I'd start another thread and try and figure out what's going on first. It's never a good idea to treat before you're sure what the problem is.
One proven way to treat ich/ick
- Thread starter guppy
- Start date
I have a 125 gallon setup with a bluegill and flathead catfish.
My bluegill seems to have a mild case of ICK. He has a small white spot near his eye as well as one or two small white/cottony patches on his body. After a 50% water change it has not gone away but slightly dissipated. He has had these spots for about 2 weeks.
His appetite and behavior are fine but would like to treat before it gets too bad.
I am wondering if it is safe to do the heat/Salt method of treatment with the bluegill and flathead.
I am somewhat concerned that the salt may effect the Flathead as he's a scaleless fish.
From what I gather the maximum tolerable Temp for both fish is around 89-90 degrees.
I will purchase a heater, as I normally do not heat tank as these are both native species to MN, and I figure they survive the summers as well as under the ice in the winter (in the wild). I have had Flathead for 3 years, and bluegill for about 1 year.
Anyone have any experience with these fish and ICH treatments. Or suggestions on temperature and Salt treatments?
-Thanks for any advice
My bluegill seems to have a mild case of ICK. He has a small white spot near his eye as well as one or two small white/cottony patches on his body. After a 50% water change it has not gone away but slightly dissipated. He has had these spots for about 2 weeks.
His appetite and behavior are fine but would like to treat before it gets too bad.
I am wondering if it is safe to do the heat/Salt method of treatment with the bluegill and flathead.
I am somewhat concerned that the salt may effect the Flathead as he's a scaleless fish.
From what I gather the maximum tolerable Temp for both fish is around 89-90 degrees.
I will purchase a heater, as I normally do not heat tank as these are both native species to MN, and I figure they survive the summers as well as under the ice in the winter (in the wild). I have had Flathead for 3 years, and bluegill for about 1 year.
Anyone have any experience with these fish and ICH treatments. Or suggestions on temperature and Salt treatments?
-Thanks for any advice
My friend you keep cycle the tank without fishes as without fish ICK can't get desired target and in the end those will die....but make sure you switch water regular basis so ICK will be out in that cycle.... One other idea after getting clear put some small and routine fishes like guppies or gold fishes to settle tank...Heres another Ick question for this thread...
I just had a total wipeout of my 5gallon tank because of Ick.
Should I start the entire tank over and cycle it again OR will the Ick die off with no fish in the tank?
(I think if we post other possible Ick questions here, then there can be more info for people)
Ok glad I found this posting. I have noticed some of my fish like my vieja and true parrots have been itching on my rocks and substrate for the past week or 2 but have not showed any white spots on them or any sign of visually seeing the itch. So question is, should I just treat the tank with raising the temp up to the upper 80s and dose the tank with dissolved aquarium salt at 2 teaspoons per gallon or what would be ideal? I actually have the tank temp raising as of right now with aquarium salt getting dissolved in a bin full of aquarium water. What do you guys think.? The fish itch quite frequently so I'd like to take care of the problem ASAP. Like I said though, there are zero white spots or any sort of fungus on any of the fish what so ever.
Also forgot to add that the fish all eat like pigs everyday. Just scratch here and there but no white spots or anything
If you haven't seen white spots in the week or two you've seen the fish scratching, then its probably not ick. There are many reasons why fish my scratch themselves. First one is water quality issues. Raised ammonia levels irritate the fish and they scratch. My clown loaches do that when I've moved, upgraded tanks and the water is not ideal.
Another is worms/parasites of some kind, it's not necessarily ick. What I'd do in your case, is start improving the water quality by a few large water changes in the next week. See if that stops the scratching eventually. If not, I'd look into parasite treatment for internal worms such as prazi or/and flubendazole.
i do water changes basically every other day of 50 to 75 percent, if they had a parasite or worms i dont think they would all be as energized and hungry as they always are. The tank was recently just cycled to 0ppm ammonia so maybe that has something to do with it? really not sure. The fish all act super healthy, none hide in stress and every fish in the tank comes right up to the top of the water when its feeding time waiting for the first bit of food to drop in. I dosed the tank with aquarium salt and raised the temp to 88 and noticed a lot less itching. I'm on about day 4 now with treatment and have only seen one fish itch once. I'm going to just continue with the water changes and slowly decrease the temp back down to 82.
Ick is a parasite. So besides occasional flashing, your fish are acting healthy but you're still treating for something you haven't seen in them? The fact that your tank was recently cycled is the issue here. The only thing that's helping is the large water changes. Salt is a stressor, a lot of fish do not tolerate salt for a period even as long as an ick cycle. If you had a TDS meter, you'd be reading a TDS in the 800-900 ppm......To get that down without stressing fish will take many weeks afterwards and that's a new stressor.....Salt does one good thing though, it neutralises nitrites.....but very tiny amounts are required to do so. Ammonia/nitrite are the major irritants and disease triggers in aquariums. If you've done everything right, the fish should live happy and long lives. The problem is that fish exposed to a cycle and then treatment do not end up living to their full life spans afterwards. The effect of wrongdoing is delayed and not immediate. Good luck. I do not mean to offend. I am just stating an opinion and I wish I knew the same years ago when I was jumping to conclusions myself without knowing the consequences.
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