# ich/popeye?



## steviepc7 (Jan 23, 2010)

i think 2 or three of my platies have popeye and ich....What do I do? are any meds available that wont hurt the other fish and my live plants


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

I know how to treat the platies and swordtails but I dont know how to treat your other ones because I believe some fish are sensitive to salt such as Clown Loaches.

3 of myplaties, 1 swordtail and 3 baby platies CURRENTLY have ick and I am treating them now. The swordtail seems to have the worst of it. So, I raised the temperature of my main tank's water to 85F. I took another container and created a DIP container, I used about a third of a gallon with 4 tablespoons of aquarium salt. It might seem like it will hurt the fish, which I think it DOES but a DIP only last 3-5 mins and is very effective and will hurt the ick more than it hurts the fish. 3 minutes minimum and 5 minutes maximum. It knocked all of the white spots right off my swordtail. I think works because of the isotonic ick cysts being in a hypertonic solution so it caused the cysts to shrink to balance equalibrium and therefore knocking the cysts off the fish (MY BELIEF). But if the fish shows any sign of stress, take it out immediately.

After I performed a dip to all my fish that have white spots (except the frys), I placed them back in the tank and poured the DIP water away. I then added 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons to my main tank. I have 20 gallons so I used 4 table spoons. Im going to keep this up for about a 1 week to 1 week half. I also have live plants and they will also be hurt by the salt but they will survive.

I plan to remove all salt after treatment by water changes. This is my first option, second option was to use Quick Cure which is very effective but also kills good bacteria. Third was to redo the entire tank and recycle O.O

Hope your fish will be alright. Just remember all Ick meds are salt based because Ick HATE salt. Salt is number 1 priority


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