Please help, my turquoise sevrum has a bad case of ich!

Nano

My tank is about 110 gal. , and I have cichlids in it. One of them, a full grown turquoise sevrum I noticed has ich pretty bad. What is the proper form of treatment? I can't even remember the last time this has happened. Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

t_chelle16 · Moderator Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 3437

What are the other fish in the tank?

In the past, I've had good luck turning the temperature up to around 88* - 90* (really watch for heavy breathing & you might want to add an air stone) and adding 1 tbsp aquarium/kosher salt/5 gallons. If you have salt sensitive fish, you could use an actual ich med (I like Maroxy).

Keep treating for 5 - 7 days after the last spot is gone.

-Chelle

gravity · Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 3:59 pm Post subject:

If you have a quarantine tank available, I strongly suggest you remove your infected fish immediately into that tank.

To treat ich, you'll need to find some ich medicine to treat the water with as well as remove your filter pad from the filter because the carbon in the filter will remove the medicine too. I've heard that raising the water temperature to about 80 degrees also helps, but I personally have no experience that says that helps.

Good luck.

t_chelle16 · Moderator Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 3437

gravity · Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 5:06 pm Post subject:

I'm not a big fan of adding chemicals to my aquariums, so if I see a hurt or sick fish I quarantine it and try to treat it separately.

For me:

1 fish with ich = quarantined treatment
2+ fish with ich = treated tank

It's easier for me this way....

t_chelle16 · Moderator Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 3437

Just because only one fish in the tank has spots, it doesn't mean there is nothing living in the water or laying dormant in the other fish. quarantining for ich and not treating the whole tank is just asking for reinfection.

-Chelle

kc5gvn · Moderator Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 1147

Sorry gravity, t_chelle is right! Ich is a parasitic condition of the water not the fish. It just attaches itself to the fish. If you isolate that one fish and treat him only your other fish will end up getting Ich as well. The ONLY time isolation works is with a new fish that has Ich and is quarentined before ever going into the community tank.

2manytanks · New member Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 12 Location: Canada

I've had to deal with ich several times in the past, and on one occasion it was REALLY hard to get rid of. I have since read that there are supposed to be some strains of ich floating around that are more resistant to treatment and suspect I had one of them, it took several months to clear up.

As someone mentioned, quarantine is no good - the tank is infected, not just the fish. Each cyst that drops off the fish to mature on the bottom of the tank will release hundreds of offspring looking for new prey. So you have to treat the tank. Anyways, here's what I would do:

- Raise the temperature, I'd go 80 to 82 or even 85. The increase in temperature increases the metabolism of both the fish and the ich parasites. The fish have a better ability to fight off the invaders, and the lifecycle of the ich is shortened. After the cysts on the bottom of the tank have ripened and released the young free swimming larvae of the parasite they have about 3 days to find a fish and attach themselves to it, otherwise they will die. Increasing the temperature will shorten the time they have to find a new fish or die.

- Salt the water. 1 heaping tablespoon of aquarium salt or equivalent.

- Keep the tank clean - vacuum it. When doing a water change be sure to vacuum the bottom to get out the cysts that are ripening on the bottom and vacuum out water from the bottom section of the tank where the young free swimming larvae are hanging out.

- Medication may not be necessary, and I prefer not to, but if necessary or you just feel more comfortable, I would suggest CopperSafe. On the persistant strain I had I tried about 4 different medications. Some did nothing at all, RidIch seemed to help at first but the outbreak would soon return. CopperSafe seemed to work the best for me.

- If you've ever thought about buying a diatom filter, do it now. They are absolutely amazing and will filter out the ich parasite among others.

I have heard some people say to treat for as little as 3 days, some say to treat for a month. Well the lifecycle from start to finish for the ich parasite is about 2 weeks. Suggesting treating for as little as 3 days makes a small degree of sense, providing your talking about applying a medication for 3 days after the last VISIBLE sign of ich since that's how long the freeswimming lifestage of the parasite has to find a new host before it dies. But how sure are you that the last visible sign of ich was the last of the ich? It could still be in the gills, a small spot somewhere that you didn't see, etc., and when it matures it's going to start the cycle all over again.

Even with medication I would treat a minimum of two weeks after all visible signs are gone. And if you are just going to go the salt and temperature route I would treat for more along the lines of a month after the last visible sign is gone.

Good luck.