so i bought some medicine for ick....?

Question

i bought quick cure with the active ingredient malachite green. i applied 10 drops since its a 10 gallon tank. i have this filters with white cotton like material and charcoal and another black polyester material do i keep the filter running or do i take out a part of it and leave it running or d i just remove the filter... and hw long should i keep thsi treatment up for? can i still feed the fish? and what abut water changes?

Answer 1

You need to take the carbon (charcoal) out of your filter, if you haven't done this yet. The black material may be carbon-based so I would recommend removing it too. Any carbon will absorb the medication, then it will be useless to your fish. If there's a white or blue pad the traps particles in the water, you should leave that in.

You need to treat your fish for 10-14 days, or at least 3-5 days after you don't see any spots. The directions on the bottle will say three days, but this isn't correct. The parasites are protected inside a cyst when they're on your fish (the white spots you see), so the medication can't affect them in this stage. It's only when they drop off your fish that they can be killed. If you stop treating too early, the fish can be reinfected.

Feed the fish as normal.

When you do a water change, you will need to replace the medication that is removed. Use a marked bucket or a gallon jug so you know how many gallon you take out of the tank, then add this many drops of medication after you replaced the water.

This has more information about ich: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

Answer 2

Ick is from stress. You need to take the filter out while you are treating your tank. You can leave it running though. I haved used the quick cure before and it should tell you on the back on how long to use it. You still need to feed your fish and the water change is unneccesary.

Answer 3

Exact instructions should be somewhere on the packaging, usually you have to remove the carbon from the filter ( but still have the filter running) yes you can feed your fish as normal.