ICH in a heavily planted aquarium.

In the above sticky topic, Curing ICH Naturally, Catsma says:

Deep clean the substrate, cleaning no more than 1/3 the gravel bed with each cleaning. Shove the gravel tube completely through the substrate to the bottom glass plate and do not move it until all debris has lifted. Then, move the tube about an inch and repeat. Move decor items to clean under them as this is where uneaten foods and other waste tends to collect.

Question #1: I have a heavily planted aquarium with sand substrate, the roots have finally established and are *everywhere*. My only fish has one speck of ICH on his gill now, noticed it yesterday and it's still there. Any suggestions for dealing with the substrate saturated with plant roots?

Question #2: I use a UV Sterilizer with a low flow rate to kill unwanted parasites. I use a powerhead to pump water to the inline sterilizer, and I have a "Quick-Attachment" to pre-filter installed. I don't know the size of ICH spores, but will they get mixed up with the pre-filter or go through it and become irradiated by the UV Lamp? Simply put, should I remove the pre-filter?

Question #3: Is 86F safe for my Betta for two weeks? He's used to 75F.

 

Yes, your betta with be fine at 85-86. Raise the temperature very slowly. Some say to do no more than 1-2 degrees an hour. Personally I don't like to do more than 3-4 degrees in a day but that's me.

 

Ive always raised the temp in 1 day to whatever is needed and the fish have been fine. Ive successfully cured ich by raising to 90 and keeping it there for 21 days.

 

Seems as though the substrate is easy to clean, I thought it would be a nightmare because it's sand. I never really tackled it before, just sucks right up and spits back on the roots.

Cleaned the tank heavily today, fed my Betta a couple tiny garlic pieces and soaked his food in an extract I mad. Unfortunately realized I have 0 Nitrates, plants seem to have sucked all of it out. Guess I need more fish in there

Still raising temp to 85F, it's at 80 now been slowly going up all day. Waiting until tomorrow to get to 85.

 

Good morning,

If your fish have ICH, the fish will appear to have been sprinkled with salt and not just 1 or 2 or 3 spots. The fish will be covered with white specs. I'm not certain that ICH is the issue.

If your fish does indeed have ICH, increasing the tanks water temperature 2 degrees per hour should be fine. You don't want to take days to get your water to 86 degrees.

If the spot appears to be fluffy or raised from the skin, it may be a Fungus.

Below is a betta with ICH:




Best wishes for your fish.

Ken

 

OutInFront,

I am moving your post to create a thread of its own and changing the title to GoldFish With Possible ICH.

I'll post the link to your new thread here in just a moment.

Thanks!

Ken

Here is the link to your new thread:

 

Oh. Ok my Betta is -not- sprinkled in salt, it was one tiny white dot. it seems to have fallen off now (3 days later) and left a blue speck in it's place. He also got one on his head yesterday that quickly went away as well, again leaving a brighter blue speck. That's the only symptom(s) he has, you don't think it's Ich?

 

Good morning,

It does sound like it may be some type of parasite, but not ICH. Too, ICH spreads quickly and will not simply fall off without treatment of some sort.

For now, as long as the spots are disappearing, I wouldn't worry about a treatment unless you are seeing more and more of it.

I would also like to recommend using Garlic Guard or Garlic Juice from minced garlic in a jar or creating your own garlic juice. Garlic can help to boost the fishes immune system and help prevent parasite infestations. Soak your fishes foods in the Garlic a couple of times per week. Ill or not, I use Garlic Guard routinely along with Vita Chem for additional vitamins.

Garlic Guard:


Garlic Juice from Minced Garlic in a jar:
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...r-just-an-example-for-those-needing-it.62705/

Making your own Garlic Juice, see post #4 in the link below:


Vita Chem:


Some members simply slice some fresh garlic and feed the garlic directly to the fish. They seem to love it!

Best wishes for your fish!

Ken

 

Well, the treatment I gave was a 25% water change, heavy substrate cleaning, 2 days of garlic (minced and extracted), and I brought his temp up from 75 to 82F, along with a UV Sterilizer. To my understanding, this is the Ich treatment.. modified just a bit.. how long would it take to see an improvement with this?

 

I agree it doesn't sound like ich. Try googling the symptoms you have. Most times that leads quite surprisingly to one result.

 

82 is not warm enough to be effective IME.

Ive always raised the temp in 1 day to whatever is needed and the fish have been fine. Ive successfully cured ich by raising to 90 and keeping it there for 21 days.

Same here. I set the temp to what I want it to be and that's that. Well, to be more specific I just plug and unplug the heater. I have had to raise it to 89 to cure a heat resistant strain.

 

82 is not warm enough to be effective IME.

Same here. I set the temp to what I want it to be and that's that. Well, to be more specific I just plug and unplug the heater. I have had to raise it to 89 to cure a heat resistant strain.

Agreed 82 isn't for ich. But like I said this doesn't seem to be ich.

I keep my quarantine tanks at around 90 when they are set up for that exact reason I'm seeing ich being more heat resistant than before, so I want to prevent that. The higher temp also increases metabolisms, hence fish require to eat faster. Disease symptoms usually show up faster at that temp too.

 

I really think it is a fungus as well. I occassionally get a fungus and I raise the temperature and use a dose of Pima and Melafix and it goes away. I view Pima and Melafix as a natural remedy since it is a homiopathic remedy.

 

I really think it is a fungus as well. I occassionally get a fungus and I raise the temperature and use a dose of Pima and Melafix and it goes away. I view Pima and Melafix as a natural remedy since it is a homiopathic remedy.

You shouldnt be getting an "occassional" fungus. Why would you?

 

You shouldnt be getting an "occassional" fungus. Why would you?

I agree.

 

The dot appeared slightly lifted, but not fuzzy at all. Oh, and also he usually flares at me in the morning - as I said the dot was on the side of his head near his gill, he seemed to struggle flaring that side at me, he only got that side halfway out.

 

You shouldnt be getting an "occassional" fungus. Why would you?

I agree as well. Plus using meds with raised heat is very dangerous as the oxygen is depleted causing undue stress on the fish.

Edit: Also, as the OPs original question was asking about deep gravel cleanings in a heavily planted tank, I have updated the Curing ICH Naturally thread.

 

You shouldnt be getting an "occassional" fungus. Why would you?

My Oscar splits his fins occasionally and if the water parameters are not perfect then he get a secondary infection. It is a white cottony blob, that I assume is a fungus (although it could be bacterial I guess). I treat it with Pima and Melafix and a little heat (and make sure the water is back to perfect) and it goes away. Hope that makes sense

 

It does make sense yeah, but still shouldnt be happening.

I do know that you're having issues with your cycle though, but you really have to try prevent that when the cycle is past.

The oscar shouldnt split his fins either unless there's something in the tank he keeps catching.