David593

Well some of my hatchets got ICH.
Anyways, I need to know how to fight it. It is a 55 gallon tank with:
10-rummynose tetras
6-silver hatchets
1-common plec

I raise the heater to 86 so it should be warming up the tank now. I have an air-pump rated for a 60 gal tank in right now. It is going through one stone. do I need to add another stone ore pump. If so, you you think my ten gal. could go with-out one for a few days, as I have a pump rated for 2 gals in that one.

What do I do now? I was thinking about adding conditioning salt but my water is very soft and has a pH of 6.4 for the rummies, and I heard that they don't like the salt. I'm afraid that I have to trat the whole tank as I do not have a QT tank.

agabr123

i'd turn the heater down to 84, 86 might be a tad too high. other than that just make sure you do a thorough gravel vac for the spores and you should be fine. i wouldnt add salt

Iron waffle

I think you'll have to wait it out. just do water changes twice a week as ammonia becomes toxic at high temperatures

David593

OK. Well I was reading and I read that I should do a 50% water change every day for about a week. I will not add salt. I will also lower the temperature to 84.

~Lower Temp. to 84
~Do 50% daily water changes

Does that sound right, and should I start the water change now?

Amanda

Not to be a Debbie Downer - but I just had a pretty bad case of ich, where nothing cured it. It seemed to be resistant to heat, salt & meds. I hope you have better luck.

Lucy

Good advice from Alex. Just increase aeration to make up for less oxygen in warmer water.

Wait what out? Ich? Ich doesn't just go away on it's own. Left alone it will get worse and kill their fish.
There's 2 choices Alex's recommendation or medicate.

David593

Ok thanks. Guys. So should I do the daily water changes? I think I will do one now. I just hope I can do this without having to resort to meds. And Amanda, sorry to hear about your loses. I heard that because of too many people using meds all the time, ich has become more resistent. I hope you never get it again.

POST 333!

Lucy

Congrats!

It wouldn't hurt to do water changes. When ich matures it falls off the fish and produces a good amount of free swimming young ich parasites.
This link explains the lifecycle of ich:
Ichthyophthirius Multifiliis (White Spot) Infections in Fish

AlyeskaGirl

yeah, I had 3 corys and a DG die in two days of ICH. It was sad. I raised the temp to 84 and did a gravel vac but it didn't have the chance to even do a thing before they died. Not to get you worried but ICH is nasty. Good luck!

coffeebean

we just had a brief case of Ich in my 55 gallon tank. what i was advised from the old dude at my favorite fish store that has fish older then i am the temp has to be at least 85 - 86 and adding aquarium salt soothes the skin and can actually cause some of it to release.

i did a 40 % water change with gravel vac, raised temp to 85*, medicated every 24 hours with jungle brand ich remedy until i saw the spots gone. then i medicated for 3 more days just to make sure. lucky for us, its over and done with and no casulties.

David593

ok. I just am refraining from adding salt, as I know that my rummies hate it. Plus it may mess whith my soft water and low ph. I did a 50% wc now. I plan on doing another tomorrow.

agabr123

oh, and if you still see spots on them after two weeks, continue leaving the temperature high for three days after all of the spots that you can see are gone. the majority of the spores are actually inside the gills so you won't be able to see them.

David593

ok. I hope they are alright. I will try my best. They are eating fine. First day here and they are already gobbling up the bloodworms and flakes off the surface.

David593

Well it has been 4 days. The same spots are there. No extra spots but the ones there haven't moved or gone away. One of the hatchet had one noticable one on its tail fin. It is still there. When it is facing me, you can see that it is a bump.

What could it be. Thought it was ich, but my rummies still seem unaffected. They are acting normal and so are the hatchets, but it is really bothering me. Should I return them?

ConvictCaper

Dear David,
Hope I'm not muscling in on your problem, but you have tetras in your tank and so do I, and I've just noticed ich in my tank, too. Long story, and I'll get to the question in a minute, but first a bit of background: it's a 40-gallon tank, well-cycled, which I bought from someone else recently, including all his fish (two gouramis, 2 CAE, a few neon tetras, a few cherry barbs, a harlequin rasbora and a penguin tetra), and just about three weeks into owning it, several of his fish have ich but only one or two of the new ones I added 2 weeks ago. I noticed a half-full bottle of ich-remedy in the aquarium's cupboard, so I suspect this is a recurring problem with these fish and this tank rather than a result of not quarantining new fish (sorry -- I'm a newbie and didn't know about q-tine till last week).

