Question On Ich Treatment

I moved here in South East Asia with tropical climate 10years ago. And started keeping fish again few months ago. I have some questions on conventional treatment for ich as something doesn't add up.

Ich is common here in SEA just like everywhere else in the world. The difference is average fish tank water temperatures here are 78F or above. In the wild water temperatures are well over 80s. And you see ich still survives and reproduces at these temperatures here.

Most people in the cooler temperature use that kind of temperature to "treat" ich. And you see, definitely ich is surviving and reproducing successfully here at these temperatures. So that means how reliable will it be the conventional advice of keeping the temperature at 78F for 2 weeks to get rid of ich?

Is there anyone here from the tropics? And successfully treated ich with heat method? I have been using formaldehyde and M green combo medicine for my ich treatments anyway.

 

Not sure how reliable but its 84-86 degrees for 2 weeks not 78.

 

Not sure how reliable but its 84-86 degrees for 2 weeks not 78.

Even on this forum I have seen people saying 78 to 80. I just see that a recurring theme is, there are very few veterans or contributors from tropical climates. Especially from somewhere like where I live where there are no summers or winters and almost same temperature year round at well above 90s during day time. 365days.

 

78-80 definitely does NOT treat ich. It needs to be 86-88 degrees. At 84 it stops the reproduction, and 86-88 will speed up the life cycle causing them to die quicker.

Keep the temp up at 86-88 for 14 days after you see the last spot. Do daily or every other day vacuuming to get all the fallen cysts out of the tank. Temp might need to be elevated for 14-21 days. Depending on how quickly it stops appearing on the fish.

 

78-80 definitely does NOT treat ich. It needs to be 86-88 degrees. At 84 it stops the reproduction, and 86-88 will speed up the life cycle causing them to die quicker.

Keep the temp up at 86-88 for 14 days after you see the last spot. Do daily or every other day vacuuming to get all the fallen cysts out of the tank. Temp might need to be elevated for 14-21 days. Depending on how quickly it stops appearing on the fish.

I agree. And you might consider using aquarium salt or unionised natural sea salt

 

Even on this forum I have seen people saying 78 to 80.

78 - 80F is perfect temperature for betta. A lot of people keep fish around 75 - 80. From what I've read (on this site), a lot of people suggests 86 degrees.

Where are you seeing suggestions for 78 - 80?

 

Ich stops attaching to fish at 85°F, stops reproducing at 86°F and die at 89.5°F (continuous for at least 5 days). They will die if they don't find a host in 48 hrs which is why the general recommendation is 86°F for 2 weeks with daily gravel vacs. If your thermometer says 86°F but it's actually 84°F, you will only speed up the Ich's life cycle.

You need an accurate thermometer because most are +/- 2°F or go to 88°F to be sure. There are some heat resistant strains but not very common.

Water doesn't hold as much oxygen at higher temps so you should add an airstone with the heat treatment.

 

Ich stops attaching to fish at 85°F, stops reproducing at 86°F and die at 89.5°F (continuous for at least 5 days). They will die if they don't find a host in 48 hrs which is why the general recommendation is 86°F for 2 weeks with daily gravel vacs. If your thermometer says 86°F but it's actually 84°F, you will only speed up the Ich's life cycle.

You need an accurate thermometer because most are +/- 2°F or go to 88°F to be sure. There are some heat resistant strains but not very common.

Water doesn't hold as much oxygen at higher temps so you should add an airstone with the heat treatment.

I am from Singapore. Average water temperature here in the wild is 88 or more. Even water temperature indoors in room temperature without Aircon is 84 or above. Both my digital and Mercury(or whatever liquid inside) thermometers show 29deg C to 30Deg C without heater all the time in my indoor tanks. May be all strains here are heat resistant? I am waiting for someone from a similar climate as mine to chime in as well.

 

These are scientific data points. I'm sure your "wild" doesn't stay at 88°F or more constantly for 2 weeks. But whatever.

 

I'm confused. I understand you don't get very big temperature variations but currently your temp is only 77° f with an expected high of 78. So how is the water so hot?
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/singapore/singapore

 

The tank I checked(used as QT tank) has two internal submersible filters. Current temperature on a Boyou internal digital thermometer is 30Deg C. And the same is shown on a mercury conventional thermometer I have stuck on the glass. And another tank I kept which doesn’t have any filters or fish but with full of water(I tested since this morning) shows 26Deg C. So that means indoors water temperature without any water flow or filter is 26 and with filter(internal filters create heat) is 29 to 30 Deg C. I can post the pictures soon.
You can convert these values to Fahrenheit and see what I wrote is the same.

 

26 vs 30 is a huge difference! Maybe it's time to stop using an internal filter and time to start thinking about canisters or hang on back filters?

 

26 vs 30 is a huge difference! Maybe it's time to stop using an internal filter and time to start thinking about canisters or hang on back filters?

I have 3 tanks running canisters. Which are two 50G and a 65G . My QT tank can not run canisters... As the internal filters are cycled and kept from other tanks. So yeah...

 

Gotcha. If it's just a 10 gal, why not run an external pump with air hoses leading to a sponge filter?

 

Gotcha. If it's just a 10 gal, why not run an external pump with air hoses leading to a sponge filter?

It’s a 20G. And I run my existing internal filters and they do a very good job.

 

Would you consider getting rid of the internal filter for a HOB filter instead? This way, you get better filtration and don't have to worry about the internal filter heating up the tank.

 

Would you consider getting rid of the internal filter for a HOB filter instead? This way, you get better filtration and don't have to worry about the internal filter heating up the tank.

I think we have drifted from the question. I was not really looking to fix a temperature problem. My question was since already many of our temperatures are so high, how ich even comes up in our tanks. Because this is the very same tank I had an infection before, which I treated with melafix kind of medicine in the end.

 

Well at 29 ich can and will live so unless the tankbis held constant at 30+ ich can happen. And yes according to some atleast some strains of ich are becoming heat tolerant.