# Major Ick Problem - Input/Help Needed



## ryc120 (Dec 24, 2011)

Hello,

First post here. Hoping I can get some good advice from everyone. Here is what I have - 

Freshwater 29Gal Community Tank - live plants, Aquaclear Filter, normally keep the temp around 78-79 degrees.

About a week and a half ago I bought 6 neon tetras from a local pet store. This was the first time I have added any new fish to the tank in 8 months. The tank has been great, no major issues in the past 4 years I have had it. Everything was fine until about four days ago I noticed a few of my Cardinal tetras were full of ick. It seemed like it happened overnight - very quickly. 

I have a bottle of Quick Cure, and have been using that at the recommended dosage for the past four days (1 drop per 2 gal of water because I have tetras). I have also turned up the heat in the tank to 84 degrees.
Since then I have lost 12 fish. All of my cardinal tetras are dead now, and a couple of other fish. The neon tetras I bought from the store - still alive and no signs of ick - which I think is very odd - are they immune to this strain of ick?

Here is what I have left - 

-All live plants are still alive
-1 Angelfish
-3 Lemon Tetras (two have small amounts of ick)
-6 Neon Tetras
-4 Cherry Barbs (All four have ick)
-2 Siamese Algae Eaters (Both have ick)
-1 Yoyo Loach (showing signs of ick)
-1 Corey Catfish (showing signs of ick)

I am extremely frustrated. Any suggestions? Should I keep up with the Quick Cure and heat? Is so, for how much longer? 
I have never had a problem with ick like this before.


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

84 is a bit high I would back it down to 80 and also remove any carbon from your filter. 

Follow the directions on the meds 100%


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## ryc120 (Dec 24, 2011)

KG4mxv said:


> 84 is a bit high I would back it down to 80 and also remove any carbon from your filter.
> 
> Follow the directions on the meds 100%


Okay. I'll start backing it down a little. Carbon has been removed since I started treatment.


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

No no no no .... ich becomes unable to reproduce at higher temps. Keep it as high as your fish will tolerate for 3-4 days the fish will be fine! also add aquarium salt to the tank.


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## congar15 (Dec 6, 2011)

Aquarium salt works wonders.


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## ryc120 (Dec 24, 2011)

Regarding Aquarium Salt - How much salt? Is it safe to use with the fish I have listed in my first post?


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

use 1/2 teaspoon per 10 gallons


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

Summer said:


> No no no no .... ich becomes unable to reproduce at higher temps. Keep it as high as your fish will tolerate for 3-4 days the fish will be fine! also add aquarium salt to the tank.


Hmm I have always heard that it speeds up the life cycle of ich







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this is the directions off of the meds I use for ich and it works 100% of the time for me. 
it is api super ICK cure


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

One of the first things i learned after joining her was to kill ich up the temp and add salt. And it works.


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

Learn something new every day.


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## drzoom (Dec 10, 2011)

I cured a recent ich problem in my tank with API aquarium salt @ 1 tbsp/5 gallons and temperature of 82-83F for 10 days or so. I'm still using salt, but have lowered the temperature to 78F. No signs of the disease and no medications used. Good luck!


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

who says you can't teach a old dog new tricks. 
I am so use to using some kind of med to treat ICH but next time I will try temp and salt.


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## ryc120 (Dec 24, 2011)

Everyone - Thank you so much for your input. 
Unfortunately I am out of town for a couple of days. Bad timing I guess. We'll see what happens when I get back. I left the tank temp around 85F.

Will try salt when I get back home if they don't seem to be doing better.


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## ChessieSFR (Dec 30, 2011)

For Ick, I've also very successfully treated it with salt. I've isolated infected individuals and bathed them in a 3tsp/gal concentration of aquarium salt for 5 days, with daily water changes. This has cured every fish that has had it, but I've always caught it very early, at the 1-3 spots stage.

I'm just adding my hear hear, for using salt and heat. They do work well without medicating the tank.

Chessie


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## ryc120 (Dec 24, 2011)

Salt and heat seems to have cured the tank. No signs of ick the past two days. Since I lost so many fish, I am anxious to replenish my tank. When do you think it would be a good time to do so? I am thinking I should wait a couple of weeks to monitor the tank.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

I have noticed just now, literally, that some of my fish might have ick. Some of my barbs and catfish occassionaly scrap themselves upself against the gravel, and there does appear to be what looks like specs of salt on there body. Will an immediate 50% water change help?


