Ick in my fish.. Help please?

Question

Ok, well my fish have ick. I have a 55 gallon tank and about 18 fish in the tank (had more but some have died). I have done 2 treatments and I see no improvement... I am going to get a water sample today when the pet store opens... I was wondering, I have picked up a quick cure and could it be that it is not a very good product? Also I have heard many different things, some say do a water change, some say no water change, it will stress the fish out more, just change the filter, I have read some quetions on line here, but I want to do everything right.. Another things, if it is over crowding that is the problem, does that mean I have to get rid of some of my fish. Also, a pet store person told me that snails can carry the ick parasite on them and there is nothing you can do and that I should get rid of the snail.. Sorry, about all the questions.. I feel so bad for my fish.. I can tell they itch, I just want to take them out and wash them off and scratch them! Any advice would be great!

Answer 1

You may be using the wrong meds. What kind of ich do your fish have? That is the key to cureing them.

Here we go again with quoting web pages. Your medicines will tell you if you need to change the water or not. Follow the directions for best treatment.

There could be an overcrowding however I don't think that is the case. Ich doesn't come from overcrowding tanks. Ich is already in the water and is replenished when you do a water change. ONLY when a fish is stressed or injured will ich attack a fish. This too is not always the case. It depends on your fish.

Yes your fish can carry ich, however if they are healthy, no they are not attached to your fish. You don't need to get rid of your snail either.

You can do a salt water dip on the fish however this will not kill the parasite. It will drop some of them off the fish and you still need to treat the tank.

Get the proper meds for your fish and try again. Sometimes you need to treat a tank more than once to rid it of ich.

Good luck with your fish.

Answer 2

The quickcure will work, but only under the right conditions. I believe quickcure's main ingredient is malachalite green, which is light sensitive.
My 55 gallon was infected with ick, I treated the tank for only a few days b/c I had seen an improvement, but ick came back just a few days later, so I had to start treatment all over again.
Basically, use the proper dosage directed on quickcure per gallon and be sure to keep the lights OFF on the aquarium everyday until the medication period is done, which according to ick's 3 staged life cycle takes at least 2 weeks. Use quickcure once a day, only to turn on the light for 5 minutes when feeding. If you have loaches, botias, or tetras use half the dosage directed on product. Those fish are more sensitive to the medication b/c their scales are much more thin than most other fish. What the medication does is lightly burns the fishes outter most layer of skin & scales, so you want to be careful with scaleless fish. Also be sure to remove any carbon from your filter. The carbon will deactivate any treatment done from the water.
I performed water changes 2x's a week while applying the medication. I was sure to change water first, than add the medication in the tank, so to be sure that I wouldn't remove any dosage from the tank.
I prefer water changes during ick, b/c it helps remove the parasites living in the gravel at the bottom of the tank. As long as you siphon the tank quickly, it won't stress the fish out too much. I'm sure they could use fresh water as well as nitrate removal.
It is believed that ick is always found in the tanks and there is always a chance of it coming back, be sure to keep a close eye on your fishies. And remember that just because the fish aren't infected anymore doesn't mean that you should stop treatment, b/c as with ick's life cycles they do also float in the water as well searching for a host.

see link below for information on ick's 3 staged life cycle:
http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/disease/freshwater/ich.html
the following link provides more information on the disease:
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich.php
more info including picture:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Ich.html
info on ick and other freshwater disease common to the aquarium:
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_disease.php

Wish you luck

Answer 3

depending on your fish you can use the old school method of using salt (try to get aquarium salt because table salt iodine will kill fish if your table salt says it only contains salt you can use it) use about 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. If your fish can tolerate salt use less or use chemicals. I personally use salt quite a bit it not only kills the ick but it also prevents other diseases since the salt causes the fish to create a thicker slime coat as protection. Well thats if it really is ick it could be a fungus among other diseases

Answer 4

I've one outbreak of ick and it was in my feeder guppy tank. I used the aquarium salt treatment and it worked like a charm. The directions that I used was 1/2cup-3/4cup of aquarium salt for my 20gal tank. Rais e the temperature to about87 degrees and put the salt in. The very next day the spots were gone and they were fine. We had also done a 50% water change before the salt and another 50% water change about a week later. We used the salt treatment because we have a salt water tank and no ick treatment.

Answer 5

If these are freshwater fish, the only parasites you have to worry about here are freshwater ich (Ichthyophthirius multifilis) and velvet disease (oodinium) - Cryptocaryon irritans and Brooklynella hostilis (commonly called clownfish disease) are both saltwater diseases - they don't apply here.

