Best Ick medicine...

[tessalion]

After this past disease outbreak and not having the right meds on hand, i've decided to stock up on all the general medicines i need. I know that the best treatment for ick is salt and raising the temp...but now that i have cories i have heard that i shouldnt use salt. I have ick clear tablets, but last time i used some of them, an otto and a cory that were previously not sick died. Im not sure if it was because of the meds or not. SO i was curious...anyone know of any good ick meds that would be safe for all the fish in my sig?

[Lonewolfblue]

No need for salt or meds. The best cure for ick is above 86 degrees. I go to 89 degrees myself, that way the minimum temp always stays above 86.

['-JIN-']

cory and otto cant stand the dose of med.They will die.so like lonewolfblue,go for salt and heat method

[Mom2Angel]

My recent experience, I had two tanks come down with ick, in the 29 gal. I used Quick Cure, and in the l0 gal. I used salt...the 29 gal. with the medicine lost no fish and is cured...the l0 gal. with salt I lost every guppy I had. I was very careful with both methods and watched water parameters...this is just my experience, but I would go with the Quick Cure again before anything else. I ended up with blue silicone, but I can deal with that over dead fish!

[RISK2123]

besides what they said about raising the temp and salt (which i agree with) meds lose potency over time so they really shouldnt be bought for "just in case" because they may not be as effective when u use it 6 months to a year later.

[JustOneMore20]

cory and otto cant stand the dose of med.They will die.so like lonewolfblue,go for salt and heat method

Then how do you explain my cories and ottos surviving ich meds in the past?

You have to find the right kind of meds. If you want to use medications, don't get one that has malachite green or methylene blue. I think you can use them, but at half strength (so only use half the dose). I like to be safe, so I don't use those two. And you have to check ingredients, because even if they have another name, they could still contain one of the two.

I have found 2 meds that work well for ich and scaleless fish. Kordons Ich Attack and Kent's Marine RX-P. The Ich Attack is all natural and safe for scaleless fish. The Marine RX-P is also safe. It says marine and the instructions say nothing about freshwater, but it can be used in FW. I have personally used both and had no casualties. The RX-P is better IMO and works faster at getting rid of the ich. The person that recommended it to me used it with small Discus fry...with no problems. Raising the temp is also the thing to do. I have raised it to 84F with panda cories. I went up to 86F and lost a couple pandas once, so now I don't go over 84. Just watch the fish when you slowly raise the temp and make sure they are acting normal.

I also agree that meds will lose potency or expire after some time, so I don't think I'd stock up on them unless you have ich often.

Checking out the fish you are going to buy and the other tanks at the LFS well will help prevent ich. I know its sometimes hard to see it, especially when the spots haven't shown up yet, but inspect the other tanks too. I have been doing this for over 6 months, with no ich outbreaks.

[echoofformless]

yeah I've had corys and otos survive ich meds...as well as shrimp and gouramis....even yoyo loaches.

Salt in my opinion has no business ever being in a freshwater tank under any circumstances.

The heat is good though. I beat ich with the 86 degree temp raise and a chem.

My chem of choice is Kordon's Rid Ich. In fact, I would swear by it. No other medicine has ever been so effective, safe and easy to obtain.

[Lotus]

I'd say the easiest way to prevent ich in your main tank is to quarantine. If a fish doesn't make it through the quarantine, at least you haven't put all your other fish at risk. Since I set up a quarantine and am careful with acclimating, I haven't had ich in my display tanks at all, and only once or twice in quarantine.

I've always used CopperSafe, even on loaches and other scaleless fish. I've found it to be the most effective.

['-JIN-']

ottos and cories are fairly sensitive fish,they mostly cant stand overdose med.If your cories survived through the treatment is just because u used less dose than actually what u need,bt about the shrimp heat and med treatment is just risking their life.If u get ghost shrimp they can stand a lil hotness but not for neocardina species shrimp and even medication can kill them.But based on my on experience,i used heat and salt method i got zero fish death,but i used blue methanol for once in my quarantine tanks,they mostly died.thats what for me,bt im not sure of yours............

[echoofformless]

I used full strength. Everyone was perfectly happy.


Rid Ich even claims that there is something in the formula...I can't recall exactly what, but it's altered in some way to make it safe for sensitive fish. I used it after hearty recommendations from trusted people both on here and aquariacentral. I'm more than satisfied with the results.

But yes, to Lotus you listen...ich should never happen in an established aquarium. It's all about QT.

Meeh!