Ich in a 29 gallon tank

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 29 gallons
How long has the tank been running? A month
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? Was at 75 currently at 86
What is the entire stocking of this tank? 3 Oscar cichlids, 4 corydoras, and 1 bristlenose pleco (Please list all fish and inverts.)

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? I've been doing them every other day because my Nitrate levels were really high and I didn't know how to get them to lower
How much of the water do you change? Normally about 60-80%
What do you use to treat your water? Prime water conditioner
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Both

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? I technically didn't no only because we already had fish since it was originally my sister's
What do you use to test the water? Freshwater master test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0-0.25ppm I can't see the color difference no matter what light it is put under
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate:160ppm (it went higher every couple of weeks because when I originally got the kit after a week or 2 of owning the tanks it was only at 10ppm)
pH: never tested it because I was told it wasn't super important compared to the other 3

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? 2 times a day
How much do you feed your fish? A handful of the cichlid pellets and 4 of the algae pellets for the corydoras
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Hikari sinking cichlid gold and hikari mini algae wafers
Do you feed frozen? No
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? I personally have only owned them for a month I am unsure how long my sister had them before me
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 2 days
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? White dots on the cichlids fins
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Turned the heat up spread out over 8 hours each time
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Appearance yes behavior not really

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
(Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
My tank is experiencing ich. I asked my sister and she said to turn up heat then to add the ich treatment a day later because she was worried about the pleco and I don't exactly have a quarantine tank for it currently. I have been fighting the nitrates for the whole month that I've had them but started to do water changes every other day last week because I did a minimal amount of research and I'm still learning. This is my first time actually keeping up with a fish tank and I'm so new to it but definitely willing to learn. I plan on getting rid of the cichlids because I do not have the money or capacity to keep up with their growth and I was stupid not to get rid of them sooner (I know). I just don't know how exactly to go about treating ich and was hoping i could get some help anything is greatly appreciated!

 

Hi PJ1207,
Posting at this time of day it’s possible you live in Australia? If you do the tank has the Australian strain of ich and will definitely need medication to kill it.
If not it’s likely heat can be used to stop the ich reproducing. .

Its stressful on fish raising the temperature and medicating as both deplete oxygen in the water. An air stone is recommended on some instructions just for the medication alone.
Follow the inst on the bottle if you decide to medicate. That often includes a water change before you start.
Continue treatment for ten days after the last spots are seen. That will kill of any eggs that were in the gravel the first week.

 

Ich-x is a pretty good med for ich and should be safe for all fish and any plants or inverts that may be in there.

 

Hi PJ1207,
Posting at this time of day it’s possible you live in Australia? If you do the tank has the Australian strain of ich and will definitely need medication to kill it.
If not it’s likely heat can be used to stop the ich reproducing. .

Its stressful on fish raising the temperature and medicating as both deplete oxygen in the water. An air stone is recommended on some instructions just for the medication alone.
Follow the inst on the bottle if you decide to medicate. That often includes a water change befortoe you start.
Continue treatment for ten days after the last spots are seen. That will kill of any eggs that were in the gravel the first week.

I actually live in the US I'm just up late because of having to make my boyfriend dinner after work lol. I do have an airstone in the tank and I already added the first dosage and took filters out. I wasn't sure if ich was considered contagious so I was worried that if I did the 29 gallon then my 5 and 10 gallon with 2 betas and 3 snails that it would transfer to them.

Ich-x is a pretty good med for ich and should be safe for all fish and any plants or inverts that may be in there.

My sister has the nox-ich which is what I used. I wouldn't have been able to afford a new bottle and I was unsure if I left it alone for a short period of time (a week) that it would kill them within that time span.

 

Yes ich is contagious. The ich parasites can be on plants , nets and equipment when move water change equipment around etc. Even your hands they say? Certainly plants in my own experience.
The parasites will stay in the water only moving wet things from one tank to another may transfer the parasites?

 

All of those fish can tolerate a decent dose of aquarium salt (1 TBS tablespoon) per 3 to 5 gallons. I would also cut back on the food....that a big factor in your high nitrite reading.

The salt will dehydrate the parasites and the heat will speed up the life cycle. Be sure to do a good gravel vac. Ich has an interesting life cycle and you can actually only kill it while it is suspended in the water column.

Those white specks will burst and send a bunch of baby ichs floating around until they latch onto another fish. Thats when they need to die.

 

Just to clear up my statement.
ich is contagious but it’s not spread in the air like a virus.