# Beginner wondering about ich treatment and eel compatability



## iamthejesus (Jan 9, 2011)

Hello fellow aquarium enthusiests!

I am farely new to fish keeping so please bare with me.

I have a 30 gallon tank with 4 blood parrot cichlids, a clown knife, a pleco, and an eel (Gymnothorax tile). My tank recently got infested with ich. 2 of my blood parrots have mild infestation and 2 moderate. Attempted to raise the water temp and add salt, but no success. I had to resort to chemicals. I treated the water with Tetra's Ich-guard. Was just wondering if my eel and knife are going to be able to handle the harsh chemicals? Anyone have experience? All input greatly appreciated!!
*c/p*


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Welcome to the site.

If they are scaless, then you should reduce the dose amount to 1/2, but treat for twice as long. Most scaless fish don't do so well to full amount doses.


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## verdifer (Sep 8, 2010)

Yeah if they have no scales use half the dose what the bottle says, if it says add 10ml add 5ml.

You know I can't figure out why people get so uptight about adding chemicals to treat their tanks, if we were to go into Hospital because we had something like pneumonia we would be more than happy to get chemicals to fix us, this is whats going to get us back to 100% not mummys soup with added garlic.

Ive seen cases where folks have messed about with trying different ways to cure things like Ich and half way through the treatment the fish have died, whereas a treatment of copper would have started the healing faster.

A good example is Marine Velvet, it looks like Ich but kills faster, if you were to try Hyposalinity which is the non-chemical way then there is a chance the fish could be dead before you even get the salt levels down, a copper treatment would have been better, and add that Hyposalinity does nothing with Marine Velvet anyway so the fish were always going to die anyway and then you would realise Ich wasn't the problem.

I think it's the way we look at these treatments we give them an Evil name like Chemicals maybe if we started calling them Medicines folks wouldn't be so put off by them.


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## PolymerTim (Sep 22, 2009)

verdifer said:


> Yeah if they have no scales use half the dose what the bottle says, if it says add 10ml add 5ml.
> 
> You know I can't figure out why people get so uptight about adding chemicals to treat their tanks, if we were to go into Hospital because we had something like pneumonia we would be more than happy to get chemicals to fix us, this is whats going to get us back to 100% not mummys soup with added garlic.
> 
> ...


I just want to give a big me too to this one. Although there are potential side effects that people should be aware of for specific medications under specific scenarios, I think in general people go way overboard with the "toxic" chemical thing. Not just for aquariums, but for people things as well. If I have to hear one more time that a food isn't healthy because it's been processed... (Last time I checked, bread was a highly processed food, but most people don't complain about that one). *old dude


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## verdifer (Sep 8, 2010)

As I said I think it's all in the name, if we called them Aquatic Medicine we would prob be fine with them, if an animal is ill and we have 2 options.

1:A quick way to get it fixed, most copper treatments take about 1 week to work then another dose 1 week later to make sure we have got everything.

2:A Homeopathy route where the animal can be cured but it will take some time.

I would rather go the quicker route and get the animal some much needed relief and cured, 



> I think in general people go way overboard with the "toxic" chemical thing. Not just for aquariums, but for people things as well. If I have to hear one more time that a food isn't healthy because it's been processed... (Last time I checked, bread was a highly processed food, but most people don't complain about that one).


Polymertim is right it really gets up my goat also, with the don't eat this and don't eat that, we complain about this food yet we take the family to the nearest KFC or McDonalds for a treat.

Can I also add another thing that p***es me off is folks who seem to think that because a tribe in Mexico or the chinese used to use a certain herbal medicine a thousand years ago it means it is going to be the answer to everything.

Years ago we had all these things, we looked at it and studied it, everything that worked became medicine and the rest we tried to forget about.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I'm not against using chemical cures but no one can say that they are not bad for your fish, it's just a question of which is going to kill your fish faster the parasite or the cure. If Ich can kill your fish but lots of people have also killed fish or even wiped out their tank with the 'cure'. You have to be careful not to overdose and some fish are at extra risk. I think it's good that people are aware of that and then each person can decide for themselves which is the best way to treat, there are benefits and risks either way.

Let us know how it goes, hope you fish are okay. Have you checked ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in your tank? Ich is more likely to break out when there are water quality problems. It looks like your tank could be heavily stocked.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I personally have tons of medication and medicate the instant I see something wrong. Most people hear that meds will kill beneficial bacteria (some do) and instantly decide to do something in the "alternative" realm. I have medicated my 75g/125g tanks with no issue - repeatedly. 

However in the case of ich, high temp works better than any med I believe. Although I have had very good luck with Quick Cure.


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