# Ich? Help a newbie



## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

I've had my tank successfully cycled and added 15 pristella tetras, all doing well for two weeks. I added a pair of plecos, 2 peppered cats and 2 bronzed cats. Here comes the newbie in me... I did not qt them since I believed the place I got them from was reputable and they looked fine. Bad decision! I should have qt them no matter what. Lessoned learned but here is the problem. I noticed yesterday 3 white spots on the tail fin of one of my tetras, for a second I thought it was bubbles since my tank is very aerated. It's hard to notice now in the morning with low light, but I think I still see it. I think two more of my tetras have it. I'll try to get a pic but it's hard since they hate my camera 
My tank is planted, plants are doing well (I don't want to lose them) and I have read about raising the temp and using salt but am worried about the corys and plecos. Grabbing the infected fish and qt'ing them would be pointless since the parasite is in the main tank. I was freaking out last night since most meds would destroy my plants. If I can get by without using meds that would be great. Not sure if raising the temp to 83F will kill them on its own. Also, adding the extra fish pushed my tank into a mini cycle and I have been doing water changes almost daily (about 20%). My nitrites have not gone past 1.0ppm but still not happy with it as I want it back to 0!

1) Size of tank - 55 gallon
2) temperature of tank - 75-76F
3) ammonia reading 0ppm
4) nitrite reading 0.5ppm
5) nitrate reading ~5.0pp (between 5-10)
6) pH - 7.4

7) decor of the tank (ie, substrate, plants etc) - planted with swords, crypt lutea, anubias, wisteria, seachem dark fluorite, malaysian driftwood, slate

8) how long has this tank been set up and running? filtration? - New tank been running for about 8 weeks. Using Rena Filstar XP3

9) water change frequency and amount - weekly 20%. Has been more since nitrites in tank, did daily for 3 days about 15-20%. Planning on doing one today.

10) tank mates - 15 pristella tetras, 2 bushynose plecos, 2 peppered cory cats, 2 bronze cory cats

11) symptoms description (including growths on the body, behaviour, etc) - Three tetras showing white spots on tail fins. They are not gazing or flashing though, acting normal.

12) how long has the symptoms persisted. - since last night when I first noticed the white spots.

13) did you already take any actions? if so, what are they? - not yet. Was thinking of using rid-ich on the tank. Will do a water change first.

14) did you already use any medication? if so, what did you use and how much? - have not used anything.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! I am freaking out here...

I have treated ich with goldfish before with the stuff that turns the water blue.... but there were no plants  Life seemed easier with goldfish and being 12 years old. A huge amount of time has passed since then.

Thank you all in advance.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

hi Steeners,

Just a heads up with the corys, they are scaleless so rid-ich will really stress them since it has Malachite Green and Formalin in it. There's something called Ick guard 2 which is meant for scaleless fish, I used it at half dose. It cleared up the ick on my cory and tetras in 2 days. Here's some info
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/disease/ickscaleless.php

You should raise the temperature to the low 80s as it will speed up the ick life cycle and make any meds work faster.

Good luck with it


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

I recently had ich like 3 weeks ago, after buying some fish from BA's and not quarantining it, I bought some super ich cure, added some salt and raised the temp to 86F, I also have a planted tank and a cory, the plants are fine and the fishes are ich free, my silicon tubing is blue now and my sponge is blue on the filter. I treated for a little over a week if that helps.


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## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

Thanks for the quick response. I was reluctant with the user of salt because of the cory, pleco and plants. How much salt did you use?
Maybe I will try the super ick 2 first (is it plant safe?) and see how that goes. Does it get worse before it gets better?
Tetras definitely have ich. He has two spots on his head and just saw him rub against the driftwood


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Your temperature shouldn't have been 75 it should have been 78-80.

Regardless, jack your temp to about 84/85 FAST (just crank your heater)

leave it there for about four days. Ich gone. It can not tolerate temperatures that high.

This is THE safest way to kill ich. If you use medications you're going to cause more problems. *I would suggest ignoring any medication suggestions*. It's ich. It's a very pathetic highly fragile parasite.

You had to kill it with meds when you had goldfish because goldfish are not tolerant of 85 ferenheit in 99% of cases.

You do have a heater right?

Thanks for reading 'help us help you' by the way.


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## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

AquariAM said:


> Your temperature shouldn't have been 75 it should have been 78-80.
> 
> Regardless, jack your temp to about 84/85 FAST (just crank your heater)
> 
> ...


Thank you sooooo much AquariAM, I am sooo glad that I took a look at your reply before dosing with meds. I had the bottle of super ick in my hands and about to put it in the tank and then second guessed myself. I noticed my pleco with three spots on him so looks like it is spreading. I do have a heater but made the stupid mistake of putting it down to 75 because of the plants (who cares at this point, I want my fishies well). When I had the tetras I had the temp at 78. Live and learn I guess. During this time should I be changing the water daily and how much? I am also installing a large airstone for them to help with the aeration. Going to change the water but not fille up all the way so the output can agitate the water.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Steeners said:


> Thank you sooooo much AquariAM, I am sooo glad that I took a look at your reply before dosing with meds. I had the bottle of super ick in my hands and about to put it in the tank and then second guessed myself. I noticed my pleco with three spots on him so looks like it is spreading. I do have a heater but made the stupid mistake of putting it down to 75 because of the plants (who cares at this point, I want my fishies well). When I had the tetras I had the temp at 78. Live and learn I guess. During this time should I be changing the water daily and how much? I am also installing a large airstone for them to help with the aeration. Going to change the water but not fille up all the way so the output can agitate the water.


No problem just make sure you keep the surface moving as much as possible. Just do your regular water changes. Doing a daily water change with such high temperature and the fish already stressed wont help them and the ich will die off regardless.

