Help! First Ick Outbreak

saradora · Post by **saradora** » 04 Feb 2005, 20:03

Yesterday I saw the telltale white spots on several fish in my 55 gallon tank and in my rubbernose tank. All of my rubbernoses are affected and today the spots look worse. In my main tank, a hypancistrus and a clown pleco and also my severum and geophagus are affected.
Can anyone please advise me of the best course of action? I know that some medications work and that raising the temperature helps (although not with rubbernoses), but I don't know when these things should be done in the cycle and for how long of a time period.
I added a small powerhead and an extra airstone to the rubbernose tank--Would adding more help? Currently they are all clustered in front of the powerhead outflow, the filter outflow, or actually sucking to the airstones.

Currently in both tanks: ammonia 0.0, nitrite 0.0
In rubbernose tank pH 7.8, nitrate 10mg/L
In main tank: pH7.0, nitrate 25mg/L
These parameters are typical for the tanks; the only thing that fluctuates is the nitrate level in the main tank, which I am always struggling with.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Post by **corybreed** » 04 Feb 2005, 20:33

You will need to raise the temperature to the mid to high 80's and try some type of medication. I recently had an outbreak of Ich with a group of Syno. flavitaeniatus. I had good success using Rid.ich+. All of the fish recovered.
Good luck.

Mark

Post by **Barbie** » 04 Feb 2005, 20:37

You're going to have to find a way to kill the ich in the free swimming stages. Daily or twice daily partial water changes with careful gravel vacuuming can help. Increasing the water temperature speeds up the cycle so that you can remove more of them at a time, but if that isn't an option for you, this could be a drawn out process.

I use a salt treatment, quite aggresively, and it works great, but you must make sure you stay right on top of those water changes. 1 teaspoon per gallon, added every day (yes, the whole dose again) for 3 days, while also doing a 30% water change every day will help, without harming the fish. On the 3rd day I usually do a second water change after 8 or 10 hours if I notice any of the Lori's having osmotic issues. I've even used this on fry.

You might look into a UV sterilizer. That would be your best bet if you don't have a quarantine tank to move the affected parties to and don't want to nuke your biobed in your filters. I'm sorry

Barbie

cich_cat · Post by **cich_cat** » 08 Feb 2005, 05:01

I would agree with Barbie

Waterchanges