Curing Ich in my Betta?

Question

My Betta, Monet, has Ich...Ive treated his water with Coppersafe, but it doesnt seem to be helping much.

What else can I do for him?
He's in a 2 gallon Hex tank, and I dont think I can break down his tank completely without putting him in my new tropical tank (that is empty right now) and infecting that tank and needing to break it down and start from scratch with it.

Ive heard of using aquarium salt, but I dont know how much to use or if it would be harmful to Monet. Any ideas?

Thanks so much!
I went ahead and did a 50% change and added a tablespoon of salt and more of the Coppersafe to replace what it being taken out.

I took out his decoration and scrubbed it, but Im afraid to put it back in. Should I boil the decoration to get it really clean before putting it back?

Answer 1

EDIT: You don't need to boil it... If you want to, you can, but the same thing would be accomplished in the salty water...

Seeing as you already have a medication in your tank, I would advise that you wait a bit. Just like in humans, medications don't work immediately. If you don't see improvement within a week of adding the meds, then clean the tank well (with a siphon and bucket), and prepare for the salt and heat treatment.

If you are gonna use salt, you should also crank up the heat on the tank to about 85*. The heat will help speed up the life cycle of the Ick/Ich parasite. Once it gets to the stage where the parasite frees itself from the fish, the salt in the water will kill it.

First, siphon all the poop and extra food out of the tank. Once your tank is clean, dissolve about 1/5 of a cup of Kosher salt (you want salt without iodine). Change the water twice a week while treating Ick. When you add water in, be sure to add the same ratio that you removed. For example, if you remove 1/5 of the tank water, add about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt back into the tank (a little more will not hurt your Betta, just don't overdose extremely). Email me if you have any questions.

Soop Nazi

Answer 2

Okay here is what you do to cure ich! You have a heater right? Your going to need one. Slowly put up the temp of the tank in the water. Put it up to 81F. The betta wont mind because he is used to the heat. But make sure you put it up slowly over the coarse of 3-4 hours, or you will shock Monet. Right, after you get the heat up to 81F, your going to need Aquarium salt. Make sure its aquarium, table salt contains iodine which can harm fish. The general rule of thumb is usually 1 tbsp per 5 gallons. So take a table spoon of aquarium salt, id just cut half of the salt off in the table spoon and just use that salt. It should be only 4-5 crystals. Slowly you should start to see the ich dissapear over the coarse of a week. When the week is over. make sure you do a 30% water change, and do a gravel vac really good. I mean really good. Reason why you do all this is ...... 81F heat>> speeds up the cycle of the ich spots on the fish >> the eggs (white spots) hatch into free swimming cells that drop to the bottem of the gravel waiting for a new host to latch onto >> aquarium salt kills off the cells >> gravel vac makes sure you take up any remaining ich cells. Good luck!

Answer 3

Coppersafe takes a few weeks to eliminate all the parasites. Ich is only killed when it's in it's free swimming stage. So, you basically have to wait for the parasite to fall off the fish before the meds/treatment will kill them. Here's a couple links that explain what ich is and different treatment options:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyophthirius

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1791&articleid=2421

And regardless of which treatment you end up using, you want to be sure to continue treating for at least 4-5 days after you see the last spot on the fish. That's again, because it's only killed during that certain stage, and you can't see it in the water. The only time you see it is when it's on the fish. On average, it takes about 2-3 weeks to treat ich successfully, depending on what the tank temperature is, higher temps speed up the ich life cycle, thus killing them quicker. Good luck!