# [Wet Thumb Forum]-83-84 degrees enough to kill ich?



## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

I recently added a few new M.Praecox to my existing school. I dont have a Q-tank.. well.. yeah apparently they had ich and I have had quite the exsplosion in my tank. Every one is itchy and most show moderate to heavy ich. I am having issues raising my temp above 83-84... I think I need a new heater as I have set to 87... should this be enough? And how long should it take... I know 85 is the suggested level...


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

I recently added a few new M.Praecox to my existing school. I dont have a Q-tank.. well.. yeah apparently they had ich and I have had quite the exsplosion in my tank. Every one is itchy and most show moderate to heavy ich. I am having issues raising my temp above 83-84... I think I need a new heater as I have set to 87... should this be enough? And how long should it take... I know 85 is the suggested level...


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## IZM (May 24, 2003)

From my understanding your goal is not to kill the Ich with the raise in temp. All that will do is speed up the life cycle of the organism. I think you need to be ready to treat the aquarium with your M Green or whatever you use when you see the white spots start to decrease. It is at this time that the organism is most vulnerable to the treatment.


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

IZM is right. i also believe that it speeds up the immune system of the fish. remember to keep the oxygen levels up cuz there's less of it at those temperatures.


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

I have an elephant nose in here... is there a treatment that is safe for him?


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## nino (Oct 2, 2004)

You can use Super ick cure or Rid-ich half dosage. May want to add the medication little by little and see how he react. That dosage is safe for scaleless fish but elephant nose is very sensitive sometimes.


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## Dojo (Feb 2, 2003)

I keep loaches. 

I've succesfully cured ich with salt treatments up to 2 tbs per gallon. (extreme cases) Otherwise 1tbs - gallon is even safer.

Salt and heat is an excellent safe remedy for most fish. Even loaches.


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

I have never used salt as an ich cure... is this ok for corys and elephant noses... I have heard salt is not.

Hoepfully someone can give me some experienced advice on this. I would hate lose my elephant nose. had him for thjree years.

For the record my tank is a 90 gallon and has
2 agazzi corys
1 rope fish
3 german blue rams
1 rope fish
2 african butterflys
8 M.Praecox (dwarf rainbows)
1 rubber nose plec

Also I dont want to add anything that kills inverts. I throw in like 50 ghost shrimp every two weeks for the rope fish and I need them to stay alive until he decides otherwise


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

salt is fine for those fish. don't worry







good luck with your fight against ich.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Raising the temp only speeds up the life cycle of the ich it does not kill it. You raise the temp to get the ich in the free swimming stage so it can be killed by meds, as long as the white spots are on the fish the ich can not be killed. The temp needs to be raised slowly (2-3 degrees per day) to 86 degrees, then left at this temp for two weeks. Once the spots on the fish start decreasing then you can add your perfered treatment. I have used salt (1 table spoon per 5 gallons) in a planted tank with loaches & tetras with no problems.


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

Heat treatment to kill ich does exist, but the temperature needs to be about 90F for several hours a day over the course of three or four days. Obviously, not all fish can tolerate the treatment, and the practice should be used in very select situations.


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

SO I assume that if I go to my LFS they will have salt to treat ich... i feel like such a moron... i have been keeping fish for 11 years and have never had to use a salt treatment ebcause my tank with my elephant nose has NEVER had a spot of ich. And now its ridden thanks to these friggin rainbows.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

You can use marine salt but will be more expensive. I use pickling salt from the grocery store at the cost of a $1.09 for 4lbs or you can also use kosher salt & unidozed table salt.


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

trenac, just curious but what's the difference between pickling salt and uniodized salt?


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Pickling salt is in coarse grains, like rock salt. Uniodized salt is your standard fine grain table salt, but without the iodine added.


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

oh ok...but it's all just NaCl and not like aquarium salt that has other ions


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

It's not marine mix, if that's what you mean. Does plain aquarium salt (the one used for Mollys and such) have things besides NaCl added?