Make sure your diagnosis was correct - see photos in this website for comparison: http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/s... Spots from velvet are smaller than those of ick, and have a gold/amber/rust colored sheen under bright lighting. Since ligth plays a part in their metabolism, you should turn all lights off over the tank while treating - and full treatment can take as long as 2 weeks.

I 've used Quick Cure myself, and the parasites usually drop off the fish within three days - how long have you been treating your fish? Have you removed the carbon/charcoal from your filter? If not, it's been absorbing the medication and removing it from the water.

Another possibility is that you're dealing with what has been called the "super bug" version of ich - I'll paste an section here that I gave in a previous answer:

"There's been speculation of the cause, but no hard evidence yet. A good source for discussion on this is in "Practical Fishkeeping"'s July 2006 issue. Possibilities have included a treatment-resistant strain of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis or an entirely new parasitic organism that mimics it's symptoms but is not (as) sensitive to salt - hence the belief by some that salt "doesn't cure ich".

As we're learning from other drug-resistant forms of disease, an approach that combines multiple forms of treatment that attack using different pathways may become necessary to eradicate pathogens that could be developing resistance. I also believe that those asking about fighting the disease should be presented with options in the case that one form of treatment doesn't work (which can happen for a number of reasons, from using the wrong medication/treatment because of misdiagnosis to using an incorrect dosage). "

If you'd like to see the full version of the answer (on use of salt to treat ich) see this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aj25k1.6x1rCrc7294irbwkAAAAA?qid=20070401170012AA7ylhv

I'd have to disagree with snails "carrying" ich - although any water that may have been introduced to your tank when you added the snail (or any other recent additions, including fish or plants) may have had the parasites in the water. It's because of this that experienced aquarists recommend never adding store water to your tank and using a quarantine tank for a few weeks so any diseases aren't introduced to the fish you already have. Here's another question on that topic: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnDUOQfrm0zZG4M2v65B_8gjzKIX?qid=20070321103111AAQX8ZZ

You really don't need UV for the tank - most fish stores with commercial tanks (even many WalMarts!) have UV systems as a built-in part of the tank and look how many of their fish have ich! If the parasites don't go through the tubing, they remain in your tank to infect your fish. These are expensive and the bulbs have to be replaced yearly. UV units are placed outside the tank and water from the tank flows through them via a powerhead or cannister filter. If the parasites don't go through the tubing, they remain in your tank to infect your fish. Prevention using a quarantine tank is the way to go. It also helps to inspect fish carefully before buying (and the condition of the others in the tank as well).

See links below for more info on diagnosing disease , velvet and ich:

Answer 6

Firstly... do not touch the fish. If you take them out of the water and even touch them with your fingers you will remove the protective slime on their scales and possibly kill them.

Secondly... it takes a while for the Ick tratment to work. Best not to change the water or the filter, just let the treatment do its work, okay? I've used QuICK Cure myself, and it does work if you give it time.

Third... yes, the snails can bring the ick parasite into your aquarium; but once you've treated the tank (and the snail) with ick treatment successfully, it should not reoccur, as the snail will be treated along with the fish.

Answer 7

This works for me. It has worked dozens and dozens of times for me since the 1970's. Some will thumbs down it. We know who they are.

First step:
20-25% water change with gravel vac. Most likely your poor water conditions contributed to the outbreak of ich.
Second step:
Raise temperature (no more than 1° per hour) to 85°.
Third step:
Add aquarium salt (not table salt) in the amount of one rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons. If you have scaleless fish, reduce that to one rounded teaspoon per 5 gallons, as they don't tolerate salt.
http://www.aquariumpharm.com/en_us/productCategory.asp?categoryname=WaterConditioners
Fourth step:
After 24 hours, a second 20-25% water change. Add more salt. If you took 5 gallons out in the change, put another rounded tablespoon in. Adjust for your situation.
Fifth step:
Wait 24 hours.
Sixth Step:
A third water change of 20-25% and replace salt removed. At this point some improvement should be apparent. Ich takes a good 5-7 days to cure. Often longer.

If this does not cure the fish, you will want to use a commercial ich curative, such as copper sulfate like Aquarasol http://www.aq-products.com/APpro/aquarisol.htm
or in more extreme cases, Malachite Green
http://www.aq-products.com/APpro/quickcure.htm

Good Luck

Answer 8

First off what kind of ich do your fish have? Cotton, white spot velvet? there are a few different kinds of ich you r fish could be suffereing from. You need to know what kind it is before you treat them.

