Ick Help!!!?

Question

My fish have had ick for 5 days. I just ran out of cure. Is there any other houslehold cure.

Answer 1

ich had an eleven day life cycle. You want to kill the eggs and the larva, as the spots you are seeing on the fish are the adults that will die in a few days. Like said above, there are a few tricks...

Every day raise the temp in your tank by two degrees until you reach 80-82 degress. Dissolve a tablespoon of aquarium or NON-IODIZED salt to some aquarium water in a cup. Add slowly over a few hour span. Turn off the lights on your tank and put a dark cover over it. Go to the petstore and purchase an ich med with the active ingrediant Malachite Green. In my exeperience, it works better than victoria green. Get the liquid, not the powder or tablets. Liquid has a better success rate. Follow the directions exactly on the bottle. You must remove your carbon from your filter or it will absorb and nuetralize the medication.

Here's why it works... the salt helps thicken the slime coat on the fish, making it difficult of the ich paracite to take hold. it also helps kill the larva and egss. ich likes cool water, not warm. Ich needs light to surrvive. Ich medications do work when used correctly. treat with these treatments for two weeks to ensure all traces of the paracite is gone. Perform water changes of about 20-30% before and after you medicate. Do not medicate for longer than 5 days without letting your tank run through some carbon and performing a water change.

On the light thing...make certain that you light acclimate your fish when removing the cover to feed. slowly lift one corner of the cover to allow a little light. A few minutes later, slowly remove some more....so on and so forth... fish do not have dilating pupils, and sudden bursts of light shock them, and it's painful. Just make certain you go slow and you will be fine.

lastly, fish in a healthy tank useually don't get sick. If your water quality is good, you are maintaing a water change schedule, and you are feeding the proper foods, your fish should only die of old age. Just keep this in mind for the future to help trouble shoot your tank.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I'm afraid a trip to the pet shop is in order but maybe i can help with an explantion of what ick is. First off about 70% of all fish carry the parasite but it is dormant under the slime layer. When a fish is stressed (temp. change, other agressive fish, poor water conditions ,MOVE TO A NEW TANK.....) the fish will loose some of the slime layer and activate the ick. A white spot that looks like salt (or several spots) will appear. this is the growing parasite but it is protected from medication by the fishes slime layer. part of the icks life cycle is on the fish part of it is in the gravel ,then it is vulnerable to medications. Raising the tempurature speeds up the cycle to get it off the fish and salt will stimulate a thicker slime layer to protect the fish when the baby ick come back out of the gravel. Unfortunately its not a very effective method of treatment. Look fot a dye medication (something with Methyle blue,acriflavine,malachite green,victoria green b or a combination of them) Dye medications will smother the free swimming ick before it gets back on the fish. the heat and salt can help and most medications work within 5 days

Answer 3

Only 5 days of medication? You'll need more than that. My fish have had ick before and it took a good 2 weeks to cure. I have been told that ick medication kills not the ick parasites themselves, but the ick fry as they hatch. I would suggest getting more medication. Ask your local fish store (or even Petsmart) what works best, they will be able to tell you.

Jungle sells a good ick medication, I believe that is what I used when my fish got ick..but i don't fully remember. Good luck!

Answer 4

Raise the temp slowly and add salt. You can use plain morton salt (50cents at the store for a big container) but get non-iodine with no prussic acid, no yellow soda of prussate, no anything that sounds like prussate, the only ingredients should be salt and calcium silicate. Use the salt until two weeks after the last visible ich spot.
Add one tablespoon per 10 gallons of water, add it slowly over the course of a few hours.

Answer 5

There is no house hold cure for ick, just the medication. www.aqua-reliable.co.nr for the medication.

Answer 6

Usually raising the temperature as mentioned cure it.

Answer 7

household-not that i know of. you need treatment and get it fast. i highly recommend you dont use tank buddies ick away tablets-they turned every white coral in my tank blue, turned my clear air hose blue and the glue in the corners sealing my tank blue.

Answer 8

Raise the tank tempature to 80-82 degrees, and put in aquarium salt if you have some. (1 tsp/gallon ---not regular table salt).. Other then that..dont have any real under the counter remedies for you.. Good luck.

Answer 9

you can get cure at walmart.