sammy boy

My 10 Gal tank has ick and the scratching disease. i am buying a 55 on thursday because i get my pay check then and i dont have money as of now. i feel really bad for the fish because i live in a town were the tap water is to hard for the fish so i have to buydrinking water from the store but as u know i am out of money. what can i possibly do to help my fish till thursday? i know what to do then but right now its like watching them suffer i feel so bad please help what can i do?

Lucy

If you raise the temp (slowly) to about 84F for at least 2 weeks, that'll kill the ICH. Make sure you vacuum the gravel to get all the spores.

Increase the aeration to make up for the lack of oxygen.

clinton1621

You cant treat the shark with regular ich meds, if thats what your planning on doing... catfish (which is the shark) are very sensitive to almost all ich treatments and it can be severe enough to kill them. Lucy's recommendation is the only safe way to treat sensitive fish for ich.

spider_pig

I had a case of Ich not long ago in my 10g, What I did was raise the temp to 85F, 50% water vaccumings every second day. It was gone in a week. And add the airstone like Lucy said.

sammy boy

lack of oxygen?

clinton1621

Raising the temp up to kill the ich will lower the amount of oxygen in the water.

sammy boy

ok thank you will the temp harm the fish?

Alessa

no, as long as you raise it slowly.

Jo3olous

the airstone will be soothing for the fish, however it isn't the best way to oxygenate a tank. It puts out air bubbles which rise, but the best way to oxygenate a tank is surface agitation (if you have filter that hangs at the top of your tank it does this). You can also blow a fan over the top of the water, but that will also cool the water and you're trying to raise the temp for now. Just some thoughts

sammy boy

I got rid of the ich now but what should i do about the scratching thing?