plecos with ich. help!

socom · Post by **socom** » 02 Apr 2003, 09:32

i just noticed in my pleco tank, three fish with ich. it wasnt there yesterday. what is the best meds for this? sucks i cant start medicating until tommorrow. should i remove affected fish or treat the whole tank? i need to know the best pleco friendly medication for ich. fast please!!!

Guy · Post by **Guy** » 02 Apr 2003, 09:45

Hey Socom,

Go to the "search" icon at the top of this screen and search for 'ich' and 'ick'. The general rule is to raise the temperature to 30C+, increase aeration, use a standard white spot treatment (sometimes you need to adjust dosage to half for scaleless fish). Make sure you don't have carbon in your filter and leave the lights off. Do water changes before each treatment.

Go get 'em!

Guy

socom · Post by **socom** » 02 Apr 2003, 09:51

i know the general treatment but is there any special rules for plecos? no salt? any meds to avoid? anything but my species tank........... why cant it be my stupid cichlids

thanks
rick

Guy · Post by **Guy** » 02 Apr 2003, 10:17

Hi again Socom,

I know Waterlife make a product called Protozin for Ich treatment. I've used it several times with my pl*cos and they've been fine. It recommends using a half dose for scaleless species though.

Another word of caution, if you're using an undergravel filter, the treatment will impair bacterial action even if it says it is bateria-friendly.

If you can't get the treatment until tomorrow, you can still start by slowly raising the temperature and increasing the aeration.

Guy

socom · Post by **socom** » 02 Apr 2003, 10:23

i found a bottle of cure-ick i had laying around. its malachite green and formalin. im using the recomended dose. there is no scaleless fish warning etc. hopefully this will hold them off until tommorrow. thanks guy.

Guy · Post by **Guy** » 02 Apr 2003, 10:28

Malachite green and formalin are what Waterlife's Protozin contain! That should do the trick. Don't use it if you have any rays or momyrids in your tank. You'll need to treat again tomorrow, the next day and then again in about 4 or 5 days.

Fingers crossed....

Guy

Yann · Post by **Yann** » 02 Apr 2003, 10:46

Hi!
Be careful not to overdose the medication as Malachite green and formaline can be pretty toxious, Loricariids and other scaleless fish are more sensitive to such thing! I would slightly underdose it, but just a little bit!
Cheers
Yann

socom · Post by **socom** » 02 Apr 2003, 17:14

i bought jungle ick clear. and salt.i added half the recomended dose(half of one tab).and 1 teaspoon of salt. i also bought cure-ick in the bottle. ill do the jungle tabs for 3 days then halfdose with the cure-ick for a couple more to be sure. the jungle box says raising the temp isnt needed but should i anyhow?

Post by **Dinyar** » 02 Apr 2003, 17:57

I wouldn't use the salt, except in a concentrated solution to strilize your nets so that you don't spread the ich to other tanks.

Dinyar

socom · Post by **socom** » 02 Apr 2003, 19:06

havent put a net in the tank in quite some time and i dont plan on it. hopefully itll clear up soon. i have over 100$ worth of fish in this tank.

socom · Post by **socom** » 03 Apr 2003, 05:10

how long should i expect it to take for the visible ick to start going away?

Guy · Post by **Guy** » 03 Apr 2003, 10:04

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/whitespot.htm

This will give you a good idea. The warmer your tank, the faster the white spots will go and the sooner the lifecycle will be complete. Don't mix your treatments. Use one and stick to it!

Guy

socom · Post by **socom** » 03 Apr 2003, 18:01

1 dead.

socom · Post by **socom** » 03 Apr 2003, 18:24

i can set up another ten gallon. should i pull the fish without visible signs to keep them away from the now 2 with ick? id medicate the other tank also for good measure but then they wouldnt be in the tank with the one badly infected fish and the other lightly infected one. also, the one that died had no visible ick signs left. would the parasite leave the dead body? this is starting to suck.

Post by **Barbie** » 03 Apr 2003, 21:03

The problem with using ich treatments on smaller tanks, comes into play when the biological bed that keeps your fish safe becomes compromised. The malachite green/formalin treatments are very effective at killing ich before it can attach itself to your fish. The problem is that its also very effective at killing off the bacteria that digests the waste your fish puts off in the filter also. When you increase the temperature of the water, you also decrease the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water.

Are you sure the fish have ich? Its not oodinium? Daily 30% water changes with careful, thorough gravel vacuuming, the addition of a teaspoon of salt per gallon added once a day for the first three days, and temperature of the tank at 85 degrees, with increased aeration should work wonders. I tend to use metronidizole to treat ich if its especially stubborn, but I rarely lose fish from it.

You hadn't said if this outbreak was caused after the addition of new fish, but I'd be willing to bet it was. Fish are stressed pretty badly with the multiple shipping procedures that is required to get them into our homes. Quaranting can seem like too much of a pain, right until something like this happens. At this point, I wouldn't move any fish in the tank that aren't showing signs of having ich. You'll just stress them and make them MORE susceptible to succumbing to it, not less, IME.

Hope that helps,
Barbie

socom · Post by **socom** » 03 Apr 2003, 23:42

too late i moved them. yes im sure its ich. i took the ones with no visible signs and put them in a 10 gallon and am also treating it. they were added about 10 days ago. the ones that actually have visible signs that is. 1 is dead. the other two have a lot less ick spots. so hopefully its working. the dead one didnt have any spots on it when i removed its body. will the ick leave a dead body?