Best Ich treatment method...

I wrote this as an email for one of my moms friends that had an outbreak in her tank and lost almost all her fish even though she was treating with meds. I recently went through this and had no fish/plant/invert losses so I thought I would share my treatment method. Because this was a personal email the salt amounts are per her tank sizes so as a guideline for whatever tank size you have:

Day 1: 1tbsp per 5gals total(.1)
Day 2: 2tbsp per 5gals total(.2)
Day 3: 3tbsp per 5gals total(.3)

Salinity should not go past .3

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You didn't ask but I'll share anyways Sorry this is so long.


So I had to treat both my 55gal goldie tank and one of my tropical tanks so this method of treatment will work for both but it's done slightly different. Do your research on scaleless fish as this treatment method may not be suitable for them.


Goldfish:

Day 1- So when you first discover the ich the first thing you will want to do is vacuum out the tank. Removing 10gals from your 55gal will suffice. Gravel vacuuming every day is important to remove the unhatched cysts that are laying on the bottom. Once you replace the water you took out hook up as many air pumps and air stones as you can(I have tons if you ever need to borrow some). I think I had 6 pumps going on my tank, point being you need to have as much air going in to aquarium as you possibly can. The massive amount of bubble won't bother the fish, if anything it will keep them alive. Once you have as many air pumps going as you can throw in a heater. The heat will speed up the life cycle of ich cysts so that you can kill them when they are in the free swimming stage. It is very important to increase the heat very slowly for cold water fish. Going from room temp to 86-88F degrees in the course of three days. Once you have the heater in it's time to add the salt. Get a cup and fill it with the tank water and dissolve 1tbsp per 5gals. in the cup. Once the salt is dissolved pour it into the filter and filter will distribute the salt. It may take a couple cupfuls of tank water to get all the salt to dissolve. I did 10tbsp for my 55gal tank, most 55gals are technically 50gals. I should note that the carbon media(if there is any) does not need to be removed.


Day 2- The temp should still be steadily being raised. Gravel vac out 10gals of water. Get your cup, fill it with tank water and add 13tbsp salt. 2tbsp is for the water you just replaced and 10tbsp is to increase the salinity to .2 .


Day 3- The temp should reach 86-88F degrees by day three. Vacuum out 10gal of water/replace water. Dissolve 15tbsp. salt in a cup of tank water and pour into the filter to be dispersed. This amount of salt will make the salinity of the tank be at .3 which is as high as you want to go. The temp should not be raised any higher then 88F degrees also, because we are treating a cold water fish. The reason why you need to dissolve the salt in cups of tank water first is because it doesn't always dissolve well on it's own, especially if it's rock aquarium salt and not the finer stuff. And at .3 salinity you really have to stir and stir the salt to get it to dissolve because of the high salinity.


Days 4~10-Continue to vacuum out 10gals of water each day, replace the water and replace the 6tbsp salt that you took out.


Things to be cautious of: All of my goldies did very well with this treatment except for my panda moore. She was laying on the ground and wouldn't move. Once I added air pump 5 and 6 she got very much better, just needed the oxygen bumped up. It's normal for fish to feel sluggish and just wanna lay on the ground cause they've got parasites on them, are in warm water with a high salinity and both of those things sucks out oxygen. If a goldie still looks like it's declining after two days and you've already added more air pumps then I would suggest moving it to it's own small tank and either having the salinity at .2(2tbsp per 5gals) or lowering the temp to under 80. Treatment can be prolonged until day 15 on the main tank just to be on the safe side as long as the goldfish are tolerating treatment well.


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Tropical fish: First take assessment on any scaleless fish you have in the aquarium. If you have any they should be moved to their own small aquarium and be treated with meds that are safe for scaleless fish. For the main tank I recommend the salt treatment.


For your 29gal I think vacuuming out only 5gals per day will be sufficient. Follow the same procedure as with the goldfish. However with tropical fish, the temp can be raised slightly quicker and for my tropical tank I raised it to 90F degrees. I was able to get away with a salinity of .2(2tbsp per 5gals) because the temp was so high. Keep the air pumps going. I will note that at the time of treatment, this was and still is a planted tank and it had fry/snails in the tank. I did not lose any plants or fry during the course of the treatment. Surprisingly the fry seemed perkier then the adult fish.


After the treatment is done on whatever tank whether it be 10 or 15 days do daily water changes afterwards but just don't replace the salt, it's important to keep the water sparkly because the parasites leave wounds on the fish that are at risk for infection. You may notice cloudy white spots on the fishes fins after the parasites have fallen off, don't be alarmed. I've found this to be scarring from where the ich was sucking off of and it should go away in a day or two. It's imperative to keep the salt treatment going for 10-15 days. Even though you may not see any more parasites on the fish there's still unhatched cysts on the substrate and decor and you can only kill ich once it has hatched and it is in the free swimming stage. I lost no fish when treating the goldie and the tropical tank. And the parasites stopped appearing on the fish after three days. I should note that if you are very unlucky and have an outbreak of a more resistant strain of ich and the salt and heat treatment does not work you will need to turn to meds as a more potent method of removing this parasite from your tank. Obviously don't do maintenance on any healthy tank with the cleaning equipment that you're using on the infected tank.


Hope this helps, such a stressful thing.

Thanks for posting your treatment.

I have never had an issue with Ich, then again I run a UV sterilizer in my system so that might help.

I was being stupid and introduced un-quarantined goldies to my tank because my QT tank already had fish in it and then I cross contaminated via my cleaning equipment to one of my tropical tanks. I've used meds before for treating ich when I was first starting out with fish and nothing I have used has worked as quickly as the salt and heat. And the fact that it's a natural way to treat it and that it doesn't turn everything blue/green is a bonus. I still have decor that I can't get the blue tinge off of.

I recommend reading about what the ich parasite is and the life stages it goes through. It made me feel much more confident in my treatment as well as having the knowledge of recognizing what stage I was in.

quick cure is amazing in treating ich. just do what the bottle says and it should work. i add salt at 1 tbsp per 1o gallons and crank the temperature up to about 85

Whatever works for you is great. This just worked out the best from all the brands I've tried in the past.

Ok I got the Ick.. bumping up the temp to 85, added more air, using quick cure, and 20% water changes daily. We'll see how this goes.

I believe most aquarium fish have a dormant strain of the ick, that just presents itself when their immune system is compromised,,, ie. stressed, cold, injured , etc.

What led me to this conclusion, is that the fish with ick was placed in QT prior to ick symptoms, the ick showed up just before I realized the heater was in-op. With no prior ick in this QT tank, and no prior ick in the community, and no prior ick on this fish, thats the only thing I can think of. I originally moved the fish into the QT temporarily, in order to let the new fish in the big tank get settled in, planning to reintroduce the bully in a week. Alass it will be longer than that by the time we cure the ick.

I always just turn the temp up to 85F, make sure the airstone is going and do daily 20% water changes while vac'ing the gravel good each time. Never had to use salt or meds, works like a charm.

Ick does live out it life at a much faster rate with an increase in temp. The gravel vac is also important in stopping the cycle of the disease. Salt is so cheap I would use it. I found the round 26oz non iodized stuff at Fred Meyers for 39 cents. I keep plenty on hand because it is such a cheap easy remedy.

good news is I have no gravel in this tank , but I will clean the floor and look for the floaters too.

This was just a guide line for newbies as it is a very stressful thing to go through. Whatever treatment works for you is terrific, I just prefer the natural way whenever possible.

Well, 87degrees for 4 days and quick cure, with 25% waterchanges did the trick.