Pearl Gouramis with ich

I now have some ich in my 29 gal. my pearls seem to be the most affected so far
I bought some maracide at my lps today...it only treats the actual spots on the fish, am I supposed to be treating the water also? or should I wait until the 3 maracide doses are finished?

??? any other tips on treating ich...I would hate to lose any of my fish :'(

I think my new rainbow shark might have introduced it to the tank...that lfs seems to be having an ich problem at the moment...I checked all the sharks, and didnt see any signs of it, so I went ahead and bought him

 

While treating with the maracide go ahead and raise the tank temperature to 83 degrees farenheit. All of your fish in that tank should be fine at that temperature, and that temperature will kill the free-floating stage of ich. The temp and the medicine should kill all the ich in the tank.

Best of luck, perhaps investing in a quarantine tank would be a smart move, just a suggestion though.

 

trust me, if I had the time and money I would have a 30 gal. quarintine, and a 100+ show tank built into my room or the bonus room (where my big tv and xbox 360 are)

 

he he he. I know how you feel, Kevin. We've gotten a small free spare tank off a friend who's given up on fishkeeping. The more I look around, the more people actually have an old tank to give away in their garage. Maybe you know someone?

 

how long should I keep the water at 83 degrees? until the end of the treatment...or a couple extra days?

 

keep it there for 2 weeks, even if it looks cleared up & gone.

 

Yep, 2 weeks. Sorry for not putting that in the original post. Sometimes I forget the most important details..

 

will do, but my albino cory seems to be convulsing, and laying on his side at times, but whenever he swims, he looks fine...any ideas?

 

They could be reacting to the meds, as maracide does have Malachite green which is a carcinogen. And I am pretty sure most meds with malachite green is suppost to be dosed at half strength if you have tetras or corries (scaless fishies, salt messes them up too, but can aid in healing after a outbreak of ich)

Kinda a loose loose thing, both things that can help them also hurt them, I had ich on a 29 gallon that had corries and tetras, so I removed them to a hospital tank and dosed that tank half strength and kept it warm for a couple weeks. And I dosed the main tank they were from full strength and with heat, when I was done I dropped in some carbon in the filter to soak up any med traces. Pulled the carbon and re-homed my corries and tetras.

 

how long has the cory been doing that? did it just start all of the sudden? is there any "hospital tank" for them?

 

They're right with the hospital tank, if nothing else get a tupaware larger bowl for the cory, but if it is convulsing it needs isolation immediately.

 

well, I got home from school yesterday, and had to give him a ride down the porcelin chute :'(
I guess he was too young, or could have had ich really bad, its hard to see little white spots on a little white fish

 

Sorry for your loss. Maybe the cory didn't suffer too much...

 

I am really sorry you lost your cory.

I know it's a bit late but by convulsing, do you mean flashing by any chance? Spasm-like movements occasionally. That is frequently a sign of burnt or irritated gills from metals in the water (did your conditionner let you down?) or the usual nitrogen suspects (a'nia/n'ite/n'ate) and least likely gill parasites.

But so you saw some white spots on him after he died? Then perhaps the convulsing was him scratching himself. When fish ' skin is irritated, they can only flash to get rid of the itch.

 

that's too bad.. we're sorry he didn't make it.

 

I am really sorry you lost your cory.

I know it's a bit late but by convulsing, do you mean flashing by any chance? Spasm-like movements occasionally. That is frequently a sign of burnt or irritated gills from metals in the water (did your conditionner let you down?) or the usual nitrogen suspects (a'nia/n'ite/n'ate) and least likely gill parasites.

But so you saw some white spots on him after he died? Then perhaps the convulsing was him scratching himself. When fish ' skin is irritated, they can only flash to get rid of the itch.

well, I don't think it was metals...or nitrogen, I did a 30% water change right b4 I started the meds, and a 25% change 2 days after the meds were over...he was a baby, so he might his immune system might not have liked the ich...or meds

 

hey guys, I turned the temp back down today, and everyone seems to be doing fine...I am keeping a watchful eye on them in case there is more scratching...or ick spots

 

Best of luck and got my fingers crossed for ya.

 

bye-bye ich

Please let us know how they all look in a couple weeks.

 

Hey, you could also try the following. Found it in another thread! Seems to be natural and will not kill or affect your fish negatively.

 

that Ich-Attack is an excellent med. we have used it when treating fish for ich and it's the only thing we'd use to treat fish sick with ich, aside from raising their temp to 82+ for 2 weeks.