Jynx

Ok, I got home from work this morning, and as usual, turned on the lights to "wake up" my fish, and give them breakfast, I noticed that 1 of my white skirt, and 1 of my black skirt tetra's appear to have Ich with the white grainy stuff on their bodies, that wasn't there last night. I have (all together) 3 black skirts, and 3 white skirts, a black molly, and a dwarf gourami in a 55 gal tank. A couple of the other tetras appear to have a spot or two, and I want to nip this in the bud before it kills any of my fish. I know I need to raise the temp in the tank, but is that the only option? To only raise the temp, or do they also need medication? If they need medication, what's the best stuff to try?

An employee at my LFS told me the last time that my fish had it (a few months ago, and there were fatalities then) to do a 90% water change. Of course, that was when I had 1 fish only, I've since learned this is not the best way to deal with this disease. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~Jynx

COBettaCouple

Yea, raising the heat is one method of dealing with ich. Here's a real good link on the heat method: http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php

Or you could go the meds route and try a good product like: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...pc=1&N=0&Nty=1.

Jynx

ok, I'm getting a 10 g tank from my sister in law to use so I can get the fish with ich out of the main tank, which means I'm going to have to go and get a filter, heater, etc for it this afternoon. What are the chances that if I get the fish with the ich out of there now, today (if possible), that my other fish won't get it? I hope the chances are very high that they won't, that I caught it soon enough. Grrrr!


Thank you for the links and the help!

~Jynx

COBettaCouple

I'm not sure, but from what I read of ich, the chances are probably higher that the others already have ich present but not showing yet. I wish I could say they weren't, but I feel like that would be inviting the others to break out with ich after or during the time you get the ich cleared from the fish already showing symptoms - since the fish can carry it for a time before showing spots. You could end up going back and forth, first treating one batch, then the other and on and on as one batch infects the other.

I'm not an ich expert so I could be wrong, but the safest course to take is to view the tank they're in now as if it were infected & all the fish in it and treat it with the heat method or meds for ich - then you eliminate the chance of some hanging around and infecting more fish later or re-infecting fish after you clear it from them. If it were me, I'd go with the heat treatment. And I might buy the ich med just in case, but not sure. You'll have to decide the best course, since I really know as much as you on ich. I have heard of a lot of success with the heat method though.

Jynx

I've started raising the temp in the tank, and we're sitting at 80 right now. I've also done a partial water change.

The tank I got from my sister in law wound up being 29 gallon and pretty gruesome as it's been kept in the garage for some time, so I have to clean that up this weekend sometime. I think I'll just use that as the quarentine tank if and when I get new fish, and just treat the ones that are in the main tank as if they all have it.

~Jynx

COBettaCouple

Cool, that's a good size tank once you have it cleaned up. You could use it as another community tank even and eventually get a 5 or 10g as a Q tank.. lol, don't mind me though - i have a bad case of MTS.

Jynx

Update, my fish are looking sooooooo much better! Nearly all the white spots are gone! Another week or so and I can turn the heat down a little.

~Jynx

COBettaCouple

great to hear that. I'm glad your fish are on the mend. that always feels good.

Gargoyle

How high did you set the heat before you stopped raising it ??