# I'm about to loose my mind!!!! Now I think I have ick.



## Cal (Feb 20, 2006)

First off, I want to appologise for looking like such a dip stick. I've never had this much trouble. I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't know if I want to screem or cry.

I went to pull the drift wood out to catch the serpae's that I finally seen attacking my other fish. Turned the light on and there was a cardinal, and a rummy doing barrell roll's. The only thing I had done to the tank today was remove 2 dead fish from the filter tube's just 1/2 hour before. Now I think there might be some contamination on my net, so it's in the trash. Also, the adult I left incharge of feefing the fish today grossly over fed them. All there little bellies were just stuffed. Pulled the drift wood, caught the serpae's, and finally got a good look at the cardinal's that's been staying at the back glass behind the drift wood. Most of them have their tail's niped off, and they have tiny white spec's on them. Also some has small white patche's. Is this ick. I'm afraid to do anything. What should I do. If I medicate, would it hurt the 5 oto's. Please advise.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

do a good wc...50-70%, gravel vacuum. then add non-iodised salt 100g per 100 liters...[1ppt-parts perthousand]

you may wanna remove the fish affected for a 3ppt salt dip. 5-30 mins.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Yep, that's serpaes for you. Give the cards a chance. A good part of their tails might grow back. Are the white spots like big sugar crystals all over the body or is it fluffy stuff growing on the fins where they were damaged? Sugar crystals would probably be ich. Fin fungus would be an oportunistic infection at a site of trauma.

It sounds like things are out of control in your tank. If you think you have ich I would not delay in starting treatment. I don't think you have any choice but to treat the otos too. I think they'd be fine, but I have no personal experience with this.


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

your oto's should be ok, i have treated with them before too. another remedy you can use for ich, besides the (forget the chemical, something green) that stuff that turns your water blue, is aquarium salt (to reduce stress) and slowly raise your water temp. to 80 throughout the day. ich can not survive above 80 deg. im no too sure how your serpaes will react to the salt, i know cories dont really like it, and if you have plants, they dont like it all that much either, but it gets rid of the ich.


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## Cal (Feb 20, 2006)

I'd say most, if not all fish are affected. Your talking just aquarium salt, right?

The bigger patch's are not fuzzy like cotton, just white. Maybe the wound is just not infected yet. The tiny white spec's are more like a tiny grain of salt/sugar.

The serpae's are out of the tank now. The cory's are all dead. I have alot of plant's. Do they harbor disease's too. Will the salt treatment kill my plant's. Should I remove them before I put the salt in, or keep them in there.

What suck's is I have to go to work and won't be able to get to a fish store for any medication, if that's the route I have to take. The only thing I can posibly do is hit Walmart for some salt.

So here's the plan. I'm off to walmart for salt. I'll wait until the last possable moment to add it to give you guy's time to reply about what to do about the plant's. If I don't get any replie's before I have to go to work, I'm leaving the plant's in. Gosh, I hope I don't kill them.

BTW. Is there something you can/should rinse your hand's/arm's with before putting them in the tank. I never had problem's in the past, but I'm just trying to stop all possibilities. Thank's for all the help guy's.

Edit: I guess I can get medication at Walmart. I'll just see what they have and let you guy's know.


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## Cal (Feb 20, 2006)

OK, Back from walmart. Got the aquarium salt and some wardley's ick away. I'm going to try to wait to do anything until I hear back from you guy's.

It say's on the bottle to remove carbon. All I have for filtration is 2 whisper 3 filter's. I guess I'll just pull the carbon bag's and run just the sponge's. I hope I don't loose too much of my bio.

It also say's may harm scaleless fish,,,you know, the usual disclamer. You guy's think the oto's will be ok. I feel like I should add just the salt and wait until tonight to see what happen's before adding the ick away. What do you guy's think. Please advise. Thank's


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

the salt is not "great" for the plants. if you have any delicate plants i would take them out. i dont recall having any issues with my oto's. one way to look at it is, at least oto's are cheap.  

your bio filtration shouldn't be affected that much if you leave the sponge's in, you also have some bio filtration in your substrate.

if your worried about the salt, try just raising the temp above 80 initially. i have knocked ich out with temp raise only. make sure you leave it up for about a week so you dont get another bloom.

i have always just washed my hands. nothing fancy.

good luck!


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## BrianK (Feb 11, 2006)

If you are doing the Ich treatment, also raise the temp to 84-86 if your fish can handle it. The higher temp decreases the lifespan of the Ich. Put in an airstone too because there is less oxygen in the water at higher temps.

I know clown loaches can't handle salt, but if otos are scaleless, wouldn't it be the same for them?

I just had an Ich problem in my tank thanks to a couple infected Clown Loaches. I used Rid Ich+ which is safe for plants and scaleless fish, but my Loaches and Rams didn't make it :-/ Kept my Killifish from getting Ich though.

As for hand washing, I rinse my hands and arms in hot water.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

yes it's aq salt. normal salt[NaCL]. the salt at 1ppt is fine for plants. done this treatment many times. works for treating tanks with mild fin rot[long term 1 month] after a 3ppt salt dip as well.

for planted tanks i don't recommend the green thing like malachite green.
Omnisan from sera says it doesn't damage plants at rec doses. but it's a gamble because net info on malachite green says it's hard on plants.
methylene blue is very effective and it will stain almost everything and although effective, it is very damaging to plants. so bad choice.

raising the temp is good but may damage your plants if you exceed 29c for long periods. this is to speed up the pest's life cycle. the free swimming stage is the time when the pest is vulnerable. 
aeration is recommended when you raise the temp.

in your case it sounds serious. you may want to run a UVS during treatment for salt. bonus for salt treatment is it encourages slime production to prevent secondary infection.

from experience if the fish are strong they will be able to beat ich. i had ~30 simulans and 12 discus in same tank. all the fish had ich except the alpha pair.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Plants do not harbor ich. It is a parasite that requires fish to complete its life cycle. I don't remember the details, but the parasites that drop off will die if they don't find a new fish host in a couple of weeks. If you can keep it knocked down for that amount of time it should be gone.


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