Ich in the 10 Gallon! Should I pull out the visibly sick fish?

Hey guys,

Really struggling here. I recently had an Ich outbreak in my 65 gallon. I lost several black neon tetras and rummy nose tetras. I raised the temp up and dosed a few times with Ich-X 9following dosing instructions). I FINALLY seem to have it under control in there. The remaining fish have cleared up and are acting normal again (I am leaving the temp high for another week or two).

My planted 10 gallon now has an Ich flare up. The two tanks are far apart, and I use separate nets, but I think I used the same gravel vac a week or two ago (it's the only cross-contamination I can think of). My neon tetras are covered in white spots, and this morning I discovered that 3 of them were dead. Before they died, I had slowly bumped the temp up into the 80s, trying to get to about 86 to help kill the ich. I had also dosed with Ich-X, done a water change, and dosed again.

The rest of the fish in the tank (a dwarf gourami, two juvenile platies, and a bristlenose pleco), show no signs of ich yet. I assume they have it but are handling it better. The platies, however, are hanging out at the bottom of the tank and clearly not acting right.

Should I remove the 4 remaining neons that are covered in ich to slow the spread to the other fish, or is it too late?

Any thoughts are much appreciated! The 10 is my first and most successful tank, so it's tough to see this happening in there.

 

It won't make a difference, all of the fish are already exposed to the ich equally and the meds and heat will wipe out the ich no matter how much there is.

 

That's kind of what I figured, thanks. Not encouraging though--they all seem in a pretty bad way. Thanks for the response!

 

That's kind of what I figured, thanks. Not encouraging though--they all seem in a pretty bad way. Thanks for the response!

It's more likely that the temperature and meds killed the neons than the ich, going up that high can put a lot of stress on the fish.

You don't need to go all the way to 86, since the meds will already kill the ich and the life cycle will be sped up sufficiently at 82-84.

 

Update: All of the Neon Tetras have died. I removed them from the tank and did a light water change. I had increased the temp in the tank slowly from about 75 to 82. I had also added an aerator to give the tank some extra oxygen at the higher temp. By last night, I noticed that my kuhli loaches were in terrible shape and seemed to be dying. My juvenile platies were also just laying on the bottom.

Well this morning, the kuhlis and platies are dead, leaving only the bristlenose pleco and dwarf gourami in the tank.

The gourami is not doing great--he is staying at the top and seems weak. I've only noticed a few white spots on his pectoral fins. He hasn't been covered in ich yet.

The pleco is also not great--she is high on the wall and breathing hard, and it looks like she has gunk kind of trailing of her fins. She is an albino, so it's tough to tell if she is covered in Ich.

What should I do? The temperature raise seemed to kill all the fish that weren't yet covered in ich. I'm afraid if I redose Ich-X, I will finish the last two off.

 

Understand the beast you are dealing with.

Preventing Ich
Lifecycle of Ich
Ich is a ciliate parasite that has three developmental stages, a parasitic trophont, a reproductive tomont, and an infective theront. The parasitic trophont lives completely within the host fish, causing tissue damage and leading to the host’s death. The host provides the parasite with food and other necessary substances for growth.

The mature trophont leaves the fish, attaches to the sides and bottom of the aquarium, and secretes a cyst wall to become a reproductive tomont. Each tomont divides from one cell to two cells and then undergoes multiple divisions to produce 100 to 1,000 theronts within a single cyst. Infective theronts then bore their way out of the cyst and swim actively in the water in search of fish to attack. Theronts can swim in the water for two to three days and will die if they cannot find a fish to attack. However, once they find a fish to attack and burrow into its epithelium, the theronts become trophonts and feed on surrounding host tissue until they reach mature size.


Treatment and Prevention of Ich
Whenever any white spots are seen on the skin and fins, fish are most likely infected by the parasite ich. Immediate treatment is required in order to save the infected fish. Parasites can reproduce rapidly, and one mature ich trophont can produce several hundreds to thousands of infective theronts in less than 24 hours at a water temperature of 22° to 25ºC (72º to 77ºF).

Chemical treatment of ich infection is always difficult because the parasite penetrates into the fish’s skin and gills and diseased fish usually cannot tolerate a chemical concentration that is high enough to kill the parasite within the fish’s tissues. The best time to treat infective theronts and reproductive tomonts is when they are still in the water and before they penetrate the fish as trophonts.

