Electric Blue Jack Dempsey With Ick

HI all, I recently received an electric blue jack dempsey that had ick on it as soon as I brought it home. (I knew it had ick in the store, they were selling like mad anyway and I wanted one myself-I didnt take the plunge because I knew they had ick and I have 15 burmese banded loaches that I value more, so I didnt buy em, my mom grabbed one of the last ones when she saw they were almost gone within 2 days) SO, I've had this fish quarantined in a 5G tank (It's all I have available for qt) for the past week to no avail.

First treatment round he had a spurt where the ick was almost all off of him, and then it returned. it seems I keep missing when I need to do water changes on him and he continuously is re-infected. he's gone through this about 3 times, where it gets better and then gets much worse and I do understand what is happening with the parasite. (cysts break off, fish looks good but really, there's thousands of ick babies swimming in the water waiting to infect him, nd I can see where 5G with 1 victI'm is an easy target.....)

ANYWAY, I've tried the salt and heat method first, added a tbs of salt per the package instructions (dissolved the salt first, then added it) and raised the tank to 86. The heater is rated for 10G, I have it in a 5G....the temp is reading at 86 but the ick is obviously still reproducing.

Since that didn't work, I also tried nox-ick. I've finished the first 3 days worth of treatment and it hasn't phased him, he looks worse than ever with the amount of ick stuck to him...

I've searched high and low for medication with copper in it and I can't find any, anywhere. So, My Ultimate question in all of this is....will snail zap work? It's main active ingredient is copper sulfate...will that kill this ick?

 

Is ichX or rid ich available to you? Try that. It worked for me. Or maybe he doesn’t have ich, but some other protozoa? any pictures? BTW, heat makes the ich life cycle speed up, it won't rid it. Maybe if you do daily water changes while siphoning the substrate, but temps would be at around 90F to get it to stop reproducing, but not so safe for fish.

I do not think that snail zap will work. get a good medication, something that isn’t “natural”. If you can, continue Nox-ich for the rest of the week, it usually takes a week with meds like rid ich to work IME.

 

Copper Sulphate will kill Ick, Oodinium and numerous other external parasites. Common meds are Coppersafe & Cupramine. I have no experience with Snail Zap.

 

From my personal experience, I did the heat and medication and syphoned everyday as well has a 50 percent water change every other day, I used ich x and had the heat 86-88 and they soon stopped reproducing and died. make sure to take the carbon out of your filter if using medication.

 

HI all, I recently received an electric blue jack dempsey that had ick on it as soon as I brought it home. (I knew it had ick in the store, they were selling like mad anyway and I wanted one myself-I didnt take the plunge because I knew they had ick and I have 15 burmese banded loaches that I value more, so I didnt buy em, my mom grabbed one of the last ones when she saw they were almost gone within 2 days) SO, I've had this fish quarantined in a 5G tank (It's all I have available for qt) for the past week to no avail.

First treatment round he had a spurt where the ick was almost all off of him, and then it returned. it seems I keep missing when I need to do water changes on him and he continuously is re-infected. he's gone through this about 3 times, where it gets better and then gets much worse and I do understand what is happening with the parasite. (cysts break off, fish looks good but really, there's thousands of ick babies swimming in the water waiting to infect him, nd I can see where 5G with 1 victI'm is an easy target.....)

ANYWAY, I've tried the salt and heat method first, added a tbs of salt per the package instructions (dissolved the salt first, then added it) and raised the tank to 86. The heater is rated for 10G, I have it in a 5G....the temp is reading at 86 but the ick is obviously still reproducing.

Since that didn't work, I also tried nox-ick. I've finished the first 3 days worth of treatment and it hasn't phased him, he looks worse than ever with the amount of ick stuck to him...

I've searched high and low for medication with copper in it and I can't find any, anywhere. So, My Ultimate question in all of this is....will snail zap work? It's main active ingredient is copper sulfate...will that kill this ick?

When my fish got ich, I turned the heat up to 86 but that won’t stop the ich from reproducing immediately. It does take ten days. I also used imaginatrium (petco house blend) brand parasite remover to treat it. I chose this because it’s all natural and I didn’t want to dump a ton of chemicals in the tank. Long story short, I changed 25% of the water daily and treated for the entire tank after every water change and, within ten days, the ich was gone and I was turning the heat back down to 78. Hope this helps!

 

Nox-ich does contain copper I believe. Malachite Green is one of the main ingredients (along with salt) and is a copper compound (copper carbonate hydroxide).

I haven't used Nox-ich but have no reason to think it would not be suitable. I know it is difficult but patience is useful here. Double check that you are following the instructions correctly.

Although not recommended, in my desperation I have increased (doubled then tripled) the dose of a different product in one stubborn case and the fish is still with me now 25 years later and the ich has never appeared again.

The cure I used was King British WS3 which is Malachite Green and Formalin and you could change to that treatment if you wished. I think it is the most effective combination as the Malachite Green and the Formalin work together and make each other more powerful in what is known as a synergistic interaction.

Any Malachite Green and Formalin product would do. There are many. I just used King British WS3 because it was the best value. Salt was not recommended for my fish (Clown Loach).

Keeping the fish feeding is important. I had some live blood-worm for this purpose as fish are stimulated by the movement and find blood-worm tasty.

Maintaining a good oxygen level is important without swishing the fish around with too much current. Stop a film forming on the water surface. I completely changed the water with water from the main aquarium twice a day.

It is likely that there will be more resistant strains of ich developing in the hobby and that curing fish will get increasingly more difficult.

 

The best med is MG and formalin in combo.
Most of the best meds are just that .
Kordon rid ich plus ,rid ich ,ichX .
Ick is only killed when off the fish so the meds must be kept in force .
I agree the Redshark that double dosing maybe necessary [kordon rid ich says you can in directions ].
IMO not necessarily agreed with by scientist but when you don't see any tint of the MG coloring your water the organics and waste in your tank have already used it up .
That is why all meds say to do water change before installing . Nutrients and organics [driftwood ,plants] will use up the med .So if after 12 hours your tank is not blue /green like when dosed it is time to dose again.
I could not find what snail zap was ? Some snail killer are things like alum ..
Best link on ich ;

 

I used nox ich when I had ich in my tank. I used it for 14 days straight though..adding a dose in each day. Did a water change after 3 days then 8 days and then another the 15th day. My fish have no more ich at all. The meds doesn't kill the ich that is on the fish.. it only kills it when it's off the fish, so that's why you have to keep continuing to treat to make sure you get them all. My fish looked 100% better on day 7 but I continued the treatment for a whole week after to make sure I got them all. I also only used half the dose because I have a pleco. Best of luck! Hope you get rid of it!