D6AC40C1-F9A8-4252-9064-F4ABA37C7481 by Zorse posted Jun 12, 2018 at 4:23 PM Does my GloFish have ICH? And how should I treat it?
Yes, that is ich. If its on one fish in the tank, you need to treat the entire tank. There is no point in quarantining this fish. The white spots only appear at the end of the parasite's life cycle. The parasite literally falls off of the skin and fins of the fish, causing the white spots, and it falls and lands on the substrate. In the substrate it reproduces and waits for another fish to swim by to infect. Newly infected fish will not show white spots. You won't know a fish is infected until they're contagious, which is at the end of the parasite's life cycle when it causes the white spots. You can treat this one of two ways: heat and salt, or medication. Which method is best for your tank depends on what other fish live in the tank. What fish species live in this tank? And how big is the tank?
Sorry for the delay. I'm surprised nobody jumped in while I was away. You can use heat and aquarium salt, or you can use medication. Either or. Just don't use both medication and heat at the same time. One or the other. Heat and salt method: If the heater in your tank has an adjustable temperature, you can slowly raise the temp of your tank over several hours. The hotter you make the water, the faster it will kill ich. Just be careful not to make it too hot and also kill your fish. The recommended temperature for killing ich is 90 degrees (F), however some fish cannot tolerate that kind of heat. The betta and guppis will tolerate 90 degrees just fine, but your mollies might have some issues with it. I don't know what kind of glofish you have, either, so depending on if they are tetras or danios or what, they might or might not be able to tolerate 90 degrees. Because some fish cannot tolerate 90 degrees, people often turn their heat up to only 86. 86 will kill ich, but not as quickly as 90 will. For your tank, however, I suggest 86 degrees, because of your mollies and because I don't know what kind of glofish you have. As for salt, this can be used along with heat, to help the process. Salt is not a good general tonic for aquariums, but when combined with heat it is effective against ich. Just go to the pet store and pick up a jar of aquarium salt. Follow the directions exactly regarding how much to add to your tank. Do not just dump dry aquarium salt into the tank. You must first dissolve the salt in tank water before adding it to the tank. One method people like to use is boiling the salt into the tank water. Just make sure you let the boiled water cool before adding it to the tank, you don't want to put boiling water in your tank. During treatment, you will still have to do water changes. Replace the salt for the displaced water only when doing water changes. Meaning if you replace 50% of the water, you only have to replace 50% of the salt. Do not replace salt during top-offs due to evaporation. Salt does not evaporate. After 2 weeks of heat and salt treatment, the ich should be gone. Change 50% of your water to start removing the salt, and slowly turn the heater back down over the course of several hours. Watch your fish for any returning white spots, and if they reappear, do another week of heat and salt. Pros - you don't have to use any chemicals or medications, which is better for your fish. Cheaper than medication. Cons - some fish cannot tolerate this kind of heat, or salt. There is one strain of ich going around right now that is resistant to this treatment ------- Medication method: There are different medications you can use to treat ich. One very popular brand is super ich cure. I have not used it myself, as I prefer the more natural heat method, but members on this site swear by it. Follow the directions on the packaging exactly. Do not mix with salt or with heat. Make sure you remove any carbon from your filtration system, such as the cartridges in a hang on back filter, as the carbon will remove the medication from the water. Replace the carbon when treatment concludes, and do a water change. Pros - Potent & effective. Heat resistant ich strain can't resist medication. No worries about heat harming your fish. Cons - More Expensive. Fish don't always respond positively to medication. ------- Either of the above methods will do the trick. But when you pick one, commit to it. Don't start one kind of treatment, do it for a few days, decide it's not working, and then switch to the other. That will shock your fish. No matter which method you use, it will take more than a day or 2 to clear up. It will take about 2 weeks, maybe more, before all of the ich parasites are dead. The ones on your fish will mostly die and fall off in the first week, but the spawns will need more time to die off, so continue treatment for the second week to make sure ich doesn't come back.
Okay . Keep in mind there is a strain of ich going around that is resistant to heat and salt. We don’t know if that’s what your fish have or not, but we will find out. For the first 2 or 3 days, expect the ich to get worse before it gets better. This is the natural life cycle of the ich parasite. The white spots on your fish is the parasite essentially getting ready to die. But that’s how they reproduce. The parasite lives out it’s life inside a fish’s body, and when the parasite is at the end of its life cycle, it exits through the fish’s skin, causing the white spots. The parasite then falls off the fish and lands on the substrate, where it multiplies, and lays in wait for another fish to swim by for it to infect. In the wild the parasite is likely to die at this point but in the confined space of a fish tank a new host is easy to find. This is why when one fish shows white spots we treat the entire tank. And this is why we say to treat for 2 weeks. After about one week you should stop seeing white spots altogether. It will look like the ich is gone but some of its spawn will have survived and you might see a second less severe wave of white spots on your fish. Once that second wave has passed, continue heat for a few more days to be sure, then start lowering the temp. If after the first few days of it getting worse before it gets better, it doesn’t get better, then you have the heat resistant strain of ich, and we need to switch methods and use medication. I wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted.
OK. I raised the temp to 86F and think I'll keep it there. I added a bubble wall thing for extra oxygen since the mollies looked like they were gasping for air so I won't raise the temp any higher. They are doing better already and the white stops have significantly reduced in the fish. Oh, I also added salt and they appear to be doing OK. I did suction some of the gravel in hopes to get rid of some of the spores. Will continue to change some water every couple days and replace the salt.
Great. Heat speeds up the life cycle of ich. So don’t be surprised when it spreads. For me. When I see ich on the gills. I just forget about that treatment and buy medication. I just go to Walmart and get the ich cure. I tried the other meds but it didn’t work as well and was way more expensive.
Well it's been 2 weeks today and all the fish are looking great! The ones that had Ich lost some of their fins, but they have already grown back and there are no more spots on the fish. Starting to lower the water temp and will do a big water change today. They all look so happy! Was such an easy way to treat and I think I'm lucky that it was a small case.
