Loaches Online Forum

Does the Ich parasite respond to elevated nutrients?

My wife brought home a couple of blakc-fin cats the other day when i was out for my X-mas prezzie.
I came home, and on observation two days later saw it coming; winter Ich as brought in in our new charges. That was Dec. 23d.

So, since then have brought up temp back to 29/30 deg C (86 or so in F)and have done a 5 day cycle of .5 dose formaline based (blue) meds. Lost the ghose knife and one CL looked lousey, so layed off meds for 5 days, starting again yesterday at about a .4 dose.
Only cats and loaches affected with parasite. Fast breathing, largest loach has many spots, rest few. Lethargic, but eating well still.

So back to the question: i've shut off the main canister filter, power-head and big bubbler still in place. I'm feeding heavily (prawns and flake, 3xlittle 1-2cm prawns in the AM and avo) to maintain strength and make sure cats get some in the fray. I know i run the risk of increasing nutrients, though plants, glass algae etc... are not responding. Tank is a 90-100 gal home-made long display with good morning sunshine.

I'm seeing stability in the fish but no recovery. Are the parasites somehow aided y the increased feeding?

All very annoying. Hope i can at least maintain the status qou.

A

Ich affects the gills of the fish. They NEED the aeration and water movement provided by your bubbler and filter.
I would actually recommend feeding less, not more, until their activity level comes back to normal (unless they are behaving normally?). As for if ich is affected by increased nutrients? I don't know. However, overfeeding does present other problems which you don't need while treating.

Gravel vac the whole tank really well. the waterborn stage of the parasite will fall into the gravel and you can remove many by vac'ing well. Water changing with vacuuming, and adding appropriate amounts of your treatment back into the return water will help.

Meanwhile--get your filters/bubblers back online!

hth, and good luck getting them through this.

If it is very resistant to your treatment, you can try this:
raise the temperature in two or three steps to 32°C -keeep an eye on your fish, if they can`t tolerate this temperature, it`s not your way -
leave it there for at least 10 days, even if the fishes loose their spots after 2 or 3 days.
Keep waterchanging and vacuuming at least every 2 days like shary said.
I would also recomment a waterconditioner like Aquasafe to help the fish dealing with the skin and gill damage.