# ick



## 14discus (Oct 17, 2006)

I Have A Planted Aquarium With Discus. And I Just Added 4 Blue Rams Two Are Dead. 18 Dollars Gone No Big Deal But The Problen Is I Now Have Ick On My Schooling Fish.
Reading The Bottle Of Copper Safe Says That It May Kill My Plants????????
If You Have Some Advice Please Help!!!!


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## ranchwest (Jul 17, 2005)

Raise the temperature to between 83 and 87 degrees for the next 2 to 4 weeks. The discus and rams will probably like it to stay over 80. 

Do some partial water changes. I prefer 20% at a time, making sure the water is not below 80 degrees.

Hopefully someone can advise you on the copper safe.


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## grim (Mar 13, 2008)

ICK GAURD II wont hurt the plants took me roughly five days toget rid of it saved most the fish


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I've never had a problem with Coppersafe and plants, but the heat/salt method might be a better option since the fish you have don't mind warmer water at all. 
As stated above, you need to do any treatment for nearly 4 weeks to be sure to get through the entire ich cycle.


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## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

you could do both of course,raise the temp and treat with medicine.It is copper that is a bit dangerous for both fish and plants but very few treatments have copper in them and are also very effective..read the ingredients


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## lauraleellbp (Jan 31, 2008)

Coppersafe will kill most inverts, and can be absorbed into the silicone of the tank, meaning you possibly may never be able to keep shrimp or snails in that tank again.

I personally prefer salt and warm water to treat ich.


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## 14discus (Oct 17, 2006)

Will The Copper Be Absorbed Buy The Plants, Are They Going To Drop My Ppm?


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## Jerroldw91 (Mar 17, 2008)

When ever i get ick i give the fish a quick salt bath and put them in a hopsital tank for a few days. Just use a couple Tablespoons of aquarium salt in a bowl and put the fish in there for a minute or so.


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## lauraleellbp (Jan 31, 2008)

^^ Won't take care of the ich in the main tank though. Here's an article on ich you really should read:
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml


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## Manwithnofish (Mar 12, 2008)

*Better thread for my question?*

In my main show tank (70 gal. f/w planted community tank), if I discover a fish with ICK, what do I do?

a). Remove the fish that show symptons and treat them in my 10 gal hospital tank?

b). Treat the show tank because ICK is in the tank?

If I have to treat my show tank, what will treatments (salt, Quick Cure, etc) do to my plants. Will the Quick Cure stain my tank or objects in the tank?

There's too many things to know, how am I ever going to know enough?

I'm sorry...I don't have ICK, this is just worry in advance.


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## lauraleellbp (Jan 31, 2008)

Man- there's no need to ask the same question multiple times; see the other thread for my answer.


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## Manwithnofish (Mar 12, 2008)

> I've never had a problem with Coppersafe and plants, but the heat/salt method might be a better option since the fish you have don't mind warmer water at all.


How long do you add salt? Is it a one time treatment and then you wait 4 weeks? Do you add more at some specified dosing rate and schedule?


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## Manwithnofish (Mar 12, 2008)

How long does it take for ICK to develop. Does it start with a few spots and then eventually cover the fish or does it just appear over night covering their entire body?


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## ranchwest (Jul 17, 2005)

Most fish will flash (scratch on things) before showing spots, so don't buy fish that either have spots or are flashing. 

It could take a few hours to a few days from the first signs of flashing to seeing spots. It will probably take several days before the spots are covering the fish heavily.

For salt treatments, you put salt in and then replace that salt proportionately when you do partial water changes. Partial water changes are recommended with ich (or any other time). 

You can use a hydrometer (salt water test device) to measure the salt in a freshwater tank. I prefer the big glass ones that bob in the water for use with freshwater because they do pretty good at measuring the low salt level. If I remember correctly (maybe not), salt water ranges from 1.016 to 1.027 on the hydrometer. For salting a freshwater tank, you salt to 1.002, considerably less than saltwater. Freshwater plants probably won't handle that level of salt, so it needs to be in a hospital tank. When you do a water change, you bring the salt level back to 1.002 on the hydrometer. Most freshwater fish can handle this just fine, but the ich can't.

Keep the temperature above 78 degrees, preferably at 84 or more if the fish don't distress too much.

Ich will probably appear to be gone in about a week or less at 84 degrees, but for truly safe measure it wouldn't hurt to do this for a month.

Since ich is also in the water, keep the temperature elevated in the main tank, too.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

The recommended dosage is 1 TBS of salt per 5 gallons of water. Water changes are also recommended to remove any dying cysts during treatment. As stated above, just add the 1 TBS of salt per 5 gallons for however many gallons of water you change.
Here is a good article that explains the lifecycle and treatment options.
Ich treatment

Manwithnofish, if you detect ich in your main tank, then you have to treat for it in that tank. That's why it's best to quarantine new fish to catch those things before they go into your main tank. 



lauraleellbp said:


> Man- there's no need to ask the same question multiple times; see the other thread for my answer.


Donning my moderator tank for a minute here, we do welcome all questions, and even though they may seem like the same thing, many are unique to each persons situation. In that sense we don't want to be like some of the impersonal boards and tell someone to just use the search function option or go find another thread.


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## Manwithnofish (Mar 12, 2008)

Actually, I literally posted the exact same question in two different threads on ICK. I originally posted it in the first one but then found what I felt was a better thread to post. Sorry, I didn't mean to waste bytes on a hard drive somewhere.


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