CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Where did they first contack the ICH at?? wasn't it the 55 gal? YOU treat the tank that they had it in,, placing them in another tank is infecting that tank.. IF you have too, place the guppys in the smaller tank away from the meds.. ICH can only be treated once they FALL OFF THE FISH.. NOT while they are on them.. Their heads are buried into the fish, so the meds dont' affect them..
YOU also need to leave them in the meds for a few days to work, that is usually the last treatment to kill out the ICH..
BUT follow your directions.... ICH does not like salt.. So if you added in some salt, that will take care of them too.. BUT the ones on the fish is the problem.. IF you feel that you have to much salt in the tank, on the next two water changes,  DON'T add any SALT, That should be enough to delute it down..  Do what the directions say on your ICH meds.. IF you see more, then turn the temp to 82F and wait for them to fall off, THEN treat the tank.. In two days, turn the temp down to the normal temp and it wil come down on its own.. Sound good??

IF you ever dought what someone tells you, always ask SEVERAL ppl.. YOU did great on not adding in to much at one time.. Your fish are to small to go through to much, but you would be surprised at what they can and cannot handle.. Keep the temp in both tanks at the same.. 76F OR 78F to keep aggression down.. 

hey thanks you have been a lot of help since ive started raising my Os. well what i did was i put the O that still had a few spots on her in another tank today and then gave her another dose of the ich med. then tomorrow ill put her back. shes lonely i can tell she depends on the male. She's alot more affraid and goes into almost like a deep shock every time i clean the tank or moving things around. she lays in a corner and just sits. But the tank shes in now she knows it so she should be ok till tomorrow.

YOU need to LEAVE HER in this tank for a good WEEK to make sure the ich is gone.. IF you don't, the ICH will just infest the others.. NOT GOOD.. ONE day is not enough time to kill out the ICH.. It takes two or three days just to get them to fall off.. JUST because you can't see the ICH in a day or so, does NOT mean that they are still not on them. Follow the directions ON THE MEDS,,, and DO NOT MOVE HER FOR ONE WEEK.. The temperature should be at 82F (27c) for 3 days, then take it to 78F for the rest of the week.. Do water changes as DIRECTED BY THE MEDS.. She should be in very clean water by the end of the week and NO sign of ICH should be present.. IF you do not do this, then the ICH is going to come back again and again as YOU are not allowing time for the meds to work.....

REMOVE THE CARBON FROM THE FILTER MEDIA PADS!! Cut a slit in the top of the filter pad with sizzors and shake out the carbon.. Best to do on a DRY and NEW pad and use this one for medications only..

Barb's right -- when treating White Spot, patience is a virtue. The parasites live on the fish's skin, but they reproduce down in the gravel. While on the gravel reproducing, they cover themselves with a jelly-like coating, then eventually swim back up into the water searching for hosts. While on the fish, and while on the gravel, they cannot be treated. They can only be killed when they leave the fish for the gravel, and when they are swimming about looking for a new host. The cycle of fish-to-gravel-to-fish takes approximately five days. Barb's suggestion that three days of treatment is needed is because during the five day cycle, the parasites are vulnerable twice. I suggest five days of treatment just to be sure. I think most Ich meds will say five days in their instructions, too. Barb's other suggestion, raising the temperature, is good too; most experts believe that raising the temperature increases the speed of the cycle and makes the treatment more effective. However, keep one thing in mind: When you are medicating for Ich, you are medicating the aquarium, not just the fish. That's an important consideration. Which means, unlike other diseases, the water/gravel/decorations are diseased, not just the infected fish. So during treatment, you can't move anything -- including fish -- from tank to tank, or you're just spreading the disease. --Mark

been reading all the responses, had some questions. does the ich in the gravel come up at all when you vacuum the gravel.
i have been using the salt method for a couple days, ive read in a few places that you do not need medicine when you do that, is that wrong do i need to get medicine as well? the temp is at 82 degrees

If you are using the salt method, then you DO NOT USE MEDICATIONS!! High tempertures of over 85F (29c) with meds is also NOT recommended.. I saw some sites that say you can go as high as 90F (34c) but that is NOT needed..
Running a airstone at full blast is recommend at high tempertures as the high temp depletes the AIR in the water fast.. so much needed air is needed above 80F (26.7c)
I had to do some seaching and find a good sorce of info on ICH.. I see NONE here in our FAQ and I wil UP-DATE our links..

