# Help - my tank has ich



## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

I have a 10g el natural tank that I have just added 9 female bettas to. Unfortunately, yesterday I noticed symptoms of ich. How do I go about treating this? Also, I don't have a heater on the tank so I can't use the heat method. Without other options I went ahead and added 3 tbsp of salt to the tank, but I know this isn't very good for the plants. Any other options? Someone mentioned to me the "transfer" method.


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## guppygirl123 (Sep 28, 2007)

I got rid of ich in my 29g using heat, but I also did water changes in the gravel frequently. Whenever I noticed one of the spots had fallen off one of my fish, I would do a gravel water change to get it out of the tank before it could multiply. Salt works well too.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

Hi,

Bettas do best at higher temperatures - high 70's to low 80's. If in the winter the room in which they are gets cooler than that, you need a heater.

If you had a heater, I would suggest that you raise the temperature to about 90 and keep it there for 3 or 4 days. That will take care of the ich.

Bill


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

Yes, I plan on getting a real heater for this tank soon. I do have a heating pad type thing but it's not thermostatically controlled and isn't very powerful. Somebody told me to ask about the transfer method for curing ich that doesn't require a heater or meds, if anyone knows what this is I would love to find out.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

As per the suggestion...get the heater, it will come in handy. The Betta probably would do better if you keep the heat up anyway.

Heat works on Ich. It probably will not be the last time you have to fight this battle. With that fish high heat is good. There are other methods but heat is usually the easiest. Salt is bad for plants and Cories, among others, and I have not heard of The Tranfer Method but I am curious though. I have not seen Ich in many years but it is always around the corner. Being prepared is wise.

Get a good quality heater, online is cheapest, usually, a Stealth or Ebo Jaeger is a good choice, there are others that are good too but a lot of the Submersibles and Inlines are OK.

Good luck.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

I forgot to mention. Whatever you do, do it quickly! Ich goes quick once you see it and it is deadly.

Borrow a heater or pick up whatever is available tonight if you can to get the heat up.

Each one of those white spots turns into a lot of individuals and the fish is quickly overwhelmed.

Water changes always are good. Every little bit helps.


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## Mr Fishies (Apr 9, 2006)

Cliff Mayes said:


> I forgot to mention. Whatever you do, do it quickly! Ich goes quick once you see it and it is deadly.
> 
> Borrow a heater or pick up whatever is available tonight if you can to get the heat up.
> 
> ...


Clarissa,

In my pre-El natural days (long time ago), any time I had issues with Ich, ammonia was up - usually due to lack of maintenance. :doh: I seem to recall you mentioned algae problems in another post which could suggest an algae spike.

Do you have a test kit to check your water conditions?

I agree with Cliff, whatever medication or method you try do it fast. Get a heater, do water changes.

The "transfer method", as I understand it, means having multiple tanks (at least 2 in addition to your main tank, all with well conditioned, heated water) moving your fish daily from tank to tank and cleaning/disinfecting the tank you just moved it from to kill any Ich that fell off in that tank before it can be reused the next day. This is a lot of work and sounds very stressful to the fish - even a healthy one.

Ian


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

Yes my tests are showing 0 ammonia. The thing is I just added 9 bettas at once and they came from very poor conditions. Probably there was an undetctable ammonia spike with the full fish load hitting so fast.


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

I picked up a heater tonight, when I get home tomorrow I'll put it on and see what I can do. I also got some malachite green in case the heat doesn't clear it.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

aquabillpers said:


> Hi,
> 
> Bettas do best at higher temperatures - high 70's to low 80's. If in the winter the room in which they are gets cooler than that, you need a heater.
> 
> ...