Most of the anti-ich chemicals contain formaldehyde, malachite green, copper sulfate, a combination of formaldehyde and malachite green, or a combination of copper sulfate and malachite green. The infected fish can be moved to a quarantine tank in order to avoid treating healthy fish, and less chemical is needed in a smaller tank.

Other methods, such as adding salt, increasing water temperature, and changing the water are also used by fish hobbyists to treat ich infection in an aquarium. Parasitic trophonts usually stay in fish for five to seven days at a water temperature of 22º to 25ºC (72º to 77ºF). The treatment may need to continue for five days to one week in order to remove the parasite from the infected fish. The complete ich lifecycle lasts three weeks at 9º to 10ºC (48º to 50ºF) but only six days at 24º to 25ºC (75º to 77ºF).

Because of ich’s sensitivity to water temperature, you should heat the aquarium water to about 30ºC (86ºF) for the duration of the treatment, if the fish can tolerate the temperature, to accelerate the lifecycle of the parasite.



Prevention of Ich
As is usually the case with disease, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The best method for controlling ich infection is prevention. Precautions are needed when establishing an aquarium to prevent ich from being carried by fish, aquatic plants, decorative items, gravel, and water. An aquarium should be set up with everything for one week before the fish are added. Infective theronts usually lose their infectivity after being separated from fish for two to three days.

Fish are major carriers of parasites, but they may not show signs of disease when purchased from pet shops. The newly purchased fish should be quarantined in a separate tank for at least a week to 10 days before adding them to the main aquarium. If the fish show any signs of parasitic infection, they should be treated in the isolation tank without affecting the main aquarium. Before adding new aquatic plants to an established aquarium, they also need to be kept in a separate tank for several days first.

Stones/rocks and gravel are commonly used in aquariums as decorations or as a filter for removing waste. A layer of cultured gravel containing colonies of beneficial bacteria can biologically remove waste from the water. However, if the stones/rocks or gravel are collected from rivers or streams, they need to be washed and completely air-dried for two days in order to prevent any parasites from being carried into the aquarium.

In order to keep fish from getting badly infected with ich, early detection of the parasitic infection is critical. The fish in an aquarium need attention at least a few minutes each day to detect any unusual behavior, especially for the first two to three weeks after they have been added to the tank.

In the earliest stage of infection, there are no visible spots on the fish. It is also hard to observe the spots if they are few in number. However, the fish’s behavior may change to flashing suddenly, scratching against rocks and gravel, gulping air, or jumping out of the water—all indications that the fish are infected by parasites and are trying to scratch their itch. When fish are treated during an early infection or a light infection, the chance of survival from parasitic infection is always higher than for a severely infected fish.





Fish Immune Response Against Ich Re-Infection
Fish that survive an ich infection can develop an immune response and become resistant to parasite re-infection. Serum and mucus from those immune fish contain antibodies against the parasite. Then, when infective theronts come into contact with anti-ich antibodies, the antibodies cause the theronts to become immobilized. The immobilization causes the theronts to lose their swimming ability. The antibodies also cause the parasites to leave the fish so that ich cannot become established in immune fish. Recently, a few studies showed that vaccines against ich induced protective immunity and could provide a solution to prevent this parasitic disease through vaccination instead of chemical treatments.

GOOD LUCK!

 

Thanks. I am all too aware of Ich. This is the second time in about 2 weeks I have battled it (in my 65 and now in my 10).

I feel like I have done what most articles, videos, and people on here say to do, but my casualty rate is so high. I lost a bunch of tetras (maybe half) in the 65 before the ich cleared up in there--the survivors seem totally ich free now, but keeping the temp up for another couple of days to make sure the ich is gone.

My 10 is totally devastated. Everything in there has died except the gourami and the pleco, and my poor pleco looks like she will be dead in a few hours. I thought I caught the Ich early, but everything has gone sideways on me. The 10 went from being my healthiest and most balanced tank to a wasteland in only 3 days.

 

So how did it get from the 65 to the 10. Everything that goes wrong or right in our tanks is due to our decisions and actions or inactions. Hope you can figure this out and move forward.

 

I mentioned in my initial post that I must have used the same gravel vac before I realized there was an Ich outbreak. I have since purchased more equipment so that there won't be any more cross-contamination of tanks.

I'm aware that it's my fault the 10 got Ich. What I'm confused about is how slowly raising the temp and dosing Ich-X according to the instructions led to so much death, when it seems like other people have little trouble fighting off Ich. Just trying to learn more for when this inevitably happens again down the road.