I REALLY need help/ideas with ich - MyFishTank.Net Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Fish Forum

roark fishies · 08-07-2008, 10:54 AM

So here's a quick rundown of what I've been doing:

May 8- first indication of ich; Treated with quickcure that messed my tank cycle all up; switched to coppersafe (on the 18th) and ich eventually cleared (last visible sign of ich was on June 2). Apparently, I didn't allow the coppersafe to remain in water long enough because....

June 21- Vivisble white spots on my Dwarf Gourami. I only had enough coppersafe to dose half the tank. I added it and bought Wardley's Ich Away.

July 4- No more visible white spots but kept dosing

July 10- looked like the Ich Away went bad. Turned real watery and paler colored. Spots started popping back up

July 19- Started dosing with coppersafe

July 28- Coppersafe didn't seem to be helping so I bumped up the heat to 84-85 to speed up the process. I know heat and meds shouldn't be mixed but at this pt it seemed worth the risk and none of the fish has seemed negatively affected.

Today August 7- The ich is BAD. My DG is eat up with it. It doesn't seem to be on any of the other fish.

So I've been dealing with this 2nd round of ich for nearly 2 months. What am I doing wrong? I don't know what else to do. Should I start adding malachite green to the water with the coppersafe or would that be too much for the fish? Or should I move the cories to the 10G and add salt as well as keep treating with the coppersafe? There's got to be SOMETHING out there that will work.

Macfish · 08-07-2008, 11:03 AM

Last run in with ICH was a long time ago, API's "super ich cure" worked great.

skratikans · 08-07-2008, 12:05 PM

some fish are harder or near impossible to cure when they have ich and the amount they have, for example I had an outbreak in one of my tanks...treated with cooper safe and everything else you did and while it worked on all my other fish...it never helped my plecos which had it very bad

roark fishies · 08-07-2008, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macfish

Last run in with ICH was a long time ago, API's "super ich cure" worked great.

What's the ingredients?

roark fishies · 08-07-2008, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skratikans

some fish are harder or near impossible to cure when they have ich and the amount they have, for example I had an outbreak in one of my tanks...treated with cooper safe and everything else you did and while it worked on all my other fish...it never helped my plecos which had it very bad

Sounds like my dg. I guess your plecos died?

Maybe I should move just the dg to the 10G and try other treatments on him. Brian told me to do that a while back but I never did. Maybe I shoulda listened.

big54bob · 08-07-2008, 02:59 PM

Realy the only good way to treat ich is the jack up your temp to like 85ish. Or you could add aquarium salt to your tank. It helps alot.

Lotus · 08-07-2008, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by big54bob

Realy the only good way to treat ich is the jack up your temp to like 85ish. Or you could add aquarium salt to your tank. It helps alot.

Temperature alone won't always kill ich.

Are you absolutely sure it's ich, and not another disease? Coppersafe will kill almost all parasites, but if it's fungal or bacterial, antiparasitic meds won't help.

Also, were you replacing CopperSafe in the water when you did water changes?

brian1973 · 08-07-2008, 10:17 PM

damn Roark , you still have ich and you still have that neon in QT?
I also recommended finding a vet that works with or specializes in fish and go get it checked out to make sure it was ICH, not sure how much your spending on meds but by now your probably over the cost of a vet visit. I can't tell you what to do but again IMO and I know it's hard for ya but euthanasia may be the best bet.

roark fishies · 08-08-2008, 11:28 AM

Lotus, No I'm not absolutely sure it's ich. But I'm absolutely sure that it's white spots that look like salt sprinkles. So what else could it be? I don't THINK it's velvet. I would post a pic but it would be so hard to get a good pic of it. His coloring makes it very hard to see. The light has to shine on him just right. It's most obvious on his head b/c it's darker colored but I still doubt a pic would show it. Oh, and yes I definately always replace the coppersafe when I do water changes.

Brian, LOL! I need to update my sig. I've given my neon a clean bill of health. His red coloring is still a little pale but otherwise acts completely normal. He now has a neon friend with him from the big tank to keep him company. The only reason he's still in qt tank is to keep it cycled.
On euthanizing dg, I've made this argument before: I can't do it if there is still quality of life. He eats, swims around, acts pretty much normal. I'll try other things with him before euthanizing. If he's willing to keep going then so am I.
I'm gonna give it a few more days. I think I've about decided to put him in qt and try salt with the coppersafe if he doesn't show improvement soon. I have a few different ideas to try. Somethings gotta work.

brian1973 · 08-09-2008, 12:22 PM

well i was more talking euthanizing the neon..good to hear you stuck with it and it's doing good...good job! As for the Salt even aquarium salt raises salinity and may not be tolerated by a stressed fish.. I would research this alot before adding it to the tank. It seems odd to me that no other fish is suffering from the ICH. IMO I would get him into the QT as soon as possible. I have only dealt with ICH once but for an organism that only has about a 3 eek life cycle you think it should have been gone by now. Have you called any vets in your area to see if they know anything about fish?