# Itch



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Uh oh, I've seen one fish at home scratch on the bottom of the tank and one fish scratch on plants at work. I don't see any white spots but could this be the beginning of itch?

I Googled treatments; off the shelf, they recommend you remove all snails and shrimp from the tank before treatment! That would be impossible for me to do in a 90 gallon planted tank without casualties.

Are there any other treatments available? I've searched this forum but didn't get any results.

Thanks,


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## Grey Legion (Mar 20, 2006)

If it is indeed ich (fish get itchy to) they simply add some aquarium salt to the tank and raise the temp.

But I would not panic until you see actual sign of a break out.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Thanks Legion,

What's the dosage of salt? One tsp per gallon? Will it have any adverse affects on the the plecos or corys? I thought I read somewhere that corys didn't do well with salt. If this is untrue, yipeee!

Tabatha


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Some times fish scratch themself when they get ammonia burn or nitrite or even nitrate burn. Are their gill red? If they are, then it might be ammonia burn.

If infact they are ick. Try 1 tblsp per 5G first and work your way up to the max of 1 tblsp per 1G if you have to. And yes, cory and plecos hates salt. That's why you have to becareful. 
Add an air stone to aerate your water and bump your temperature up to 28C or 30C.
Black out your tank as in no light. Only turn on the light when you feed. This some how helps reinfection of ick.
Do a 10% gravel vac everyday. For your 90G, gravel vac 10 G and add 2 tblsp (if you are going for 1tbls/5G) when you refill your tank.
How does this method work?
There are several stage in the ick life cycle. You can only kill it with salt when they are at the free swimming. Bumping up the temps speed up their life cycle so that they will hit the free swimming stage ealier.
The air stone is to help provide O2 in your tank because water can't hold as much O2 at higher temperature. Also, ick affects and hurt the fishs' gills, aerating the water helps them to breath easier.
When at the free swimming stage. The ick will seek out any fish to re-infects. So black out your tank helps a bit.
When an ick matures (white dot), it will fall off the fish into the gravel where it will hatch into thousands of free swimmer. Gravel vac will help pick up some of the fallen icks that haven't hatch yet.

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## Grey Legion (Mar 20, 2006)

Wow, That about sums it all up.

Great helpful tips !!


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

So "ick" and "itch" are the same thing?

I'll add aqua salt to both aquariums and watch everyone carefully. If the itching seems to be a coincidence, I won't continue with treatment.

I do weekly tests on the water and our levels have been very stable, the PH level didn't even change when we started adding CO2 mind you we've had a few glitches with the paintball system which we've seemed to iron out just this week. 

I'll check the parameters again when I get home from work just to be sure.

Many thanks for all the help!


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Tabatha said:


> Thanks Legion,
> 
> What's the dosage of salt? One tsp per gallon? Will it have any adverse affects on the the plecos or corys? I thought I read somewhere that corys didn't do well with salt. If this is untrue, yipeee!
> 
> Tabatha


If you have plants dont add salt. Ich is the easiest thing there is to kill. It can't live over 84 (some strains 82/86/depends on the strain)

point is almost everything tolerates temps this high longer and better than the ich does.

Sometimes you hear about people with Discus getting ich but we don't usually help those people because it means they were idiots to begin with and had the tank too cold. @ the proper 84ish Discus CANT get ich...


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

*Coralife Turbo Twist 3X UV Sterilizer*

TheDogFather has order the Coralife Turbo Twist 3X UV Sterilizer, he's read a number of posts and reviews, he plans to put it on a timer. He's also ordered an external heater.

Anyone here use a sterilizer?


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Oh yes, a UV will definately ace the icks when they are free swimmers. Ha hah, not a lot of us have that kind of $$$ to throw around. However, from what I gather, they work a bit slower than salt as you have to get them to pass through the UV sterilizer to kill them. While salt is the entire tank.
However, a UV is a good preventative unit and does prevent ick/itch from setting a foot in.
There are some strains of ick that will survive the salt treatment for a longer period of time. However, they will be toast under a UV unit. So there are plus and minus, but it's always handy to have a UV around.
I wish mine wasn't broken though ... 

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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Meh, I don't consider it "throwing money around" but rather an investment. Besides, look who's talking, you have one too, it's just on the blink 

Also, we're old farts in our 40's and this is our very first house so I'd like to think we deserve to spoil ourselves and our critters after all those years of starvation


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I really wouldn't worry unless you see more tell-tale signs of ick. Even then, the only thing I have ever done is raise the temperature - seems to work everytime...


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

I haven't seen anyone scratching all weekend and oddly enough, it was only the pregnant females who had done it once or twice in the big tank. If there are any nasties in this tank, they'll be gone soon ;D


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