to use quick cure to get rid of ich, the heat usually just fries it right off of them, and if your fish are already healthy then their immune system should be able to fight it off.

live an learn.... we all make rookie mistakes... even when we are hella expierenced. Can be fixed though, I always use quick cure, take out filter media, and crank the heat up.... vacume up all the dead stuff a couple days later, put back in filter media your ready to go.... your tank might get died blue at the worst. lol.

whatthebloody's tank hit 100 on vacation and all his plants are fine, revline is currently chilling at about 82 and loving it my mystery snails are in the 80 gal at 80 with lots of aquarium salt and seem to be fine too so all should be well!

Thanks everyone Only a couple of the tetras have noticable white spots and none are acting any different of look different other than that.

I never let any of my tanks drop below 82 degrees as ich cannot survive this temp and I have never gotten it or even had a sick fish for that matter.. I have brought fish home with ich stuck them in the tank and within three days of salt the ich is gone and none of the other fish ever get it....Good luck Ich is easiest parasite to cure...

Kingstature wrote:I never let any of my tanks drop below 82 degrees as ich cannot survive this temp and I have never gotten it or even had a sick fish for that matter.. I have brought fish home with ich stuck them in the tank and within three days of salt the ich is gone and none of the other fish ever get it....Good luck Ich is easiest parasite to cure...

Thanks King! Temps higher than 80 seem to make my bettas lethargic so I usually keep it around 78, but I just want my tank ich free!

Well, so far I've lost 1 black neon tetra and 2 neon tetras. Everyone else seems healthy and spot free so I'm hoping for the best! Did about a 25% water change then treated with Rid-Ich+ around 4pm. Got home around 9:45pm and looked at the tank and saw the parasites crawling on the sides of the wall trying to get out of the water. Yuck! Waited til this morning and checked to see that more than half of the parasites were dead Did a 50% water change and can't see anymore parasites, but I'm gonna wait a bit longer to make sure. I'm out of meds so I gotta run and get some more so I can treat for at least another 24 hours. My poor snails, frogs and betta sure hate being quarantined though!

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DR ASHLEY!!!!!!!! you are doing things textbook dear... great job, keep it up!

Thanks sand

I only see what looks to be less than around 10 parasites swimming now. I got some aquarium salt today and predissolved 1 1/2 tablespoons of it then added it to the tank. It says 1 tablespoon = 5 gallons so I dosed a little less since the tetras are sensitive. Wish me luck, everything looks great!

salt shouldnt do anything to your tetra's..... really, I overdue salt in all my tanks, even one with little guys in there. You gotta worry about chemicals, and doing less meds for the tetras is good... dont worry about the salt, you can add a lil' more if you need to.... otherwise your on top of it chica!

Glad to see it is getting taken care of!

Glad to hear your tank is doing better! Not so much here. Totally underestimated how fast ich would spread and didn't heat things up fast enough. Last night and today has been very depressing.

Found a great general article on ich and parasites, if anybody is interested. Goes into some really good detail on the life cycle and whether they really are dormant in tanks. From what I read, I might be worried that the guys you have quarantined might be carriers and just resistant? Wouldn't it be better to treat the tank with them in it? Just curious.

Particularly resistant fishes can remain asymptomatic through several cycles of infestation and can act as "carriers" of Ich. What happens is, the free-swimming tomites attach most easily to the gills. The rest of the fishes' skin is protected by a sturdier mucus coating that's constantly renewed, sloughing off all kinds of minute organisms that might settle out. Trophonts that are newly-attached to the epidermis are invisibly small. So a "carrier" fish is simply one that is invisibly carrying Ich, perhaps on its gills. There is no "dormant" independent, long-term encysted life stage separate from a host fish for Ichthyophthirius multifiliis.

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Thanks for the info! The snails and the frogs can't be in medicine since they are so fragile and the betta is a new fish that hasn't been in the tank yet, so they are quarantined for their own reasons

CrashSmAshley wrote:Well, so far I've lost 1 black neon tetra and 2 neon tetras. Everyone else seems healthy and spot free so I'm hoping for the best! Did about a 25% water change then treated with Rid-Ich+ around 4pm. Got home around 9:45pm and looked at the tank and saw the parasites crawling on the sides of the wall trying to get out of the water. Yuck! Waited til this morning and checked to see that more than half of the parasites were dead Did a 50% water change and can't see anymore parasites, but I'm gonna wait a bit longer to make sure. I'm out of meds so I gotta run and get some more so I can treat for at least another 24 hours. My poor snails, frogs and betta sure hate being quarantined though!

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in such a tank - 10G.
i would do the same. As in house the rest in bags til meds. finished applied.
great approach!

After treating for a week, the pesky parasite has made itself visible again...but this time I've caught it early! The betta's fins got super spotty overnight, but he's acting no different. Only a couple of the tetras have one or two small spots and they too aren't acting any different. Everyone's colors are super bright too, so at least we're off to a great start! Did about a 30% WC and quarantined the snails and dwarf frogs again. Added about 10ml (enough to treat around 8 gallons) of Coppersafe and about to dose around 7ml of aquarium salt. Everyone just ate a hardy meal of bloodworms and now exploring the tank.

jeez crash you have been battling with this ick for a really long time now

Does anyone else think that stand is pretty sketch? Not fully supporting the bottom of your tank could led to a disaster.
Hrm.. If its only a 10gal Ashely you should be fine.

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sidekicking wrote:jeez crash you have been battling with this ick for a really long time now

It went away and is now back so something I added must of been infected already. Grr...anywho, I'll be treating the tank for a bit to make sure I kill every little bloodsucker in there!

IceBerg wrote:Does anyone else think that stand is pretty sketch? Not fully supporting the bottom of your tank could led to a disaster.

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Actually I got a new one, that pic is old lol

Ok good, I was worried for your fish and your carpet there for a second!

I myself would just add all the fish and just use quick cure and raise the temp that way you know all the fish get treated. Ive used quick cure with baby cardinals, neon tetra's and even cory cats Ive never lost a fish to ich using quick cure and raising heat. Even treated for a week and a half.

IceBerg wrote:Ok good, I was worried for your fish and your carpet there for a second!

That stand was 100% stone and heavier than that tank filled so I wasn't too worried, plus only about an inch and a half was hanging off on each side. This is the tank quarantined now:

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CrashSmAshley wrote:

sidekicking wrote:jeez crash you have been battling with this ick for a really long time now

It went away and is now back so something I added must of been infected already. Grr...anywho, I'll be treating the tank for a bit to make sure I kill every little bloodsucker in there!

Well good luck battling this EPIC ick crisis
and kill every single one of those sob

I recommend purchasing a Fluval prefilter insert sleeve on the intake.

protocl wrote:I recommend purchasing a Fluval prefilter insert sleeve on the intake.

What will that do?