Amanda

My 55 gL. just lost another fish - my medium angel.
I found it when I got home. No torn fins, wounds, etc.
There is ICH in the tank, but none on the fish.
Now there are just the parrots, pleco, & gourami.
I'm doing a water change as I type.
Could it have been the high temp.?

Alessa

what are your readings? any new additions.

AlyeskaGirl

Sorry for your loss. Did you test for ammonia? I'm dealing with that right now myself...well the ammonia part, not loosin fish.

Amanda

I'll test now.
I'm panicing.
There are no additions, only the same ones that I stocked before.

Amanda

0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20 nitrate.
What's going on?!

JESS01

How can you have ich in the tank with none on the fish?

Amanda

It's all over my parrots. It wasn't on my angel.

AlyeskaGirl

Fish can get sick like we can. It sucks, I know. Some fish are prone to get ich then others ect. Um, do you have any ich/meds treatment? The angelfish could of died of somethin else. Maybe somethin gave out on the angel, who knows. These things just happen. Someone else should come along and have a better idea.....

Amanda

I'd been advisednot to mediacte, as it can put my tank in a mini-cycle & kill all of my MTS.
I'm moving as many MTS as I can to my other tanks.

AlyeskaGirl

True. Good idea to move them. I have freshwater aquarium salt on hand when i spot somethin weird on a fish. One of my angels had their anal fin, the tip of it was sort of black, so I treated the tank with the salt and that fixed the prob in no time at all.......used only half the suggested amount.

Amanda

I never thought of salt.
Would that help??

AlyeskaGirl

Yes, I think so.

Amanda

Other questions:
Are the spores on my decor?
On the snails? I don't want to move a handful of them to my betta tanks & then infect them.

AlyeskaGirl

I'm not sure. Better wait for someone else to help on that one.

The best way to treat ich is turn up the heat. What is your tank temp?

Amanda

I don't have a thermometer, but I can feel that it's pretty warm.
I turned up the heat last night.

AlyeskaGirl

The Ich life cycle is temperature dependent. Higher temperatures within its livable range speed up every stage of the life cycle, while the lower temperatures will slow it down. At 18°C/64°F the cycle takes 10-12 days to complete.

It has been found that Ich does not infect new fish at 29.4°C/85°F (Johnson, 1976), stops reproducing at 30°C/86°F (Dr. Nick St. Erne, DVM, pers. comm.), and dies at 32°C/89.5°F


Source link: http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php

Amanda

Thanks!!
The other questions still stand:
Are the spores on my decor?
Are they on the snails?
Will salt help?

AlyeskaGirl

That link I gave you has lots of info on that page and how to treat it etc. You really need a thermometer.

AlyeskaGirl

No, according to the link I gave you they only live on the fish. Go read all of it, it will make you understand ich. Yes, salt is one of the treatments.

TFA101

I'm not sure if the snails could be carriers

Salt often helps when combined with raising the temperature, but will irritate your pleco which is a scaless fish

Amanda

Well, I moved some snails to the new 20 gal.
I could move the pleco to my 10 gal., but I don't want to infect my bettas.

Mike19

what test kit are you using,
what is your tank temperature
can you think of any stressful factors that might have affected your fish.

AlyeskaGirl

She doesnt have a thermometer. She said she turned up the heat lastnight and the water feels warm. Told her she needs to get one.

Fishies-for-me

The snails themselves are not carriers but the water that they are wet with could be....the spores can live in the water on the snails but if the snails are in a fish free tank any ich that came over with them will die off after a few days without a host to feed on.

Amanda

So I should put them in like, a betta bowl for a day or two before I put them in my betta tank?

Lucy

I'd skip the salt. Get a thermometer as was suggested.
Raise the temp slowly to 83/84F. Increase aeration to make up for the lack of oxygen in the warmer water. Leave the temp raised for at least 2 weeks. Do a thorough gravel vac to pick up all the spores.
If the ich is severe you ight want to consider medicating, but check the directions and make sure it's safe for inverts and your pleco,

Fishies-for-me

I think if you put the snails in a fish free tank for a week or so with temps of 76-80 ( speeds up the life cycle of ich ) they should be safe to add to tanks with fish...some one else can correct me if I am wrong. If treating the main tank with just heat as described above then the snails can stay in the main tank as the heat will not bother them.

MaddieLynn

20 Nitrate is a litlle high...

Amanda

The nitrate really isn't a problem, it's always been around there. All my tanks are & they've been up & running for a while.