Not to knock what other members have said- it's just when you have fish that can tolerate 84ish you should always go that route first. Once it's gone keep your temp at about 79 permanently. Make sure you keep the heat high until a couple of days after the white spots disappear. The white spot not being present doesn't guarantee all the ich is dead yet.


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## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

I have the tank now at 84.5F. The fish seem fine and acting like themselves. The corys seem to be enjoying the new bubble ride 
I noticed three spots on the pleco  All I can do is hope for the best and that they will get through this. 
One more question: should I continue with the lights for the plants or will that stress out the fish?


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

I also have tetras, cories and a syno lace cat, all of them survived with salt I think I added 3 big tablespoons of aquarium salt, my plants are fine, but if you want to be100% safe then don't use the salt or the meds, but the meds did clear up all the ich on the fishes in like 1 or 2 days. soo your milage may vary.


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## george (Apr 11, 2009)

I have platies and a common pleco. I use about 1 tablespoon on a 15g tank. The pleco is ok with salt at this amount and it actually helps fishes speed up the recovery process.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Steeners said:


> I have the tank now at 84.5F. The fish seem fine and acting like themselves. The corys seem to be enjoying the new bubble ride
> I noticed three spots on the pleco  All I can do is hope for the best and that they will get through this.
> One more question: should I continue with the lights for the plants or will that stress out the fish?


The light doesn't really matter. Use your normal on/off periods.

As far as adding salt, this doesn't actually help the recovery process, what it does do is increase osmotic pressure slightly (water, and all other materials have a specific gravity (sg). Water is 1.0 salt water is 1.025 a block of lead is like 11. something I think) which helps the fish get oxygen at higher temperatures. With plecos present, I wouldn't really risk it.

You may have ich. You may also have what I call "it" as I've never been able to figure out what the hell it is but many other people have had it as well. Basically, it looks similar to ich but the spots are bigger and less frequent- ie, instead of 95 spots of ich of different sizes, there are 5 spots, all large and all the same size. 'it' also attatches to wood and the leaves of plants. The cure for 'it' is nutrient depravation and very clean water. Don't feed for three days, do a water change every day, 'it's gone.

In either case, both very easy to get rid of. You'll continue to see spots for about 2 days, after which they should disappear. 2 Days later bring the temp back down. That's ich. If by Tuesday you still have the same volume of white spots as now it's not ich and just don't feed and keep ultra clean water (turn the temp down too).


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## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

I just want to thank you all for your advise. If I can take the non-medicated route of fixing a problem with the aquarium I will always try that first (I did not want to dose my main tank and was upset about it). The tank is now at about 85ish and the fish are doing well. Is it too early to see the ich starting to come off the fish? The pleco is down to two spots, my tetra with three on his fin is down to one, and the other guy that had two on his head is down to one  The spots look a lot whiter too. So I will continue, wait until Tuesday and see if it's all gone. Should I leave the elevated temps for another three days after Tuesday just in case?
Once I feel confident that the ick is gone should I be doing a water change and how much?
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your help


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

If you only have one or two spots on fish I'm not 100% sure it's ich. If it's going away though stick with it. 

Once the spots are gone give it about 48 hours to be 100% sure. Because rapid temperature shifts are stressful, once it's gone bring the temp down slower than you brought it up, over about 12 hours if possible. The rapid increase was to deny the ich a chance to adapt itself.

They use the same technique to kill warts- cold/hot/cold/hot


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## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

This is now driving me crazy! What am I doing wrong here!? The spots were starting to go away on the tetras - the ones on their heads are gone but now I still see 3 -4 tetras with a single spot on their tail fin?! I got some pictures, they are solid white in colour.
My water params as of 30 minutes:

Ammonia: 0.0ppm
Nitrite: 0.0ppm (down from 0.5)
Nitrate: 0-5.0ppm (hard to tell, but it's not zero nor 5, somewhere in between)

Why are my nitrates dropping? Is this okay in a planted tank? Help! Freaking out here!


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## Steeners (Mar 28, 2010)

One thing I wanted to add, none of the fish are acting funny or lethargic... they are eating well, have good appetites and seem very happy. I just want my little guys to be okay!


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Im fairly certain that is not ich. 
Those Tetras look quite healthy and they are very shiny, which is another indication that it is not likely ich. Fish with ich do not have a good sheen like that because their slime coat is depleted.

I have seen what you have here a couple of times in tanks where the bacterial balance is out of whack, or when there's a bacterial bloom, or when a large amount of filter gunk gets into the tank despite one's best efforts against this during a filter maintenance. I believe it is some sort of bacterial issue but this is purely theoretical as I've never been able to find any documentation on it.

Incase it is ich keep the temp up until Friday. It's been long enough to kill though. I honestly don't think it's Ich. If it persists, do a small waterchange every day, don't feed for a day, and feed very little thereafter for about a week, while doing daily water changes, as, if it is the theoretically bacterial issue I described this will get rid of it. You don't have to do that precisely, of course-- this is, in my estimation, some kind of bacterial 'cyst'. It always forms in areas where water flow is high over the fish-- such as the tip of the caudal fin (tail) or right on the nose or on the back. You never see it in 'low flow' areas like behind a pectoral or anal fin, or behind the eye. I've also seen these form on wood and plant leaves, in higher flow areas. I'm not 100% sure that's what you have but it sure looks that way to me.

By the look of it you aren't doing anything wrong those fish look good.

*Why are my nitrates dropping? Is this okay in a planted tank? Help! Freaking out here!*

Plants consume or 'ground' nitrates


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## Julian (Jun 29, 2008)

When I had ick I my tank I used this ick-attack stuff that says it's 100% natural. Worked great for me anyway


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