# ICH treatment - how much longer at 90F



## vicpinto (Mar 27, 2007)

I noticed one of fish add ICH last Tuesday. I immediately increased temps to 88-90F and slowly added 1tsp salt/gallon over the next 3 days. It's now 10 days later. No spots on any fish. Water temp is a balmy 90F and probably much cooler at the gravel since the thermometer is almost at the surface of the water.

Question is: Is it okay to bring the temps back down and do a water change or should I keep the temp up for another 3 or 4 days? The tank looks like crap and could use a good gravel cleaning too. I also have a UV sterilizer which I should be getting tomorrow. Should I install it first before I decrease temp/change water/clean the gravel just as an extra insurance policy?

Thanks in advance for all replies.

Victor


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

I would definitely start bringing it down. I wouldn't even have had it that high (maybe 85).


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## furballi (Feb 2, 2007)

I'd take it down to 85F tomorrow and change 50% of the water the next day. Make sure the new water is within 3F of 85F. Let the tank's temperature gradually fall back to 74 to 76F range.


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## Mad Dog (Mar 3, 2007)

> It's now 10 days later. No spots on any fish


I just wanted to caution you here because even though you do not see any white spots on your fish which are indicitive of Ich, you run the risk of having a reoccuring Ich issue because at this time, you cannot be sure the tank is 100% 'ich-free'. In general, I would suggest continuing treatment for at least 2 weeks after the last white spot disappeared from your fish. Ich has a few different stages to its life and in reality, for at least two stages, you cannot see it with your naked eye. Once a white spot falls off of your fish, it will sink to the substrate or decoration in the tank in order to reproduce. Sometimes one white spot can generate hundreds and even thousands of new Ich protozoa. The role that the saly you added is to make any free-swimming Ich protozoa suffer as much as possible, and hopefully die. The role of the increased temp is to create a more ideal environment for the Ich, which results in speeding up the lifecycle so that they fall off sooner rather than later. IMHO, 90 degrees is a great temp for speeding up Ich's life, and in fact, is a more ideal temp for your benificial bacteria, however, it may be too much for your fish to handle since they are already weakened by the Ich, which was able to 'latch on' to the fish because it was stressed or otherwise unhealthy at the time of infestation. For that reason, if this was my tank, I would attempt to make any and all changes as subtle and minute as possible, including raising and/or lowering the temp. I agree that 85 degrees would be a better temp to shoot for because it is a better comprimise as far as walking the fine line of trying to kill one organizm while trying to keep others alive and well at the same time.

If you do not agree with me here, or are otherwise persuaded to just stop treatment now, you can do yourself a lot of good by doing whatever you can to keep your fish healthy and as stress-free as you can since they should then be able to fight off ich. I believe that it is commonly thought that Ich on a fish is much like humans and chicken pox in that the fish may create an immunity to Ich, but my brand of logic would not bank on that fact alone. Obviously, trying to improve your fishes' health can only help anyways so there is really no good reason not to.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Mad Dog said:


> I just wanted to caution you here because even though you do not see any white spots on your fish which are indicitive of Ich, you run the risk of having a reoccuring Ich issue because at this time, you cannot be sure the tank is 100% 'ich-free'. In general, I would suggest continuing treatment for at least 2 weeks after the last white spot disappeared from your fish. Ich has a few different stages to its life and in reality, for at least two stages, you cannot see it with your naked eye. Once a white spot falls off of your fish, it will sink to the substrate or decoration in the tank in order to reproduce. Sometimes one white spot can generate hundreds and even thousands of new Ich protozoa. The role that the salt you added is to make any free-swimming Ich protozoa suffer as much as possible, and hopefully die. The role of the increased temp is to create a more ideal environment for the Ich, which results in speeding up the lifecycle so that they fall off sooner rather than later.


That's exactly right, and why it's so important to keep up the treatment for at least 21 days to get through the entire life cycle of ich. If not, you'll just be at risk for another infestation and having to do it all over again, so it's best to get it done right the first time.


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