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

Well up till recently I have been using super ick cure but I have been told here that adding salt and increasing the temp in the tank to 85F will do the trick.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

I have a submersible water heater that came with my sisters 55 gallon starter kit but it has no temperature scale on it. So I figire I'm gonna set the marker to the beginning of the arrow so it doesn't heat to much


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

Since the heater does not have a scale on it. I would put it in your tank unplugged 
for ten minutes with it set to its lowest setting. then plug it in and turn up the control slowly unit it comes on. 

that will be slightly higher than what your tank is at without the heater. 

you do have a thermometer?

then slightly adjust the heater higher and wait an hour and take the temp and just keep doing that until you get to the desired temp.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Ok so I turned the nob right until the light turned on. No I do not have a thermometer, but the room temp is always at 70 degrees F. It is a 200w heter for my 75 gallon tank. I can get a thermometer tomorrow at 10am.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

When I went to slee;, I noticed the light on the heter was off, and then a couple of minutes later it came back on. Then off again. It is fully connected, I went closer to investigate and noticed the algae eater on it. Problem?


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

it is normal for the light to go on and off it mans that the temp the heater is set to is being reached and it tuns off. 

I keep my tank at 78F

and the algae eater is enjoying the heat.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Okay I've had the heater going for 5 hours now. It started at 70 degress, it is now at about 77-78 degrees. I got two of those glass themometers from petsmart that sticks on the tank, or you can float them. I have one on each side of the front of the tank, the heater is in the back right next to the filter. On one side, where the heater is, the thermometer reads two lines below the 80 degree mark, the other side of the tank, it is about 3 lines below the 80 degree mark.


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

Have you added the salt?

The temp now is where you need to keep it year round. 
Now you need to increase it just a bit more. 
but wait until tomorrow to do it. 

there is a lot of mass to heat up and stabilize. 
and the key is to make small changes gradually.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

No I have not added any salt. I was hoping the heat solution followed with a 50% water change would do the trick. By the way, once I get to 84-85 degrees, how long should I keep it at that temp to kill the Contagion(I just saw that movie, had to say it lol)?


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Maybe I should throw in what fish I have in the tank:

4 Pictus Catfish-juveniles
3 Rosy Barbs - seem to be about fully grown
One African Brown Knife fish -a baby, about 3 inches
One Bala Shark-baby, maybe 3 inches(he schools around with the barbs, heh)
Albino Bristlenose Pleco-4 inches or so
2 mystery snails
3 striped kuhli loaches - babies, almost two inches each


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

add the salt per the instructions. 
not table salt aquarium salt. 
and keep the temp there for a week or so.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Correction on my previous post. The rosy barbs are only about two inches right now, just found out these guys get to like 6 inches. I automatically assumed when I bought them they were like tiger barbs, just a different color. Funny, can't imagine them that big


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

I wouldn't add any fish to a tank that has ICK


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Well just about 24 hours later and the temp is at 78 degrees. I was gonna go ahead and crank it up so it could reach 84, but looking at my fish this morning , it seems only one fish actually has it, as far as the salt grains on the body. And he does swim around pretty nervously as well. All the other fish don't have these symptoms, besides the occassional dive on the gravel. Should I remove this one fish and medicate in quarintine, or continue to treat the whole tank as previously planned?


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Now am not even sure if the fish has ick. Looking at images online of fish with the parasite, mine doesn't look like that. More resemble nip marks from other fish, but I have never seen any fighting in the tank.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Yeah I'm abandoning the heat solution, all my fish with exception of one of the barbs, algae eater, and knife fish, were swimming at the top of the aquarium, and all of them looking pretty lazy. So I did a 50 percent water change, and lowered the heat to stay at around 77. Gonna go to petsmart and get some meds instead


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Okay I purchased tetra ick guard from petsmart. It says to use at half strength for scaleless or sensitive fish. I have 4 pictus cats so I'm going with half strength. One tablet treats 10 gallons. So 7 or 8 would be full, so I used 4. Dissolved before I put in water, and removed carbon. Hope this works. Oh, I forgot to mention, one of my pictus seem to be dying, lying on its side at the bottom of the tank.


