One proven way to treat ich/ick

[ChileRelleno]

You can fool ich into hatching out in a fishless tank, where, because the tomites don't find a host, will die. Just add some water from a tank with fish into the fishless tank. Either pheromones or waste products (don't know for sure which) from the fish trigger the ich cysts into "hatching" into a hostless enviroment.
It is theorized that some cysts may lay dorment for months, maybe years, though, and may survive in dust.

Utter rubbish, just another fish myth
ICH doesn't lay dormant, in a fishless environment it will die out... Period.
In cold water it's life cycle can take a extended period to complete, just as warm water speeds it up.
ICH can manifest as a 'Latent' infection, which is oft mistaken as dormancy.

 

[bl00]

that sound effective, the only problem would be making sure the heat stays at the necessary level, otherwise you speed up the ich without destroying it

That, along with stability, is certainly a good excuse to buy a nice heater that's a size larger than what your gallonage would require
(That is, if you aren't planning on just adding an extra heater that you have lying around.)

 

[ffrosti]

I just wanted to say that I successfully treated ich on piuctus catfish and a black ghost knifefish using salt and heat. I slowly over 72 hours upped my tank temp from 78 to 86 and addded salt to a final concentration of 1.5 tsp/gallon. spots have been gone for a week now and eveyone appears happy. swimming and eating as normal. I will now start to bring the tank back to normal.

They were new purchases who came in with ich. Thank God I had to forsight to put them in the quarentine tank first.

Before I treated I was frantically combing the internet as to how to treat my new "scaless" fish. But got a lot of mixed advice including really bad advice. so for the record salt and high temps seem ok for the knifefish. i strongly recommend. I also had a dwarf frog in there that didn't seem to mind the change either.

 

[Oose]

I'm sure this subject is beaten to death for some of you, but I wanted to bounce my treatment off of you. So here goes... tank is 55gal, 3inch bristlenose, 4inch electric blue jack dempsey and 2inch female jack dempsey (temp tank until my 125 gal cycles). Amonia 0.0, Nitrite 0.0 and Nitrate somewhere around 5, ph 7.8. Anyways, somewhere while adding fish the electric blue has gotten ich. Still doing great, eating 1 time a day and swimming around/hiding like normal.

So here is the treatment I did after reading guppys post. First I did a 35%-40% water change. Dechlorinated the new water and added salt per 2tsp for every gallon of the tank and jacked the temp up to 86-88 depending on which thermometer I read haha( I have an airstone going full blast too).

Anything else I should do? Should I do anymore water changes while treating or just let the water in there ride during treatment? How long will it take to get rid of it and how many days should I treat after no visable signs on the EBJD? If I do a water change do I have to sterilize the buckets/syphons/nets/etc... or will it eventually die on the equipment over the course of a week or so before the next water change?

Thanx in advance for any responses/help

 

[knobhill]

Hi,
I am encountering some ich in my 60g quarantine tank. I have raised the temp to 86* put am not sure about treating with salt.
Inhabitants are:
2 razor musk turtles (1.5")
3 orange lazer cory cats
9 red severums ---these are the hosts of the ich
1 L91 Three Beacon Pleco.

I am mostly worried that adding salt will not be good for the corys...anyone know about this particular species' salt tolerance?

 

[Lupin]

Stick to 0.1% solution of salt which is equivalent to a teaspoon per gallon. I've used up to 0.2% solution though with my plecos and loaches before with no issues. Be sure to dissolve salt thoroughly before adding to the tank. If you wish to add another 0.1% solution, wait for another 12 hours after adding the first set.

 

[Lupin]

Anything else I should do? Should I do anymore water changes while treating or just let the water in there ride during treatment? How long will it take to get rid of it and how many days should I treat after no visable signs on the EBJD? If I do a water change do I have to sterilize the buckets/syphons/nets/etc... or will it eventually die on the equipment over the course of a week or so before the next water change?

Yes, you can do water changes while treatment is ongoing however you need to redose salt per the water volume replaced afterwards to maintain the salinity level required to destroy the surviving ich. Once ich appears to have disappeared, continue salt treatment for another 10 days and maintain salinity level.

Ich cannot survive without hosts for a few days and water but if you're worried, feel free to pour hot water on your equipments. Hot water alone will kill them.

 

[Oose]

Thanx Lupin I really appreciate the help

 

[knobhill]

Stick to 0.1% solution of salt which is equivalent to a teaspoon per gallon. I've used up to 0.2% solution though with my plecos and loaches before with no issues. Be sure to dissolve salt thoroughly before adding to the tank. If you wish to add another 0.1% solution, wait for another 12 hours after adding the first set.

Thanks, will do.

 

[Nikeo Karu]

Hey, I'm new also I join a couple days back, when i was researching how to git rid of ich from my 55 gallon community tank. I've been doing the heat and salt treatment as well as using the Ich Attack all natural medication, I've lost about 3 fish 1 6inch clown loach, and 2 10 inch channel catfish.. I've been doing the treatment for about a week now and the loach is still covered in ich.. So I need to give it its full 3 weeks to see if it works.

I currently have 2 Upside down Catfish, 2 Black Angel fish, 2 royal Plecos and 2 bala sharks.. I also wanted to know if my tank is over loaded with fish. If so i can move some to my 30 gal tank that im going to start up in my basement near the bar.