How long do you need to treat a 20 gal. tank for "ick"?

Question

"I told you not to put that fish in the tank-he's sick!" Tank has 2 small oscars, five feeder fish, three mollies just a little too big to be eaten, a dragon fish, a gorami, and a danyo. The sickest fish was the smaller oscar, just laid on the bottom and gasped, now after 5 days of Rx is eating again but obviously still has ick. Oh, have been changing out roughly half the water every 3 days. Does that help or make it worse by making the medicine too dilute? Help- I've fallen in love with the oscars!

Answer 1

Your tank is seriously overstocked (or will be by the time your fish are adults!). If the dragon fish is a dragon goby, it needs to have salt added to its water (they're brackish fish, not freshwater). The mollies won't mind the salt addition at all, and the gourami can tolerate some, but I don't know that your oscars would appreciate it as much.

Anyway, to the question you were asking - all tanks need the same treatment time regardless of size. This typically is 10-14 days, or at least 3-5 days after you no longer see spots on the fish. This is because medications and treatments don't kill the parasites when they're on the fish (they're covered in a protective cyst) only when they're in the water. If you stop treating too soon, the fish can be reinfected by surviving parasites.

You can decrease the time a little by turning up the heat - a few degrees each hour to around 86o if possible (watch your fish for signs of added stress and maintain good water circulation dor dissolved oxygen - as the temperature increases, the ability to hold dissolved gasses decreases).

Water changes are fine, since they will help remove dead parasites and ones newly released from the fish. Just remember to replace the amount of medication that was removed (this is one of the reasons I prefer Quick Cure if I medicate - the dose is one drop per gallon which is easy to figure as I refill the tank). Also, remember to remove any carbon from your filter - otherwise, the medication gets absorbed and doesn't help your fish.

Answer 2

Did you quarintine the sick fish....if you didn't, then you are just risking the other fish to get sick, but if you did then you are doing the right thing, doing a 50% water change every 3 days seems like a bit much, the stress it is causing the fish could make them even sicker. But if it seems to be working just keep at it, and keep the medication going until 3 days after it seems the fish are back to normal

Ive not had experience with a large tank, but my betta fish had ick and fin rot, while living with a tetra, and he got better within 4 days....so, hopefully your fishy will get better also

Answer 3

Mollies or swordtails would be a good option. Just make sure that if you do either that you keep 2-3 females for every male or there will be conflict. You could also do some bumblebee gobies, but those are brackish fish and really do best in species only tanks. Dwarf Puffers are another option. You could put 4-5 in there, but again, another fish that does better in species-specific tanks. I believe they do all right with Otos, though. And they might do OK with Corys. I'd check on that, though.

Answer 4

got enough fish for that tank.... overstocked, you should have at least 75 gallons.

the reason why your tank is getting sick, is due to poor living conditions and the unnessesary risk of feeding live fishes, as they can bring alot of disease into the tank system.

Also not quaritining fishes is a BAD habit to start doing. while your working with 20 dollar fishes i guess it doesnt mean much to you, but when you work with arowanas and others than will fetch a 100-10,000 price tag, you need to quarintine fishes.

Anyway, to answer your question, ich doesnt take more than 5 days if you treat it the right way. increase the water temp, add aquarium salt, and a ich medication will have it cleared up in no more than 5 days.

but seriously, you need to upgrade or give up your fish as your stunting them and killing them.

for what you have they need at least 75 gallons, remember oscars will reach about 14-16 inches.

Answer 5

You are doing the right thing. I used the medication till I did not see the ick any more. That is what I was told but check with your local pet store to find out the best answer. That is the best place to by the meds also. Wal-mart sales generic formulas that do not get rid of the full ick.

Answer 6

Usually, it takes about 7 to 15days for the ick to be gone... But give it some time...

Answer 7

ick is actually a stress related problem in the fish, and it is not really a disease that you can treat in the water, you can treat the fish, but not the water itself... and i would not treat the fish very long!