Ich wiping out whole tank

Went on vacation for a week and two of my platy's died while I was gone. Came back and my recent mother platy (gave birth to 69 fry 2 weeks ago) died 3 days ago. Woke up today and my biggest platy is dead and absolutely covered in Ich. Went out and bought Ich treatment and Maracyn. Placed it in there earlier today. In last 20 minutes another died. Another is goner for sure, has been laying on side struggling to breathe for about 4-5 hours now. Another 3 are lying down and barely active at all. Another 2 platies are very active and eating well but are covered in Ich. The only one that seems at all unscaved is my lone sword tail. I found out that once the ich attaches to the host they are invulnerable and cannot be killed by medicine. They have 3 day life spans so I figure whole tank will be wiped out by then although I'm still trying hard to prevent their demise, its been horrible seeing them suffering. I have slowly raised the temperature to 85, performed about a 40% water change, and applied the two medicines. I first noticed the ich late last night, is it normal for ich to kill fish in less than 24 hours? and besides applying regular medicine is there any other way to prevent the ich to attaching to a fish? I can't figure out how the fish became stressed in the first place to allow the ich to feed on them. If the ich does finish off rest of tank I want to put my baby fry in that tank since it is larger. What precautions should I take to make sure the tank is completely ich free? I understand ich is always there, but how should I make sure they don't begin leeching on the fry? If that happens I will completely clean out tank, set back up and run for couple days at about 100 degrees with no fish in it while also applying the ich medicine. Any suggestions for what else I might do?

 

Leave it above 83* farenheit for 2 weeks, that will wipe out the ich. That should be fine with the swordtail in there. I would suggest leaving the fry out until the 2 weeks is over.

Sorry to hear about losing so many, but best of luck in getting it fixed up. You seem to have done your homework, kudos on seeming to be an intelligent person.

 

it sounds like the ich has had some time to work on them, but hopefully no more will fall to it with the temp. treatment. Did you get Ich-Attack?

 

No I made a list of what looked like high quality ich treatments (Quick Care, Coppersafe, and Maracide) but Jack's Aquarium didn't have any of those. They said the best one they have is "Nox-Ich" so I picked that up along with Maracyn to reduce chances of secondary bacteria disease. I was running thoughts through my head about maybe dropping a few drops in my other tanks once a week to help prevent this from happening again. Good or bad idea? Want to do all I can to prevent it because when I find out there's an outbreak it's too late to cure the ich already embedded in the fish. If this would be okay to do, would it be safe to put a drop in the fry tank?

 

looking up nox-ich, it looks like it damages the good bacteria. If it's possible to get Ich-Attack, i'd highly recommend it over any other ich med since it's safe for any fish, even fry, and non-harmful to the good bacteria. It's a herbal organic med and effective and the only thing i'd consider for a preventative, but really i'm not sure how much that's needed.. kind of a individual judgement call.

 

I wouldn't know where to get it, Jack's is best pet store around my area and this is one they suggested to me. Don't care much for going to Wal-Mart or Meijer's for fish products. Would my product work good enough to get them through ich hopefully this time through? Only thing I can think of is ordering some and think might be too late.

 

- deathco has it, but I think you can actually order it and pay the 9.99 shipping & end up not much more.. but you can find so much there, we NEVER order just 1 thing.

 

Actually,

I wouldn't recommend medicating a tank that has nothing wrong with it. (Referring to the thought of medicating all tanks for it weekly)

If the water conditions stay good and the fish don't have immune-system deficiencies they shouldn't be vulnerable to the ich. Something probably happened in that week's time you were gone that caused their immune systems to get weaker. It happens, sadly.

Just doing 20% water changes a week, not overfeeding, making sure your water chemistry stays in perameters, and that your fish have a good variety in their diet would seem like the best route to take on the non-infected ones.

Best of luck.

 

Yea I keep the tanks clean and steady so hopefully this won't happen again. Thanks for help all.