My fish have Ick...recommendations?

[1hawaii50]

Yesterday, I noticed that my Pleco, and my Platys are showing signs of small white dusting/spots...so it looks like they have ich. I went up to my LFS and talked to 3 different people, and they all recommend Aquari-Sol along with raising the tank temp. They said any other meds that they had wouldn't do so well with the Rubbernose Pleco, and Corys.

I have the following fish in the tank:
6 Praecox Rainbows
3 Panda Corys
2 Rabauti Corys
1 Rubbernose Pleco
3 Platys

The Rainbows, Pleco, and Platys are all showing signs of Ich. I had 6 Panda Corys, but have now lost 3 of them over the past 1.5 weeks. Here are some pics showing the spots:

Here is the Rainbow Platy...you can just make out the white spots running along the top of the fish from his nose to his dorsal fin:


Here is the Red Tux Platy, you can see the spots a little better on him:





Here are pics of the Rubbernose Pleco:






I've got the water temp up to 82F and I'm slowly taking it up higher. How high can I safely take the temp with the Pleco, and the Corys? Also, can I add any aquarium salt with the Corys and Pleco? If so, how much is safe to treat the Ich? Any help is appreciated.

[1hawaii50]

I did a 20% water change/gravel vac today. I dosed with Aquari-Sol yesterday when I started raising the tank temp. I dosed with Aquari-Sol again today right after the water change. The spots on the fish seem much more pronounced today. Again, any help/advice is much appreciated.

[davidkozak]

here's a cut and paste from another forum i frequent...that person also uses aquarisol:

I use AQUARISOL and never had fish die. Treated neons, bristlenose catfish and corydoras in the tank, all fish known to be sensitive to treatment. IMO, copper is the better way to go with cats in the tank as they are extremely sensitive to salt. I also don't like quickcure, b/c of it's formalin base. A lot of fish don't do well with quickcure and I've heard of lots of people losing fish with this treatment.

My method of treatment is:
Day 1 add 1 drop per gallon (so for a 10 gallon tank, add 10 drops)
Day 2 do nothing
Day 3 add 1 drop/ gallon
Day 4 do nothing
Day 5 add 3 drops/ gallon (so you now have 3 drops/gallon total in the tank)
Day 6 - 10, do nothing.
If the fish have been symptom free for 3 days, then I do a large water change and add some carbon to the filter to remove any residual meds.
Otherwise, I do a water change and whatever water I took out, I replace and add 3 drops per gallon to the replacement water.
Only ever had to treat longer than 10 days once.

It's important to treat 3 days past any signs of ick to make sure to get any free swimmers and to give time for any cysts still in the gravel time to hatch and be killed off as well.

[nj2tou]

There's a great article on ich in a magazine I picked up in Petco called Aquarium Fish International. It explains the life cycle of ich and that it actually can only be killed after the cysts fall off the fish and the free swimming "theronts" (sounds like a stage in Scientology! LOL!) are about. That's why it's VERY important to keep up the treatment for several days after the spots have fallen off the fish.

High heat will kill ich and one suggestion was that after the cysts fall off move the fish to a quarantine tank and turn the heat waaay up in main tank for several days.

There's more to the article, but it's really late here and waaaay past my bedtime. If anyone wants any further info from the article let me know. It's the May 2010 issue. If you find it, you'll know it's the right one right away and it has the article listed right on the cover.

[1hawaii50]

I lost one of my Rainbow Platys overnight. I've got the water temp at 82F, and I just bumped it again this morning. I'm raising it a little quicker than I'd like to, but I'm losing fish so I've got to try to speed it up a little. I don't have a quarantine tank, so the fish have to stay put. How high of temps can I safely go without harming the Pleco, or remaining catfish? I'll keep the tank temps up for a solid 2 weeks, that's not a problem...just want to make sure that my fish can tolerate it. I've also got a huge airpump running a bubble disc, and an airstone. I had been running them around 50%, but I've now got them cranked up to 100%. A lot of sites dealing with the treatment of Ich recommend daily 20% water changes. Should I adhere to daily water changes/gravel vacs, or should I do a 3 day rotation on the water changes. My only thoughts are that I can get more medication into the water with the LESS frequent water changes. Although if CLEAN water is more important than the medication, then I'll do the DAILY water changes.

Also, if I'm understanding the recommendations given, you do NOT recommend adding any salt to the tank?

Thanks for your help, hopefully I won't lose anymore fish. I'm not sure how far along the Ich was before I noticed it and began emergency treatment.

[2wheelsx2]

I recently successfully treated a case of ich in one of my newer L239 which didn't show any signs of it at the vendors even though it's been there for 2 week. Unfortunately, the fish was in my 125 gallon. I used Quick-Cure and raised the temperature to 86 F over about 24 hours. I treated at half dose for 3 days, left it for 1 day and then treated at half dose again for 2 days. Ich is gone and no more problems. Good luck with your treatment.

[MatsP]

I recently successfully treated a case of ich in one of my newer L239 which didn't show any signs of it at the vendors even though it's been there for 2 week. Unfortunately, the fish was in my 125 gallon. I used Quick-Cure and raised the temperature to 86 F over about 24 hours. I treated at half dose for 3 days, left it for 1 day and then treated at half dose again for 2 days. Ich is gone and no more problems. Good luck with your treatment.

With a Chaetostoma in there, I wouldn't raise the temperature - they are not going to like that, and the fact that the Ich also affects the fish's ability to breathe, it's not going to help it heal quickly - these fish come from cool, fast-running waters, where oxygen is "abundant", and do not like a low-oxygen, high temperature setup - just raising temperature will lower the oxygen levels quite a bit.

--
Mats

[2wheelsx2]

That's true. I forgot about the Chaetostoma. I did recently add a powerhead with a venturi to the tank, but that was even before the ich. It's turned on only after lights are out and the plants are consuming oxygen. That tank has a Fluval FX5, Rena XP3, Eheim 2028, Hydor Koralia 1 and 2 in it, and now an Aquaclear 70 powerhead, so the turnover is a bit on the extreme side - nominal flow rates (I'm guessing) with full media is 600+ 250 + 250 + 400 + 600 and then another 400 gph at night so that's about 20 - 25 times per hour turnover, so I didn't really worry about the oxygen on the tank, but you're right, MatsP, as that would normally be a concern.

[1hawaii50]

Will I've got a Tetra whisper 100 air pump running a buble disc, and 1 air stone. It is running full tilt, so my aeration should be fine. Sadly, the Pleco didn't make it...I found him this afternoon. I've now got the water temp up to 86F, and added another dose of Aquari-Sol. I'll do another water change tomorrow. I'm still seeing the white spots all over the Rainbows and remaining Platys now. Do I need to go any higher on the temp, or is 86F good enough?