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

Do you have an air stone for extra aeration.
remember the hire the water temp the less oxygen it can hold.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

No I have not. I turned the temp down to 78 because the fish were swimming at the very top when the temp was just past 80. I was thinking about lowering the water level to create a bigger splash from the filters but doing so would take out some meds. Gonna lower the temp more cause they are still swimming at the top, though not as much.


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

One of my catfish silver coloration is dulling. Looks like a reptiles skin when it is about to shed. What is this?


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

As I found the above mentioned catfish dead in the corner, I noticed air bubbles around my piece of driftwood it was next to. I picked up, and on the bottom is a slimmy mucus like material covering most of the bottom of the wood. ??


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## pH7 (Dec 5, 2011)

Heat tank to a consistent 86°, add non-iodized kosher salt, 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons. Preferably use salt designated as aquarium salt at the local pet store. API brand works great. Grab some 100% natural herbal Ich Attack from Petsmart off of the shelf. Works wonders, and is not harmful to invertebrates and doesn't use copper. Continue to treat five days after white spots go away. Remove all carbon from your filter, and remember every time you do a water change to re-dose the medication after the water change. Follow the directions on the herbal ich attack to the letter.


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## pH7 (Dec 5, 2011)

imp1979 said:


> As I found the above mentioned catfish dead in the corner, I noticed air bubbles around my piece of driftwood it was next to. I picked up, and on the bottom is a slimmy mucus like material covering most of the bottom of the wood. ??


Bubbles in the substrate can be deadly hydrogen sulfide gas from rotting organic matter. How often do you vacuum your gravel?


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## imp1979 (Dec 28, 2011)

Thanks for the replies guys. It's been about 3 weeks since I did a complete gravel vac. Last week I did a partial, but I have to be honest I haven't been keeping up on regular water changes or gravel vacs for the past year. On average about once a month, but thats both gravel vac and water change. I chalk this up to having double filtration so I figured I could ease up on it a little. Lately I've been just changing the water. So the rotted wood can contaminate the water, and possibly sicken the fish, which makes them vulnerable to ick. Guess we figured out the problem, cause the other driftwood I took out was rotting too now that I noticed the other one. Both are good sizes too, Just about the height of the tank itself(75 gallon). Well I just gave the other 4 tables of the ick guard, because I still see ick on all the original fish that had it(the barbs, and the bala shark.) The knife came out yesterday, I did not see any spots, but he was rubbing up against the filter tubing like crazy, then he went back in his cave.


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## ChessieSFR (Dec 30, 2011)

If you use salt, don't forget to take OUT the snails!!!

Poor little things.

Actually, I take snails out any time I medicate a tank. Meds are not usually good for them.

Good luck.

If I have an ick problem on only one fish, I float the infected individual in a cup, strapped to the top of the tank with rubber bands or tape. I keep him in a 3tsp/gal salt solution and leave the healthy fish alone until the condition improves.

With ick, what happens is that those white dots grow, then they drop off and turn into infectious little bugs in your substrate, and new fish pick them up. You have to separate an ill fish until all the white spots are gone, and increase the cleaning of the substrate. Heat will speed up that life cycle, salt will inhibit the little pests. However, if it is not ick, a saltwater bath for a couple of days for a sick fish can help other types of wounds heal.

I mix up a gallon jug, then just change the water in the cup morning and night, heating it to temperature in a "hot water" bath in the sink.

Chessie


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

ChessieSFR said:


> If you use salt, don't forget to take OUT the snails!!!
> 
> Poor little things.
> 
> ...


Cool Idea but what do you do for aeration do you use a small air stone in the cup?
Keeping it in the tank does great for keeping the temp up and kinda keeps the isolated fish calm since it see it familiar soundings.

I keep a 1 gallon tank with out any substrate with a very small filter that is air powered that keeps the aeration and a heater set to 85F.
then entire set up cost me $40.00US and after each use I use a 5% solution of colorox bleach and hot water to serialize the setup after the fish is well again.

The only mod I did was to cut the glass lid to allow the heater cord and air line.
The grinding wheel on a dermal works great you just have to go slow.


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## ChessieSFR (Dec 30, 2011)

With changing it twice a day, the water never deteriorates enough to make the fish worse. However, I do have small fish. I'm not sure that would work with a fish much larger than 2.5 inches.

Little fish do okay.

Chessie


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## ChessieSFR (Dec 30, 2011)

That sounds like a nice set up for a hospital tank.


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