Treating Ich with salt and temp - continue for how long?

Hi all, I introduced some kuhli loaches into my tank and the next day one of them was showing the telltale signs of Ich spots. This was around last Thursday, and I’ve done a temp and salt treatment for 6 days now.

Good news is that as far as I can tell all of my fish are spot free as of yesterday and today, no more flashing, however I can’t speak for the kuhli loaches since I can only ever really see 5/6 on a good day! How many days should I keep the temp up? I’ll do a good gravel vac today, probably won’t replace the salt taken out.

Thanks in advance!

 

The heat should stay up for at least 2 weeks to make sure.

 

Extremely important ninetyinone.

The Australian strain of ich is not killed by heat.

Heat does not stop the live cycle of the Australian strain of ich ether.

Any of the medications with malachite green will kill the free swimming stage of the life cycle of ich.

Continue treatment for at least one week - 10 days after the last spots are seen.

 

Extremely important ninetyinone.

The Australian strain of ich is not killed by heat.

Heat does not stop the live cycle of the Australian strain of ich ether.

Any of the medications with malachite green will kill the free swimming stage of the life cycle of ich.

Continue treatment for at least one week - 10 days after the last spots are seen.

Curious what makes you say that heat does not kill the australian strain of ich?

Is there new research or something that theres a new resistent strain?

 

Ich: An in-depth Explanation

A lot of the Australian aquaculture industry has its base in the tropical north.

Sure there is Atlantic salmon farmed in Tasmania.

This is not a new thing it’s common knowledge as far as I know?

Just to survive our summer ich has to be able to withstand heat.

 

Ich: An in-depth Explanation

A lot of the Australian aquaculture industry has its base in the tropical north.

Sure there is Atlantic salmon farmed in Tasmania.

This is not a new thing it’s common knowledge as far as I know?

Just to survive our summer ich has to be able to withstand heat.

That does make sense. Though sometimes people mistake epistylus for ich.

So it may be possible people were trying heat treatment on epistylus which I think does not work and thinking the ich is immune?

Hmm just a thought. I do both heat + meds anyways

 

Thanks for everyone’s input! Just to clarify, I’m not using heat to kill Ich, it’s the salt! I’m using heat to speed up the lifecycle, which allows more of the Ich to be treated (by reaching the salt vulnerable stage of the lifecycle) over a smaller space of time.

I have heard that some people use heat alone but I figured since we get over 35 degrees on the regular here that it wouldn’t be enough by itself.

The fact that I’ve gone from spotty fish to none in five days is proof that it’s working which is a relief! I’ll keep the temperature up and the salt concentration up for another 10 days then. Plants and snails are doing fine although I’m worried about keeping it up. I do have Ich meds on hand if it gets worse but everyone’s eating and behaving normally so I’m gonna hold off for now.

 

Thanks for everyone’s input! Just to clarify, I’m not using heat to kill Ich, it’s the salt! I’m using heat to speed up the lifecycle, which allows more of the Ich to be treated (by reaching the salt vulnerable stage of the lifecycle) over a smaller space of time.

I have heard that some people use heat alone but I figured since we get over 35 degrees on the regular here that it wouldn’t be enough by itself.

The fact that I’ve gone from spotty fish to none in five days is proof that it’s working which is a relief! I’ll keep the temperature up and the salt concentration up for another 10 days then. Plants and snails are doing fine although I’m worried about keeping it up. I do have Ich meds on hand if it gets worse but everyone’s eating and behaving normally so I’m gonna hold off for now.

Grats! I helped my friend treat fish with ich med and elevated temp to 32 degrees, it cleared it in a few days
That was last yr

 

My last attempt at treating Ich with heat (in Australia) failed. If I ever need to treat it again I will opt for meds.

Btw if your only objective with heat is to speed up the Ich life cycle (rather than to stop it reproducing) any temperature beyond 27C just contributes to unjustified additional stress on your fish.