# Awh crap, ICK!?!



## Splak (May 1, 2013)

Well, I said I learned from my last infection about qaurantining new fish, but I didnt..

Anyways, my L340 seem to have what looks like ICK to me, I added new ones 2 weeks ago, and I noticed a small dot a few days later, thought nothing of it, just now noticed 3 that are full of white specs, look sort of like salt. 3 are just starting to get it.

Is this ICK?(Refer to picture). 

Here is how I am treating as of 15 minutes ago.

1) 30% W/C
2) Heater turned from 24c to 28c
3) Removed Carbon from filter and put a bunch of filter foam in.
4) Added 5ML of Super ICK cure per 5 US gallons.

Now I am going to sit and wait 48 hours and repeat dosage, then wait another 48 hours and do a 50% W/C. And 25% W/C ever day after for a week.

I read online that the parasites can continue to live in gravel in some cases, I am thinking of getting rid of all my substrate and replacing it. Should I go to these extreme measures?

ALSO: Are my fish to far gone with ICK, that I should expect some to die? 

PS: I also do 25% W/C every 2-3 days, and all my levels are in the right range.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

I followed this the one time my plecos had ich. 
http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=436
And yes I did lose a few of them and you probably will too if they have that much on them.


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## Splak (May 1, 2013)

matti2uude said:


> I followed this the one time my plecos had ick.
> http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=436
> And yes I did lose a few of them and you probably will too if they have that much on them.


I sure hope not, but we will see... Last time I wont seperate new stock for a few weeks.

Picture uploaded now.

I also realize I spelled Ich wrong lol...


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## clubsoda (Oct 10, 2009)

28 deg c is not going to kill ick the bacteria still thrive at that temp bring it up to 32 after that keep it at28 don't bring the temp down to 24.  These plecos aren't wild caught they're probably tank raise and used to high temp


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

looks like ick to me


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## Reis (Nov 15, 2011)

Yeah boost your heat up! The temperature will seem high but your fish will be fine, it's necessary to kill ick! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Merman (Nov 23, 2009)

*Ich is no sweat.*

I don't worry about ich anymore. I never seem to have any problems getting rid of it. I simply raise my temp. to 88F (seems to be the magic #) and leave it for two weeks - and it's gone. I never stress my fish out with chemicals or huge water changes (just water changes as usual). All you need is patience.


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## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

Replacing your substrate seems more than just a little extreme. Many people suggest that even in the absence of a visible infection you should expect a small amount of the ich parasite to be present in the aquarium. But only in such small quantities that fish won't suffer a major outbreak unless their immune response drops so low they can lo longer fight the parasites. 

I have had ich a few times and I have found temp + salt works well. The higher temp decreases the time of the ich life cycle, while the salt killed the free-floating form of ich. Without raising the temp enough treatment has to go on much longer, which is why raising the temp helps. 

I don't generally loose fish to ich, as long as you don't let it get to far gone. 

Good luck. It's just part of life in fish keeping, but if you keep your fish happy and healthy you shouldn't have a lot of problems.


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## Splak (May 1, 2013)

First ICH i've had in 8 years of fish keeping, and I currently have 8 tanks up and running.

UPDATE: Roughly 20 hours after starting to treat-

I upped the temp to 89-90f this morning. 
No salt has been used yet, as I need to buy some more.
1 Dose of Super ICK used 20 hours ago

Result, 90%+ of the noticeable ICH on my fish is gone, no losses yet(knock on wood).

The remaining few ICH I still see seems to be 1 or 2 on the eyes of fish, and maybe 1-2 on the body of each fish.

Going to continue with 1 more treatment of Super Ich tomorrow eve.


Will update again.


Thanks to all you have responded!


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

sounds like you caught it early enough.

Now the thing is to figure out why you got ick in the first place. Things like ick are basically in every tank but something has to happen to make the fish susceptible to it usually. I would double check all your levels and equipment to make sure the root cause isn't something you missed.


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## blackmajik (Jan 23, 2014)

Coming from ick attacks not too long ago really made me rethink about fish tank keeping and maintenance. I personally did a lot of research and it seems like the solution is divided and somewhat arguable on what works and what doesn't. I personally upped the temp to 88 deg F, added aquarium salt, doused the tank daily with Para Guard, 50% daily water changes with gravel vacuumed and took out the carbon during the medicating period. About 3 days in, fishes looked fine but you can tell they were stressed but was still eating/swimming. Meds were taken off after a week and had to recycle the tank which didn't take long. 

To minimize cross contamination as much as possible between both of my tanks, I went out afterwards to buy another set of maintenance tools such as another bucket, gravel vacuum, fish net, etc and if water changes/maintenance needs to be done, a day apart or at least a few hours apart to make sure nothing is to be transferred from tank to tank. For the future, I will invest in a new 5 gallon tank for quarantine purposes as I don't want to have any of my tanks to crash again. Ick is quite easy to treat especially if caught early but it seems more of a pain in the neck process.

This is somewhat debatable from what I've read from my research - is ick really present in all aquariums? If a tank has been treated successfully from an ick attack and no new fish has been introduced since and only regular water changes have been performed, where would the ick come from? Some say it is always present and waiting for a weaken host to feed off of and then the ick will spread like wild fire while others says it is only contracted through new introduction of plants, water, livestock, etc.


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## Splak (May 1, 2013)

pyrrolin said:


> sounds like you caught it early enough.
> 
> Now the thing is to figure out why you got ick in the first place. Things like ick are basically in every tank but something has to happen to make the fish susceptible to it usually. I would double check all your levels and equipment to make sure the root cause isn't something you missed.


Only thing I can think of is maybe the stress of adding 2 new fish to the group. ICH attack happened shorty after.

I also added a much higher current filter today, hopefully this help out.


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## blackmajik (Jan 23, 2014)

Splak said:


> Only thing I can think of is maybe the stress of adding 2 new fish to the group. ICH attack happened shorty after.
> 
> I also added a much higher current filter today, hopefully this help out.


Adding a higher current filter as in a higher rated GPH than your old one? It may help since it may keep the water parameters in check especially if the bioload is greater after adding new fish. As long as your bioload is sufficient enough for the tank and your water parameters is good, this will cut down the stress on the fish. But watch out for the higher current since some fish might be stressed out by the outflow which may cause stress as well. Ick will attack fish that are stressed since stress causes weaken immune systems.


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