Anyway, question time now: most of the fish with ich are the tetras, though one or two cherry barbs have it, too. Instructions on medication say to dose with only half if you've got tetras, but will that sort out the cherry barbs if I don't use a full dose? What happens to tetras with a full dose?

Maybe most of you aren't advocating medication at all, but I don't see how just salt and vacuuming will do the trick (I'm using Easy-Life fluid filter medium already -- don't know if that will do any good).

Answers greatly appreciated.
CC

AlyeskaGirl

Can you post a pic?

David593

I can try. I have a pretty bad camera and I am not fish photography savvy. LOL I shall try.

Convict Caper,
I am afraid that I cannot answer your question. I can only assume that the instructions state that because tetras are more sensitive to the dosages. I thik that maybe you should do the half dose but treat twice as long, correct me someone if I am wrong. good luck with you ich problems.

AlyeskaGirl

I was tryin with my camera or a friends then realized it had a setting for closeup. A setting you would use to take pictures of flowers.

David593

Here are some pics. Sorry for the bad quality. first one looks a little magnified since it moved a little and you will need to click on them to see properly:

Hatchet.jpg

hatchet 2.jpg

cerianthus

Using half dosage meaning half concentration thus probably ineffective and also exposing parasite/microbess to lower dosage may increase their resistance to med.imo. But have used half dosage myself. How effective med was, would not know for sure since other factors were being applied. Maybe combo of half dosage and salt and high temp have eradicated the problem, that is most of time. It all depends on water condition and how fast you diagnosed theinfection.
Rummy nose as you have mentioned, dont remember any side effects or complication when I used CLOUT by Aq Products as instructed. Only time when I saw any problems with any med with any fish were when dosed with water condition not being right for the fish. When fish are stressed by being kept at wrong water and infested with parasite, med may cause further discomfort/stress otherwise would not have when proper water conditions were provided for that sick fish. It is true some fine scaled fish may be sensitive to Anti-parasitic med but even used CLOUT on clown, lohachata, sidthimunki loaches w/o mishaps when administered gradually.
But hatchets being sensitive to even presence of chlorine thus would medicate as instructed but in 2 or more phases, little at a time over few hours for example. Stop when see discomfort/abnormal behaviors are shown.
Hope this helped.
Looking at top pic, doesnt look like a ick though.

David593

That the thing. It hasn't been advancing but it is a lump. When he looks at me it shows as a bump. I wish I knew what it was... The other hatchets have 2 or 3 spots. on them...ah what could it be!

AlyeskaGirl

I'm not sure what it is, hopefully someone will be along to help.

My advice at this point is to keep the water real clean and adding Stress Coat.

David593

ok. I'll do another wc later today.

cerianthus

I've seen them on some wild fish (altum angel, silver $, etc) as your hatchets are from wild. I dont recall if such have caused problem or wether I've tried to get rid of nor disppeared on its own. It's been so long .
How about tring to remove from tail on one fish if willing? Save the scraping if it comes off, to view w/ magnification and photo? Of course inside the tank. May have to apply ointment after scraping though!

David593

well, i don't think i want to go all the way to having to scrape my fish.

I'll let it go and continually moniter all other fish.

cerianthus

Good enough!
Preparing Slide for Microscope would've be nice though for IDing.

David593

ya. It has been about a week. No progression but it is not going away either. still no effect on other fish either. Whatever it is, it seems harmless. I will keep on checking.

David593

well now the rummies got it. I added coppersafe on sunday and raised the temp to 86. It seems to be getting worse. What do I do. One of the hatcets passed on sunday as well.

AlyeskaGirl

If it's not ICH you don't want to turn the heat up. If its a bacteria infection, they like warmer water, can cause you more probs. I'd turn it down, slowly. I had a bacteria infection in my 55 gal and I turned the temp down to 72, slowly.

http://www.jbl.de/onlinehospitaluk/p...=2&GalleryId=2

David593

thanks for the link. It doesn't seem like a bacterial infection because it not like a smear, they are white dots, predominantly on the fins, which definately seems like ich. I can only assume that the heat is causing the ich to burst or whatever it does and the medicine isnt working so0 it attaches to more fish. I heard that coppersafe is one of the best out there. I don't know what to do!