# Ich has welcomed me back



## davec (Jan 19, 2010)

So after a 10 year hiatus I've returned to keeping tropical fish. I cycled a 30 gallon tank with eheim 350 canister. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 nitrate 0. I've got a dozen plants. I've lost 3/5 rams 8/10 rummies 6/10 cardinals 1/3 panda corys to ICH. What are people using to treat Ich in Canada these days? I've read articles that most treatments are banned unless you get a vet to write a Rx. I also have some red cherry shrimp.

10 years ago I tried various remedies that failed and just tried the heat treatment and the cardinals and rummies that survived became essentially bullet proof after overcoming ICH.

Is heat still the way to go? Or was it a coincidence that my fish appeared to recover after jacking up temp to 86-88 F 10 years ago. 

Does heat actually kill Ich or does it just accelerate cycle so that the window for treatment occur more frequently in which case you need to add some ich cidal treatment of some sort. 

Any treatment recommendations would be most appreciated. I currently have my tank at 88 F using two heaters. I have an aerator going. 

Thx

Dave C


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## infolific (Apr 10, 2016)

You can still find some meds for ich if you dig. The ban was focused on antibiotics with the removal of other meds from shelves seeming to be a side-effect i.e. easier to just get rid of anything that could cause a store problems. This is speculation on my part.

Anyway, here's one ich-specific treatment: http://www.angelfishcanada.com/angelfish/Rid-Ich-Plus-p146036169. I haven't used Rid Ich, but the formulation is similar to Ich-X which I have used with success.

And Angelfins (http://angelfins.ca/) carries Malachite Green which is one of the components of some ich meds.

If you're looking for alternative treatments for various things, check out this video. The first half is an intro to the situation in Canada, but around 15:55 specific treatments are covered:


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## coyote (Feb 12, 2019)

I used hikari ich-x, you can find in any petstore


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## clubsoda (Oct 10, 2009)

Do you have thermometer what was the temp before you raise it?


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## davec (Jan 19, 2010)

Temp was 80 F
Can you still get Ich-X in Canada?
Thx Infolific re link for Rid Ich (it contains 2/3 ingredients of Ich -x namely malachite green and formalin but no methanol)

I've lost remaining Rams and cardinals. The remaining Rummies pandas danios and Otos cherry shrimp seem to be ok. Not sure if it's worth it to medicate tank at this point. I'll try dropping temp to 86 and leave it there. Hopefully heat will kill the ich or at least stymie the replication so the remaining fish can get stronger and have a chance to build up immunity to fight the ich if it recurs


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## clubsoda (Oct 10, 2009)

I have my tanks set at 86 all year long, most of the fishes in this hobby aren't wild caught they're used to be in high temp in the breeder and store tanks. Also if you have your house thermostat programmed to lower and bring the temp back up the tank heater may not be able to keep the temp constant. I'd try adding salt before medicine 1/2 recommended dosage since you have cory there, that should help.


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## davec (Jan 19, 2010)

*follow up*

Ran aquarium at 89 degrees for over 2 weeks. The fish that had visible ich succumbed to the illness. The fish that did not show visible ich: 2 rummy nose, 2 otocats 2 zebra danios 2 panda cories survived. Added 2 gold rams 11 cardinals 2 more rummies and 2 more otocats. No ich on any of the new additions. I continued to run aquarium with the new additions at 89 degrees for another 11 days or so ( I thought one of the new gold rams may have ich. It had one white spot on its caudal fin...but it's not ich since it had that one and only spot for over 3 weeks now, same location and no new ones) 
I've dropped temp to 82 for over a week now and no re occurrence of ich.

So my take home message:

Heat does appear to eradicate ich and prevent recurrence. I wish that I had caught the ich earlier and raised the temperature right away. I think catching it a couple of days earlier would have made a difference in limiting casualties

I have a 30 gallon tank. I needed two heaters 1x50 w and 1 x100w plus a tank lid to reach 89 degrees. I used an airstone since warm water holds less O2. I did water changes 30% once or twice a week. I fed fish twice a day

I did not use any other treatments, no meds, no salt (I have a planted aquarium)
Algae is worse I think in part due to heat and some of my stem plants have not been doing too well (possibly also d/t heat) Hopefully they will improve with temp down to 82.

Hope this is helpful to others

davec


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