Also, when treating the fish, remove all carbon filter pads. Read the instructions on the bottle. Most ich medicines have you do a water change prior to applying the meds. They will also tell you Not to add other additives like salt to the tank since some meds work less effectively with additives.

Here is more on ich and how to determine what kind your fish may have:

Cryptocaryoniasis, White Spot Disease or Marine Ich is caused by an infestation of the ciliated protozoan Cryptocaryon irritans. Although Cryptocaryon becomes a parasitic organism at one stage in its life cycle like Oodinium and Brooklynella do, and it progesses less rapidly than these other ich diseases, in a closed aquarium system it can reach overwhelming and disasterous numbers just the same if it is not diagnosed and treated upon recognition.

Unlike Oodinium and Brooklynella that typically attack the gills first, which allows these ich diseases to advance into life-threatening levels quickly as they go unnoticed, Cryptocaryon usually appears at the onset as salt-sized white spots visible on the body and fins of a host fish, and when the organisms become parasitic, it is then that they move inwards to the gills. Because crypto is more easily recognized in its beginning stage, this makes it much easier to treat and cure before it gets out of control.

Aside from the appearance of the white spots, fish will scratch against objects in an attempt to dislodge the parasites, and rapid respiration develops as tomonts, mucus, and tissue debris clogs the gills. Fish become listless, refuse to eat, loss of color occurs in patches or blotches as the trophonts destroy the pigment cells, and secondary bacterial infections invade the lesions caused by the trophonts.

Although copper is very effective on Oodinium, and it works well to eliminate crypto organisms in their free-swimming tomite stage, it is not as effective on the Cryptocaryon trophonts that burrow deeply into the tissues of fish. A combination of freshwater and formalin treatments adminstered by means of dips, baths, and prolonged treatment over a period of time in a QT is recommended

Reinfection will occur no matter how effectively the fish have been treated if Cryptocaryon is not eradicated from the main aquarium, which can be accomplished by keeping the tank devoid of any fish for at least 4 weeks. For fish-only aquariums hyposalinity can be applied, and to speed up the life cycle of the organisms, elevate the tank temperature to 85 degrees for 10 days to 12 days. For treating reef tanks, FishVet No-Ich Marine, Ruby Reef Kick-Ich, and Chem-Marin Stop Parasites are Cryptocaryon specific remedies that are said to be "reef safe". Several days prior to returning fish to the main aquarium, clean all filtering equipment, change any filtering materials, and do a water change.

Remember to remove all filters media and turn off protein skimmers when treating for any types of Ich.

Although many over-the-counter remedies contain the general name Ich or Ick, carefully read the product information to be sure it is designed to specifically target and treat "Cryptocaryon"

Brooklynella hostilis - these protozoa reproduce asexually by means of simple binary fission through conjugation, which is why they are able to multiply so much more rapidly than Cryptocaryon (White Spot), and Oodinium (Velvet Ich), and why it can kill fish within a few days and even hours upon recognition

Most similar symptomatically to Oodinium, this too is a parasite that primarily attacks the gills first. At the onset fish may scrap up against objects, rapid respiration develops, and fish often gasp for air at the surface as the gills become clogged with mucus. Fish become lethargic, refuse to eat, and colors fade, but the most noticeable difference that sets Brooklynella apart from Oodinium is the heavy amount of slime that is produced. As the disease progresses a thick whitish mucus covers the body, usually starting at the head and spreading outward, skin lesions appear, and it is not uncommon for signs of secondary bacterial infections to arise.

Suggestions range from copper, malachite green and other remedies, with some recommended being used in conjunction with formaldehyde. However the general consensus is these types of medications are either largely ineffective or do not work at all, and that the best and most effective treatment for Brooklynella is formaldehyde alone. Typically a standard 37% formalin solution (shop & compare prices) is mixed with either fresh or saltwater in a separate treatment container, initially all fish are given a quick dip or a prolonged bath, followed by continued treatment and care in a QT. Of course the longer fish are exposed to the formalin treatment, the more effective it will be at eliminating this "disease". Whether to administer a dip or a bath to start with is something you will have to determine yourself, but there's a very simple way to do this.

Since these are Free swimming parasites which are in watersources, come attached to our fish etc. The only way to ensure NO ICH is to get a UV Sterilizer and addit to the tank. The UV Sterilizer kills the free swimming forms of various ich and other parasites.

Hope this helps Feel free to email me if you need additional assistance.