ich.... just found my loachs had it

[smudgeman]

all of a sudden last night I noticed 3 spots on a loach and now all of them have it today and so do one of my mollies.

I read posts but lost them about using salt and turning up temp on water.
Im thinking of going out later today to buy rid ich.
Any ideas of how much salt would be good to add..... I know super slow and not near fish swimming.

I have:
3 sword tails
2 mollies
1 guppy
1 male betta
3 polka dot loachs
1 pleco

do I need to take temp to 82-84?
how much salt if any??
figured I would wait to increase temp till I get medicine for tank so I dont speed up the repo of the parasite before I have something to kill it.
damn petsmart water I know I should have had a quarantine tank but just got all the loachs at once and never had problems before.
now I learned my lesson and the loachs are suffering.
They are scratching a lot on the bottom of the tank and one loach has spots now on his body not just fins.

was going to gravel vac first and then bump up temp then add meds....
shouldnt have to remove carbon as its been in the tank for 3weeks so Im sure its spent.... just bought a new filter pad because its a penguin 330 and the floss was terrible but Im sure by now the carbons done.

thanks.

[smudgeman]

just bought treatment.....
bumping tank temp up to 82.8 right now.
waiting to make sure thats where it stays at.

gravel vacced the tank already.
started setting up my quarantine tank for the future.
once tank temp is good and stable around 83-84 I will begin dosing.
Probably half dose for now and then before bed the rest of the dose aslong as everyone seems fine.

Im hoping it has been caught early since only 2 loachs show spots and the one mollie.
All other fish seem to not be symptomatic as of now.

if someone chimes in soon I with other info for taking care of this then I will try it but since people read and dont comment Im just going to do what I have to do.

thanks

[plaalye]

What meds did you buy? I use Kordon Rid-ich and follow the directions on the bottle. Don't raise the temp. What size is your tank?

[smudgeman]

rid ickh
55gal tank

[Diana]

All your fish can handle warmer water. I would increase the water movement at the surface to be sure of enough oxygen.
Raising the temperature is optional, but does speed treatment.
(I do not know about the Pleco, what species is it? Common Pleco can handle it. Most of the fancy ones are OK, too)

Most of your fish handle salt just fine, All the livebearers are OK with it. Loaches and Cats (pleco) are not so great with long terms salt, but seem able to handle a fair amount during Ich treatment.

Up to 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons seems OK, perhaps more. But add salt slowly, perhaps 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons per day until you get to the dose you want. Yes, add it slowly.

Sounds like the carbon is filled with stuff, still, here is what I would do:
Cut open the floss and shake out the old carbon, then rinse and reuse the old cartridges until the medicine needs to be removed. Then add new cartridges, with new carbon.

If you use Amquel dechlorinator, get a different one during treatment with Rid Ich or any other dye based medicine. Read the label on the Amquel for details.

[plaalye]

I wouldn't want to argue with anything Diana has to say. She has far more experience than I.
I've had very good success though by simply following the directions on the rid-ich botttle. Raising the temp and adding salt, at the same time you're treating with rid-ich, seems like extras stress on you and the fish that i haven't found necessary. Just my experience.

[smudgeman]

treated half dose for a few hours then the rest of the dose just to make sure the fish would be fine.
Im not adding salt or taking heat any higher right now Ill see if they clear up.
going to gravel vac in a few hours as it will be 24 hrs since I started treating.
25% vac followed by full dose per instructions.
Owe also I added another airstone to the tank to help water movement.
was going to remove the driftwood but my significant other knows the pleco loves it so she wanted me to leave it in if I could.

All fish were showing at least some symptoms of getting ich.
Swordtails have clamped tails
betta has spots on his front fins

bottle didnt say anything about leaving the lights off so Ive been turning them on and off like usual.
thanks.

[smudgeman]

there are even more spots on the loachs today.
I got done doing a water change and also removed the carbon I could by cutting the filter.

I did a full dose.....
Hopefully I stop seeing as many spots in the next day.

[glenna]

ich is a log, hard road
it will get worse sometimes, before it gets better,
just KEEP UP THE treatment

add a UV sterilzer if you can afford one. Even the cheap, little "green killing machine" from PEtsmart made a big difference

[smudgeman]

Im on tap....
just moved into a new place.
Just figured out I cannot even turn the heater up any higher because the house is 67-68 but my heater which I bought when I had a 29gal tank cannot handle heating to 82+. Its in a living room which I currently dont have furniture for so I just go sit in a chair to watch them. Also its near an outside wall which seems to be a bit cold. though it is by the heating vent.
I think the heater is only 250watt.
hoping when I save up some money to get another heater or replace with a titanium heater with external temp control.

would like to get a uv sterilizer too.
just hoping I can get these fish squared away.
they all seem to be getting along. no ones dead and no one seems to be struggling though the one loach has a ton of spots going down his body today.

might put another airstone in one end of the tank to create better flow since my hob filter doesnt seem to get all of the water moving the way I want as was evident when I put the treatment in and it took a while to diffuse to the other side.
sword tails are no longer clamped like they were.
the males back to chasing around the females with his butt.
owe and I went to petsmart said something to people working there they said they have no clue, no fish are sick but meanwhile half their tanks are empty and no signs of the fish that were previously in them and just a few days earlier when I got my fish they were fully stocked.
thanks will keep updated.

[plaalye]

UV can counteract meds. I wouldn't use one while treating with rid-ich. When fish are sick we tend to give them too much attention, this can stress them out more. Leave them alone as much as possible.

[Diana]

You do not need to add the salt and Rid Ich. They are OK together, but not to use salt is OK, too.

Yes, you will see new spots in the first few days of treatment.
Ich lands on the fish as a single celled thing you cannot see. It must grow for a few days until it is big enough for you to see. The ones that landed on the fish right before you added the medicine will grow for a few days until they are big enough to see.
This does not mean the medicine is not working. It is killing the ones you cannot see that are now swimming in the water, looking for a host.

Gravel vacuuming is doing several things, so keep it up!
It removes a lot of the Ich that falls to the bottom to reproduce.
It is improving the water quality for the fish.

To keep the tank warm wrap it in a thick towel.

[smudgeman]

yeah I figured that was probably the case.
It hasnt even been 48hrs yet.
still debating removing the drift wood, just dont really want to since the loachs love hiding under it and so does the pleco.

but it has to get moved everytime I gravel vac since a lot of poop collects on or around it.

maybe when this is all done I will look at a uv sterilizer as a preventative measure?

I will try wrapping the tank with a thick towel to help it hold in the heat..... plus it might make the fish stand out more
thanks

[Diana]

Best preventative for Ich is a quarantine tank. You can treat the Q-tank fish with a UV, but I do not run it all the time. Only if I think the fish might get Ich (depends on where I get the fish) New fish are in the Q-tank for a month BEYOND the date that any medicine or other treatment stopped, including UV.

[smudgeman]

update:
molleys look good
betta looks good
sword tails look good
2 loachs are decent and 2 are real bad

still doing 25% changes daily and treating full dose.
I leave lights on like normal and off at night.
Feeding a bit less.
tank seals are starting to stain blue
hopefully the t-rex head doesnt start to turn blue because I dont know what I would do for it short of trying to bleach and then go through hassle of getting it all the way washed clean of bleach.

plus one loach loves the hell out of it..... theres little nooks and stuff for it to squeeze and lay in.
thinking about adding a bit of salt in a few days if it doesnt show more signs of improvement.
thanks