Ich, and shrimp

I don't know why, but my poor 20 gallon tank over the years has been prone to Ick outbreaks, not often, about once every 6-8 months. At any rate I have an outbreak again. Claimed 3 cardinal tetras and two marble hatchets by the time I figured out what was going on. I have a school of amber tetras, cardinal tetras, a male beta, 4 octocinclus and one blue berry shrimp. I suspect it's not safe to treat this using Formalin and Malachite Green due to the shrimp. Any suggestions? Water was already at 82°F, I've cranked the heat up to 86°F hoping to kill it off with temperature only. All of the tetras have it, along with my remaining marble hatchet. I can't tell if the Octo's got it or not yet.

just FYI there is another thought to ich and it's cycles.

it was studied and there is chance of Latency. meaning  the ich is at such a low infection  rate that it is not noticed.  the thought is that the fish has built a resistance to the parasite or has a healthy enough immune system as to  fight off overwhelming effect to the point that it goes un noticed until stress is present in the  tank  to allow the parasite to gain the upper hand.
this also holds true for other  parasites as well since they  don't benefit much from a dead host.

in any case it is still fought using the same methods.
tho contamination is the most common cause of ich.

I thought I was helping my neighbor last month by giving her a couple of BN plecos to help her algae problem that I got on sale at Petco... a week or so later she was asking about white specs. Crap.. so much for the good deed.

adding daily salt to the tank makes me nervous. I've got the temperature up, I'll see if it continues to get worse. I did recently pick up 3 new octo's about 2-3 weeks ago, so it probably came from them this time.

Salt is usually the safest treatment for ich. It is recommended to also gravel vac during treatment to help rid the tank of Ich during that stage where it is not on the fish.

Okay, so far temperature has helped, the fish are looking better and they are not as stressed as they were. Spots are fewer and far between. If it picks up again with the temperature at 86F I'll start adding salt. In the past I was never successful at treating Ick on this tank. It usually ended up killing most of my fish before dieing out, but then I never got aggressive with the temperature like I did this time, I always just used quICK Cure. Not an option this time because of the shrimp in the tank. My other tank has a UV filter, so I suspect that may be why I never see it in the other tank, also, I keep the temperature of the other tank at about 86-88F for the discus.

Just to be safe, I would be careful not to cross contaminate items used in your tanks. Simple things like your gravel vac tool, nets, glass scrubber, mag floats, etc. If you have used them in the ich infected tank I would disinfect them and allow them to completely air dry. This should lessen the chance of spreading anything.

I have a separate set of tools for each fish tank, no cross contamination ever happens in my house with aquariums.   

thecarl wrote:I have a separate set of tools for each fish tank, no cross contamination ever happens in my house with aquariums.   

Good! I have my downstairs tank and upstairs tanks, and its just easier to have equipment and stuff on each floor so I dont have to run around.

Me too. Picked up Aquarium salt from Aquarium Co-Op and put salt in the tank, fish are looking much better after a good 12 hours of that. I wasn't able to find my shrimp tonight though I suspect he didn't survive the disease.