new here-help with treating ich outbreak?

[inkeys]

hi everyone. im new here and new to message boards in general.. i recently had an outbreak out ich in my tank when i brought home a new fish...i shouldve known better. anyways, the original fish that had the ich is no longer covered in white spots, but now my other fish are coming down with it. im treating it with aquarium salt. the advice i had gotten was for ten days keep the water temperature at 82 to 90 and add 2 rounded table spoons of aquarium salt per 10 gallons. should/could i add more salt? would this be beneficial? please dont recommend ick treatments. i have used them in the past and have lost alot of fish and find this method works much faster. thanks so much for your time!

[tiff]

IMO, you could do a water change as you would normally do (perhaps 20%) and add more salt to the new water.
If my memory serves me right, I think the general concesus is to continue treatment of salt for 2 weeks even if all the fish are back to their norm.

[Melody]

:Welcome: The Ich has dropped off the fish, gone into the free swimming stage and attacked the others. For whatever reason, the salt didn't kill the swimmers. You can do a waterchange and try again (with more aquarium salt if the tank occupants tolerate it well), or move on to a medication.

Medications will not kill your fish if they are used correctly. If the fish died and the medication was used correctly, there was something else wrong with the fish. Ich is an opportunist - it attacks weakened fish first. Disease or stress from another source will weaken the fish which allows the Ich to set in as a secondary infection.

Have you tested the parameters? How long has the tank been set up?

A quarantine tank is the best investment a hobbyist can make. Even a 5G tank with a box filter will suffice. Much cheaper to treat the sick fish and the others won't get infected.

Good luck!

[thegrandpoohbah]

Your salt treatment sounds about right but the temp should be 82-84F, not 90F.

[inkeys]

thanks for the replies =) well this particular tank is an upgrade from a tank i had set up for a year. i set this tank up about 3 weeks ago, maybe a month ago and didnt have any problems until i added the new fish (last time i buy a fish from petsmart...) anywho, i used the same filter (along with an additional filter i purchased to accomidate the larger tank) which had some good bacteria on the media, and i used all the same substrate and plant aswell as using the tank water from the old tank. im getting pretty frustrated here...everything was fine until the new arrival...i shouldve quarantined it...but i had been having so much luck..guess my luck ran out =( would it be better for me to do a water change at this point? or would it stress the fish more? i just did a water change this past friday. thanks for the help!

[thegrandpoohbah]

A water change never hurts. look on the bright side, you now have a smaller tank (the old one) to use as a quarantine tank for all future fish purchases!

[CACAdmin]

:Welcome:

Sorry to hear you are battling an outbreak of Ich in your tank. You might find this article (http://www.aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_view_article.php?aid=27) helpful as it explains the lifecycle of Ich. This is important as often people assume the Ich is gone when no more spots are visible, only to have it reappear a few days later. This thread (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1665) has links to various threads with discussions about Ich as well.

As thegrandpoohbah said, now at least you have an extra tank to use as a q-tank in future. Because, keep in mind, that regardless where you purchase your fish from you can still end up introducing ich or other parasites, etc. into your tanks (stores are are continually bringing in new shipments from various wholesalers).

Best of luck and keep us posted on how the fish are doing and if you have any questions, just ask.

[inkeys]

thanks again for the friendly advice! im so glad i discovered this site as i wasnt getting alot of help on yahoo answers and everyone here seems friendly , knowledgable and helpful! =) well i did a 25% water change and added 6 teaspoons of salt to the dechlorinated water to see if that will maybe give them a boost! on a good note, all the fish seem to be perking up and arent sitting around the bottom corners of the tank all lethargic!

[Melody]

Three weeks... I'm guessing your tank is cycling, which will stress the fish and leave them open for Ich. Adding fish would have really thrown the cycle into full swing. You'll probably have to do daily waterchanges for a couple of weeks until the tank cycles, then things should settle down for you. Feed very sparingly every other day at most. Here are some tips (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/showthread.php?t=319) to help get you going, including info about the cycle.

There is a lot more to fishkeeping than people think. After years in the hobby I'm still learning and I hope that never stops. We have an ace membership here and probably the best part about them is they remember that they all started at the beginner level. It's always great to see someone starting out in the hobby and questions give us a wonderful excuse to talk about our favorite topic, so keep asking & don't forget to have fun!

[blainep]

I would agree with Melody, at three weeks, even with an established filter, you could be experiencing a cycle.

The salt and temp should kill off the Ich spores.

I would suggest keeping up with lots of water changes and keeping the salt content up to where you have it now.

Much as I know you don't want to hear it, RidIch+ is an effective medication as well. I've used it in conjunction with salt and it proved to be very effective.