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

oh so there's a difference between aquarium salt and marine salt?


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Yeah. Marinx mix has a bunch of trace elements added in. Aquarium is just repackaged rock salt.


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

So which is best for curing ich?


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

plant idot, you ready for the answer? *drum roll please* .............

boom boom boom....... 


Nothing. As long as you have good water quality and the fish are eating, they will heal on their own. 

Good luck.


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Algae Grower:
> plant idot, you ready for the answer? *drum roll please* .............
> ...


Best answer yet and exactly what I wanted to hear. Like I said. I have been keeping fish since I was 12 so 11 years. But only been serious the past three. And believe it or not... I have never had an outbreak. Never more than a few speaks here and there. So I dont know that much about curing an all out infection. Everyone in the tank is eating voraciously and displays no sign of major discomfort other than the occasional itch against a piece of drift wood. So hopefully in what, a few weeks(?) this will all clear up?


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

it should be soon. ich happens a lot durin the summer cuz of temperature fluctuations from heat waves... of course temp fluctuations happen in the wild too..but we're talking a bigger body of water and slower changes. the smaller the tank, the more drastic the change...i've had some fish show ich several times this summer and none have died from it. 

cheers


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## IZM (May 24, 2003)

I prefer not to treat for ICH also. I have seen it on a couple of fish maybe twice in the last...oh 10 years or so. It has never been a problem before. As you notice the spots dropping off do water changes. If the fishes immune systems are back up to par the white spots will not reappear.


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

Well one of two recently introduced (ich carrying and introducing as well) M.Praecox died. My rams who had it the worst are all but clear. Everyone else is almost clear except my rubbernose who is looking pretty rough.

I did a 25 gal change tonight and will do another on Sunday and keep them up every three or four days with my temp between 85-86. Hopefully this will all be gone soon...


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## docjosh (May 12, 2004)

Sorry to hear about your fish loss

I just went through a similar experience but being a newbie to plants i am only throwing this out as a opinion since i do not have the history most folks here have. In my pre-plant days i always treated ich with Aqurisol which is a Coopersulfate based treatment and not safe for Shrimps. So this time when my new gold rams had ich i tried the 85 degrees and salt treatment...and i know i was supposed to be patient but when my succesfully breeding female ram died after 2 weeks i went out and bought some Mardel's Maracide ( I found it at my local Petco which i used due to quick access).

I have read some posts about Mardel changing their ingredients but i am not sure if I bought the new or old Maracide...but it worked very quickly and I am now ich free. I saw no major damage to plants or shrimp or scaleless fish (otos). I can not for sure say that the Maracide did anything that the salt and temp alone would not have taken care of over time...but my opinion is next time i see a couple white ich specks i am going to start the maracide regime (1 drop per gallon added daily for 5 days) with water changes before application. The first bottle i bought was small and had a different regime and not enough juice to treat my 50 gallon. So look for the larger size bottle if you have a larger tank.

What I would love to see is some scientific studies...but in the mean time I think getting rid of ich fast is the best solution for lack of death. just my 2 cents


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

i just recently purchased some guppies that had the problem of shimmying and fins deteriorating. A friend suggested i add salt, so i added uniodized morton salt to 1 tbsp per 10 gallons...the guppies are healing and they are great! I've heard of this treatment for ich also. 

I was wondering if anyone used Salt Water Softening pellets from home depot or lowes as a cheap alternative to aquarium salt or rock salt or table salt? They are so cheap and if they work, guppy breeders would love that!


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

Just so you know... the other introduced M.Praecox kicked it and so did my rubber nose that was covered. But everyone else in the tank is completley ick free for three days. I am leaving the temp high for another week and then I will slowly lower back down to 79-80. Sad to have lost the rubber nose... the two bastards who brought this to the tank deserved what theys got. (that was a joke by the way) but all in all... as bad as it was it could have concluded much worse. Really glad my gorgeous rams survived.


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## menschenjaeger (Aug 10, 2004)

Most anti-caking agents are bad for fish, as well.


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