National Geographic Herbal Ich Relief

Story:

Cycled my 55 gallon tank with a few mollies from a friends tank. Cycle went as expected. Decided to start filling tank as the water tested fine. Went against my 'better judgement' and got two sets of 'schoolers' to start the tank stocking. Rasboras and tetras 6 of each, and a red tail shark on whimsy, because they looked healthy. Man at Petco had serious patience issues, and roughed up the shark pretty good, when I politely asked him to "think if you were the fish... would you want to get beat up like that?" Last visit there. All the fish I took home were healthy in the Pet Store tank with no signs of stress or disease.

I took the fish... I felt they stood a better chance with me. (as arrogant as that sounds) Three days later, and the Tetras showed signs of Ich. Haven't had Ich in a looong time, did some research and STILL went with "National Geographic Herbal Ich Relief".

Treatment:

Canister filters are never fun to open up for me, BUT I did, took out the carbon, and slowly raised the tank temperature to 81*F and increased aeration. Next morning, as per instructions, I gave the first dosage of 5 cap fulls of the medication. I filled a 1/2 gallon container with water and treated it, then added the medicine to that water, then slowly poured it into the tank. At this point the Tetras were covered with several spots each. They're small fish, so I couldn't see any gill coverage, but fish were still swimming and eating normally. The rasboras were not infected at all nor did they ever contract the Ich. The shark was in bad shape (no Ich, just breathing hard). I don't think he ever recovered from the senseless beating at the Pet store. He died on day three in the tank.

The medication calls for 3 treatments, one full dose every 48 hours. (Dose: 1 cap full per 10 gallons of water) On the day of the third treatment, ALL fish were visibly free of the Ich. Zero losses (except the shark, but I still think it was abused) and no other complications that I could see. This treatment worked. I'd say very well for an early diagnosis, and complete treatment.

Here's where I went on my own though. I had enough for another dose (several actually) so I did a fourth treatment for a total of eight days of treatment. This did not harm the fish in any way, and gave me peace of mind that the Ich went through a full lifecycle given the water temp and time, and is now (for the most part) DEAD!

Post treatment will start tomorrow. with a 50% water change, gravel vacuum and boiling of all artificial plants and rocks. This should ensure the nasty little buggers are in the sewer where they belong. Finally, I'll replace the carbon, and slowly bring the tank back down to 74/75* F.

Results:

This treatment worked for me. I gave a full description of what I did so you know the steps I took for a successful treatment. As there are several strains, I will give the disclaimer: Your Results May Vary.

I give this mediation a THUMBS UP! Hopefully I'll never have to deal with this again, but if I do I would use this again.

 

When you added the carbon back, did you use new carbon or the carbon that was used prior to treatment?

 

When you added the carbon back, did you use new carbon or the carbon that was used prior to treatment?

I used new carbon, and new floss. I kept the sponge though, as it has (what's left of) the bio filter bacteria. The old carbon was only about 3 weeks old, but better safe than sorry.

To date, the fish show no signs of Ich, or any other illness.

 

That's excellent! My fish suddenly have Ich, I have no idea where it came from... I have 1 Black Molly that is covered now, and was clean yesterday. It seems weird to me that it happened so fast, I've been watching all of them like a hawk, so I would have seen it if it happened slowly.

 

Thanks to the advent of the intra-ma-webz there's a lot of 'new to me' info about common fish diseases.

Some think Ich is present in almost ALL aquarium environments (especially the LFS) and stress lowers the fish's immune system to the point it can attack the fish and successfully reproduce in the aquarium.

The stress of introducing the new fish, even the stress the LFS puts the fish through bagging them can be enough to trigger the spread of a 'dormant' infection. I would say don't YOU stress over it, rather start a treatment IMMEDIATELY, as the directions state, to the letter, and minimize and/or eliminate your losses.

First I saw the dreaded white dots, I researched treatments, then went out and purchased one, then immediately administered it... It's my good fortune I knew tell tale signs and got off easy. BTW, day 3 it looked the worse... then it got better... it's all about the Ich life cycle.

 

did you do 25% water changes before each treatment it dosn't say too on the bottle but I have read that this is a must when treating for ich.

 

did you do 25% water changes before each treatment it dosn't say too on the bottle but I have read that this is a must when treating for ich.

I did not do any water changes. I removed carbon from the filter and treated as the bottle instructed. I DID do a partial water change after the treatment (about 50%).
Remember, this is a 'natural' treatment, so it's different.

I also removed all the decorations and scrubbed them in Prime treated water.

 

thank you very much
I did also take out carbon and will just keep treating and do a good water change.