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Ich-y plec.
Posted: 15 Nov 2004, 23:23
by mrh
Someone recommended that I salt-bathe my poorly new Gold Nugget Plec - is this the usual remedy? Is it effective?
How do I do it?
I'm currently treating the whole tank with Interpet Anti-Whitespot, and I've cautiously increased the temp to 27/8.
Any advice would be really, really gratefully received.
Posted: 15 Nov 2004, 23:52
by Tom2600
mrh,
golden nuggets are often weak fish to begin with so you need to get on top of your white spot. I personally would not recommend salt baths with such a small fish. The stress of moving it in and out of the tank could be enough to kill it even if it didn't have whitespot!!
If you don't want to raise the temp. then stick with the treatment. White spot has a life cycle of 8-10 days (can't remember the exact time) so remain patient. SO many fish are actually killed through the concerned fishkeeper trying to treat with every method under the sun.
The best form of ich treatment is simply to raise the temp. Second is using a good chemical. Increase the oxygen in the tank if you can and follow the treatment intructions.
Regards
Tom
Posted: 16 Nov 2004, 03:11
by Barbie
I personally never add medications for ich to my tanks. Most of them will interrupt the biological bacteria and cause your tank parameters to fluctuate for a few weeks. Increased temperature and daily water changes with careful gravel vacuuming will improve the water substantially, and remove ich cysts as they are reproducing and falling from the fish, thus preventing them from swarming and reattaching. It's a simple, very effective remedy.
If the fish is really covered in ich, I add a teaspoon of salt per gallon daily for 3 days in a row. Not just replacing what you remove with a water change, but steadily increasing the dose. The only fish I've ever had stressed from that was albino bristlenose that had oodinium badly. I did an extra water change 12 hours after the 3rd addition of salt and they all survived, no problem.
People panic when they see ich for some reason, but treating the tank does far more harm than it does good, especially if you don't have the fish in a quarantine tank, IMO.
Barbie
Posted: 16 Nov 2004, 11:02
by mrh
My quarantine tank is currently occupied, unfortunately, so I'm stuck with treating the whole tank.
My biggest concern is that I avoid adverse side effects on the fish that were perfectly healthy before I added the sick plec.
This morning, the plec seemed to have lost a huge number of "spots" (he really was badly infected) and I understand that this is a critical stage in the life-cycle of the ich bug.
The temperature is still at 27/8, and I'll increase it further; I have both filters injecting maximum aeration.
Will this be enough, or should I add the second dose of med? I'm worried that salt would hurt the other tank occupants (pentazona barbs, black skirt tetras, black neon tetras, dwarf red honey gourami, julii cory, skunk cory, adolfoi cory, amano shrimp, cherry shrimp and a golden apple snail) so I think I'd rather go with just heat and cleaning, or heat and med.
Again, thanks for your advice.
Posted: 17 Nov 2004, 02:57
by pherfect
I don't know if they have Rid-Ich in the UK, but if they do, I strongly recommend it. I've had to treat ich at least twice in the past year and not lost any pecos or scaleless fish. I personally used aquarium salt- but amid the debate about it I made that choice. My water parameters were not altered by this method treatment. Good Luck