Yikes! 90F is a tad too high for bettas! If anything, I'd recommend 85-86F but not 90. In the wild, bettas are found in water temps of 86F. I think anything higher then that would be too much.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

90 gegrees is OK. I have done it many times for weeks and the fish is fine. It does kill the Ich. The higher temps seem to accelerate the cycle and the Swarmers that hatch cannot deal with the higher temperatures. Small creatures have a much narrower range of requirements than larger more complex ones. Most fish seem to adapt and live through higher temperatures than normal as long as everythibg else is OK. We are lucky with the Betta splendans in that it (and you are quite corect) normally lives in fairly high temreratures which are close to what are fatal to an Ich infestation.

The typical Betta that we have still maintains some of its wild attributes and requirements.


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

I have my other tank at 90 (or as close to it as I can with the heater all the way up) with no apparent ill effects to the fish. I have in the tank one female betta, dwarf gouramis, neons, mollies, and a pleco. Ich only manifested itself on two of the fish about a week ago and has not appeared on any others since I cranked the temperature up. Hopefully it stays that way. From what I understand, lack of oxygen can be the biggest risk to higher temps, I've watched my fish all week and none of them appear to be stressed in any way so I think they're ok. So time to try it on my 10g!


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

You are on track Carissa. The only admonition that I can see, from your Post, is that I do not know what Genus and species your pleco is. Some catfish are from lower temperature areas and sometimes need special consideration in husbandry techniques. Try to be sure what creature you have and adapt accordingly. For the survival of your pleco it may be necessary to re house it for a while. But if it has been coping with the higher temp for a while it is probably OK. It is imperative that you get rid of the Ichthyohthirius (this is why we usually just say Ich.) You may have to resort to medication for the pleco if necessary.


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

I was a little worried about him too, but I watched him for the first day or two and he never showed any signs of ill effects. In fact I've never seen him more active. He's out during the day scrounging around for algae all the time now. Probably hungrier with the faster metabolism I figured. So I'm feeding him a bit extra too as well as the others. In that tank, it was only two neons who ever showed signs of ich. Nobody else has displayed symptoms within 6 days so I think I'm getting out of the woods with that one at least.

I don't know how to identify my pleco. From what I was able to gather, he's just the regular old common pleco, the pictures tell me that anyway. But so many of them look so alike.

My other concern though now with my el natural is that I'm showing a trace of ammonia, I don't know if the fish load is too high or if the salt is inhibiting my plants from absorbing it as rapidly. I'm going to do some water changes to get the salt out now once the temp gets high enough and see how it goes from there.


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## Rummynose (Feb 4, 2007)

Another option is to install a U.V. sterilizer. The ich parasite must leave its host(the fish) to reproduce. It falls to the bottom of the aquarium and divides into 1000-2000 dautgher cells called tomites. The tomites now swim upward to look for a new host. During this free swiming stage they are irradiated as they pass thru the sterilizer. I installed a U.V. on my 55 gallon NPT two years ago, Ich has never raised its ugly head since.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

That is great Rummynose! I have to buy on of those suckers ASAP just to have around in case I need it, just like Activated Carbon.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

That sounds like a great idea. I've never seen them around here though, but I'll keep it in mind in case this becomes a problem that won't go away. I was just saying to myself, literally the day before it happened, boy I'm sure glad I'm better off then all those poor people who have diseases ravage their tanks, I've never had any problems with ich, isn't that great! Then blammo! Two out of three!


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

Well, excuse me for being concerned for the fish that'll have to live in those temperatures.

I have talked to quite a few others that have owned bettas for many years and they all said that 85F is more then enough to get rid of ich since that is the temperature they've used when their bettas became infected with this parasite so I didn't mention it for the hell of it.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

I was not trying to offend you Red Rose but 90 is fine in my experience, especially for Betta splendens.
You and you and your friends may very well be correct that 85 is enough to kill Ich but I and others have been using 90 for a long tme and it is generally OK.


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

All the information I was able to find said that ich will stop reproducing somewhere between 82 - 85, so to be safe 86 is recommended. Different strains have different temperature sensitivities. However it said that it doesn't actually die until you hit 90. I might get away with a lower temperature but for the sake of 4 degrees, I think I would rather be safe than sorry.


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