ICH is mostly caused by STRESS, from either a NEW fish or bad water conditons to a shift in temperature that go to LOW, say low 70's  then back up... Keep the tank at ONE steady temp and making sure the EXCHANGE water is the same OR within 3 degress of the tank water is fine.. One thing to remember is ICH does NOT like SALT. So keeping a recommend dose in the tank wil keep them off.. NOW if you have scaleless fish, plecos, cory cats, apple snails, then HALF dose is recommended.. I do this amount in all my tanks and I have NO out breaks of ICH or other problems..

Here is the link to the INFORMATION you wanted and MORE on ICH and using salt and meds:

http://www.fish-disease.net/articles/un ... ng_ich.php

thank you so much that really helped set my mind at ease. i was up every hour checking on my babies making sure they were ok and that there wasnt an emergency to pull any.

How much SALT did you add into the tank?? Because in a weeks time, you need to bring it down to the normal amount for the gallons you have.. THAT can only be done with water changes, WITH NO SALT added into the exchange water.. The normal dose is 1 table per 5 gal of water.. SO how much did you place in the tank?? need to know HOW many times you need to NOT add in salt to the exchange water...

BUT if you have plecos, cory cats, deco snails, Live PLANTS.. this is to much.. I dose at 1 table per 10 gal on all my tanks.. I have cory cats not plecos...  NOW if you have them in the tank NOW, this may cause some darting and possible death..  BUt as they get ICH too, this is a problem..  I hope you dont' have any.. 

i have a pleco a cory cat and a pictus catfish, so far they seem to be ok, i have been watching them as they are all small i have a 5 gallon tank set up in case i need to pull them. the pleco has dots on him today as well i didnt notice yesterday as he usually hides behind stuff. the first site i went to that said try the salt said 1 tbs per gallon so that is what i did. my nitrite levels hgave been high so i have been doing water changes everyday trying to get them down, so far not working to well. they will go down for the day but by morning they are up again. most of the colors on my fish have brightened since they settled in with the exception of 1 JD, they all eat fine and dont act like anything is wrong. The Ich is the only problem i have seen so far other then what the test strips show

Bump up your temp to 84F.. this wil make them mature faster and fall off. ALSO you have enough salt in their to do them in.. The ones attacthed to the fish have not been subjected to the salt yet. As with meds, they need to fall off first.. Then the salt should do them in.. I say SHOULD as you just dont' know really.. The salt dose recommend is 1 to 2 tables.per 5 gal of water so you have a lot of salt going right now.. Best to NOT add in any more on your Frequent water changes for now.. ON your nitrites being high, is this tank NEW, like two to three weeks running?? Clean your filter BOX out and see if that does not help..  FEED the fish ONLY ONCE a day to keep them down.. Do you vac the gravel when you clean the tank? this should help you with unsean food and waste hiding.. removing most of the bigger deco helps to get it all too.. 

i vacuum daily, thats how i do the water changes, yes it is a fairly new tank so it is still cycling. ill be doing anothe water change shortly, i usually do them in the morning so i am late today. how long befor the spots should fall off? i only see 2 with spots at the moment and that is the pleco and the oscar, is it unusual that the others do not have any?

I would like to thank all who informed me about ich and how you helped me treat my fish. They both are doing fine and clear of the ich. I now have Jack D and a Pleco that i put in with the O's. I have read that a 55gal is to small, but are fine until they get full size. Question? How long until i need a new tank? What size tank should I start looking for? How long before i start looking? Both the Jack and Pleco are bigger than my two O's. Thanks

The Jack is not big enough to eat my O's

I don't know how attached you are to that pictus, but if one of your omnivorous fish decides to eat him, it could be big problems with the barbs getting stuck in the fish that is eating it mouth ...  I am not sure if the barbs are serrated, but if so, then you would have to cut and pull it out the outside ... 

I read recently someone that dealt with that situation, as it freaked me out, I wish to warn people now if I see a pictus with a piscovorous fish.

  I have raised Oscars for 35 years. The first thing is never feed the Oscars feeders from pet stores. They can be diseased. The feeders may look healthy but can be diseased. Unless you have a small 10 gallon tank and quaranteen them for 30 days to see if they are healthy. But as the Oscars get older and you feed them feeders they want them all the time, and they will start turning up their noses to the other food.

Once a week I put a few drops of methylene blue in the water. It keeps your tanks free of disease and also helps put oxygen in the water also. I have done this with all my Oscars. My one Oscar lived 20 years and grew nearly 22 inches ended up in a 100 gallon aquarium. He finally died of old age. It was so sad the day he died.

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