Ich treatment getting no where. Emergency…please help

Hi guys, I need help as I have no progress treating ich. One of my king kong parrot fish and one blood parrot(small) fish got ich over 1 week ago. I went to LFS and bought fritz coppersafe medication and started treating the tank as per instructions. As my tank is 4ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft(~65gallons), i put around 16teaspoon of medication as the instructions is to put 1teaspoon(5mL) for 4gallon. I removed all the plants and stones, carbon for the medication. I raised the water temperature slowly and for now, it is 30C(86F) already. After 3days of starting the treatment, I changed 50% water and dosed the replacement water again as I didn’t see any improvement on the ich. Today is the seventh day and the condition seems to be getting worse. There are 9 other parrot fishes in the same tank and they seems to be still in great condition without white spots. Please advise as it has been quite long since I started the treatment and there is no progress.In fact, the condition of the affected fishes has gotten worse over last few days. I can see more and more white spots by a few days on those two fishes. My fishes are also uncomfortable and sometimes rough as they seems not to like the water temperature. I have a bag of epsom salt. Should I add it or buy a new medication?

 

Be a good idea to either dose the Copper Sulfate or only use the Heat Method. Doing both simultaneously might do more harm than good.
Copper is very stressful to fish. I would only use it against super lethal parasites like Oodinium.
The Heat treatment along with small water changes w/ gravel vac is what I would recommend.
It takes between 10 - 14 days for it to work.
You might bump the heat up to 87 degrees.

 

I think you may have interrupted your treatment by doing a 50% water change. You cut the medication level in half. I would start over, the treatment only takes about 2 weeks no need for water changes in that time.

 

I think you may have interrupted your treatment by doing a 50% water change. You cut the medication level in half. I would start over, the treatment only takes about 2 weeks no need for water changes in that time.

Start over as in change 80% of water and dose back? When I change 50%, I even overdosed a bit in case it has only slight effect. I think it will be fine. Do you still think I need to start over as the first method mentioned above?

 

Maybe i misunderstood your actions. Did you add more meds AFTER the water change? As there's no test to check for proper dosage in the water following the manufactures instruction is the only guide you have. If you added more meds you may be ok. The thing is these meds are usually very effective at treating ick. Even without them the high temps alone usually works. I'm basing my theory on the meds usually being effective. It's possible something in the tank is absorbing the meds but i don't see what it can be. My gut feeling is you don't have enough meds to kill the ick. Remember your just trying to interrupt their life cycle. The white spots will drop off the fish on their own multiply in the gravel then reattack the fish. It's the second wave that usually kills the fish. They multiply by the thousands. Hope i haven't confused you. Most of these companies have support lines, some have excellent tech available. I was medicating a 240 gal marine tank and the support guy gave me a tablespoon dosage instead of adding hundreds of drops. Try calling them, they may be able to assist.

 

Maybe i misunderstood your actions. Did you add more meds AFTER the water change? As there's no test to check for proper dosage in the water following the manufactures instruction is the only guide you have. If you added more meds you may be ok. The thing is these meds are usually very effective at treating ick. Even without them the high temps alone usually works. I'm basing my theory on the meds usually being effective. It's possible something in the tank is absorbing the meds but i don't see what it can be. My gut feeling is you don't have enough meds to kill the ick. Remember your just trying to interrupt their life cycle. The white spots will drop off the fish on their own multiply in the gravel then reattack the fish. It's the second wave that usually kills the fish. They multiply by the thousands. Hope i haven't confused you. Most of these companies have support lines, some have excellent tech available. I was medicating a 240 gal marine tank and the support guy gave me a tablespoon dosage instead of adding hundreds of drops. Try calling them, they may be able to assist.

Yes, I added meds for the 50% replacement water that I added 3 days after starting the treatment. I even overdosed a bit just in case if the medicine is not very effective. For the tank, there is not gravel or anything carbon or rock. It is just bare bottom and power head top filter. I will try to contact their support line. Thanks.

I always change water before putting in the coppersafe. So everytime I change water, I also put API stress coat and tap water conditioner. After that, I put the coppersafe. Is this the source of problem? Is the stress coat and water conditioner removing the copper inside the water?

 

I dont know about cooper safe tbh. I always use ick-x and it works wonders. Also have in mind that ich always get worse before it gets better

 

I don't know about other chemicals affecting the ick med. Carbon is the only one i know of that removes chemicals from water. I would recommend leaving the tank alone during the treatment. It's only a 2 week treatment don't do anything that might effect it. Reread the instructions and follow them to the letter. Also is there an expiration date on the meds? That or maybe you just got a bad bottle. I haven't battled ick for about a year forgot what brand i used.

 

I dont know about cooper safe tbh. I always use ick-x and it works wonders. Also have in mind that ich always get worse before it gets better

Thanks. I am considering on buying Ick-X since I also wants to medicate the corydoras and pleco which were in the same tank at the start of the ick outbreak. Ick-X is safe for plants and those scaless fish if I am correct .

I don't know about other chemicals affecting the ick med. Carbon is the only one i know of that removes chemicals from water. I would recommend leaving the tank alone during the treatment. It's only a 2 week treatment don't do anything that might effect it. Reread the instructions and follow them to the letter. Also is there an expiration date on the meds? That or maybe you just got a bad bottle. I haven't battled ick for about a year forgot what brand i used.

The medicine is okay. The expire date is far from now. I tested the copper in the tank and it is around 1ppm to 1.8ppm. I also added aquarium salt to build up their resistance. I have been increasing the salt concentration by adding 1-2 tea spoons of salt daily. My other fishes which were infected have gone a lot better and their body is almost free of ick. For now, the only sick fish is the fish who started the ick outbreak. While the rest of the fishes are getting better, this only fish keep getting worse and worse. Her body is almost full of white spots already. She also refuses to eat even when I have been fasting all of them since the start of medication. I only feed them occasionally one time per 3-4 days.