I think my fish has ich...but i have a charcoal filter.?

Question

One of my fish has some white areas and I think it is ich (also caused death of two other fish this week). The medicine I have says not to use with to use with a charcoal filter. Why is this? Do I need to go buy a different type of filter before I add the medicine? What kind should I get, I'll have to go to Wal-Mart as it's sunday night in my small town?

Answer 1

The reason you must remove the charcoal is that it will leach out the medicine before it can help your fish. Until you can get more meds,turn the heat up in your tank gradually to the high 80's. You probably can just remove the filter insert for a few days without resorting to buying another. Just let the filter run without the insert,if that's possible,it would help to know what sort of filter you have.

Answer 2

The ich medication is more important than your charcoal filter. Your tank can run without the filter for a couple of days. Take the carbon cartridge out of the tank, then give the fish the medicine. If you have to, you can cut open the carbon cartridge and dump out the charcoal and then replace the empty cartridge for filtration. Or you can use a coffee filter or paper towel for very short periods of time. Your fish will not die from not having the carbon cartridge in the filter, but your fish WILL die from ich.
If you have aquarium salt, add it directly to the tank, like food. The salt will damage the ich and it will start coming off of the fish. Ich is a parasite and cannot live with the salt, but your fish will be fine. In fact, they may be happier with some salt.

Also DO NOT turn the heat up in your tank. Ideally, the water in your tank should not change more than 3 degrees in a twenty-four hour period.

Answer 3

You cant use charcoal because it will remove the medicine from your water. If possible just remove the charcoal insert. If this is not possible I would suggest looking into other treatements that dont require you modify the filtration. My tank recently was afflicted with ich so I added 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons and raised the water temperature to 89 degrees. Within a week all of the whitespots had gone away and I didn't have fool around with the filter at all.

hope that helps...

Answer 4

The charcol will take out the chemicals your using, if your filter has to parts to it say charcol and foam then take the charcoal out and leave the foam running.
Raise the tempreature anyway to 85f.
If its white spot that will stop it from doing too much damage and may even kill it outright, if not you will have to use the propriatary treatment and take out the charcoal. If you remove the charcoal then it will have to be for several days, in the case of white spot it takes on average 2 weeks to be certain its destroyed, for further details look up the disease on the net and see how long the disease cyclyes in its diff guises


AJ

Answer 5

the charcole deactivates the medisine and traps it in the filter. treat your fish after unplugging your filter.you can leave it unplugged for up to 2 hours without harm to your fish. treat as directed.also once a week I would do a half clean of your tank to start removing the ick from the tank.since you have lost other fish the tank should be broken down and completely cleaned to help remove all the ick from the tank and the filters should be replaced

Answer 6

ok dont panic i ck can kill your fish you must take out any filiter because it will take out your medicine and do yoour water change 15percent half way threw the treatment but hes something that helps ick alot quicker than the 7 day treatment its called quick cure it gets rid of it in about 3 day ask your fish store about works well i hated stressing the fish out for so long so heres what i do get quick cure its in a red bottel its one drop for every five gallons on my tank it takes about 30 then i take out the filiter and then after 3 days i do a parical water change it works well you can get it from walmart or a petstore its all i ever use its cheep and i love it .Good luck

Answer 7

I certainly have not personnally had a sucker fish. Are you fascinated by a pleco or corycat? or maybe yet another form? to date as a understand sucker fish do no longer count on a charcol clear out. although till you have aquactic plant life that's a solid thought to have a charcol clear out besides. Charcol facilitates eliminate pollution and chemical from the water, so fish ought to benifit from it. in case you have aquactic plant life that's suited to no longer use a charcol clear out with the aid of fact the plant life use some chemical to enhance. If those chemical aspects are depleted then they are in a position to't enhance. in case you have aquactic plant life then there are different products which would be benifical to the plant life and nonetheless eliminate some pollution. easily i don no longer understand of any fish that absolutly desires charcol. yet i nonetheless enormously propose it with the aid of fact it takes pollution of the water. good success!!!!

Answer 8

The fish should be quaranteened so as not to spread it through your whole tank. Then you don't have to worry about the filter taking out the medicine.

Answer 9

Just remove the charcoal from the filter for 24 hours. then put it back.

Answer 10

The carbon will remove the medication. So you should remove the carbon while you put in the medication.

~ZTM