oh no :(

[aquabee]

Hey all. Just noticed one of my boraras in the planted tank was looking thin and sickly, so I looked a little closer and noticed those tell tale ich spots. Looked even closer, and saw one of the neons had spots, and so did one of the ruby tetras. Ugh!! Not sure how this happened as there haven't been any temp drops.

Haven't ever treated a planted tank with shrimp/assassins in it. Anyone know what's safe for my bacterial colonies as well as my inverts? I know I could probably do a search but personal experience goes a long way... plus I'm in the middle of a crazy couple weeks of night shifts. Help!

[eklikewhoa]

Only thing I suggest doing is either remove the fish or slowly increase the temps and do daily waterchanges making sure you siphon at the substrate surface.

[justdoit]

Agree w/EK
Get those temps up 80-82. Go slow and everyone will handle but not like it
may add aeration / bubbler to watch oxygen levels w/ the high temps
If you have an isolation tank & can seperate the worst it may be a benefit to those who already have signs as you could medicate
Still raise temps in main tank to fight the ich before it can get a stronghold

[eklikewhoa]

According to B, the tank is way too small and there is too much flora for her to try and net them so treatment would have to occur in the tank.

Not much options at this point other than a good cup of bourbon/cognac and time.

[TexSun]

I have had good success with a product by kordon. Its their 'organic' ich control. Google it. Its available at petsmart, etc. City pets or the like may have something similar. Increase temps, add aquarium salt, leave lights off, h20 changes... Good luck.

[rmalford]

Hey all. Just noticed one of my boraras in the planted tank was looking thin and sickly, so I looked a little closer and noticed those tell tale ich spots. Looked even closer, and saw one of the neons had spots, and so did one of the ruby tetras. Ugh!! Not sure how this happened as there haven't been any temp drops.

Haven't ever treated a planted tank with shrimp/assassins in it. Anyone know what's safe for my bacterial colonies as well as my inverts? I know I could probably do a search but personal experience goes a long way... plus I'm in the middle of a crazy couple weeks of night shifts. Help!

I have the organic version of kordons ich control you can borrow or have some of it.

[eklikewhoa]

That totally slipped my mind!

[TaTeR ToT]

It's Kordon Ich Attack.
I have used it in all my planted tanks.
Also, the temp raise idea is great, I have always coupled with API Aquarium Salt to increase the effectiveness of the Ich Attack.
The Ichs life-cycle is dependent on temperature.
You can't kill it while its attached to a fish, but raising the temp speeds up the life cycle and when it falls from the host is killed.

Hope this helps.

[aquabee]

Thanks to all of you for those helpful tips. Sorry I couldn't respond sooner, but I was working overnight in the ER til about an hour ago. I put my spare 75W heater in the tank in addition to the preset 78 degree nano heater that's already in there. The temp's up to 83 now; I have it set to 86 but will crank it to 88 once I make sure that huge heater isn't going to boil my fish and shrimp and greens while I'm asleep (mmmm I must be hungry :P). When I wake up, I'll head out to Petsmart or City Pets to see if they have the Kordon Ich Attack stuff.

Thanks again to everyone who responded to this and who texted me tonight! I have a feeling I'll lose a few but if that's all that happens and mostly all the fish are ok, I'll be content. This is the first time I've had to deal with ich in 20 years, so as you can imagine... this makes me s-ich. Haha! Ok I really need to sleep now... I'm getting corny.

[aquabee]

Quick clarification-- is salt safe for the inverts?

[TexSun]

I'm not sure if aquarium salt is safe for shrimp. Maybe Tim can help on this. Can shrimp get ich? If the shrimp don't have ich, then I would think about pulling as many as you can and put them in a makeshift tank with some moss and an air stone. Yellows are Neo like cherries right? I've kept RCS alive for weeks in a rubbermaid unfiltered on my kitchen counter. Their container was stuffed with moss though.

[aquabee]

I'm not sure if aquarium salt is safe for shrimp. Maybe Tim can help on this. Can shrimp get ich? If the shrimp don't have ich, then I would think about pulling as many as you can and put them in a makeshift tank with some moss and an air stone. Yellows are Neo like cherries right? I've kept RCS alive for weeks in a rubbermaid unfiltered on my kitchen counter. Their container was stuffed with moss though.

Thanks TexSun. I have moss thickets heavy with baby yellows, juvies running all over the place, and a couple adult breeding pairs... and I don't think I'd be able to get them all out. I've got the temp up to a comfortable 88-89 now and the heater turned off, so I think I might be able to get some sleep too without worrying about the heater staying on indefinitely. I've been texting Tim about this and he said he didn't think anything could be done besides raising the temp. So I think I'll skip the salt and maybe try the Kordon Ich Attack. It's supposed to be safe for inverts, from all the stuff I've read.

[TangoMIke]

B
You should be ok with some salt for everything you have. IMHO the H2O changes and the temp and the salt are the best treatment you can do. If you can avoid any additive i think that is the best way to treat the tank. Make sure you have lots of O2 on the tank, and water changes every day to break the cycle. I know you know this,treat like an ER, No spreading allowed.
Keep Us posted
Mike

[aquabee]

Thanks all. I did end up raising the temp to 88 degrees and adding 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt (for 8 gallons), with lights completely off. Today, there's barely any ich spots on the microneons, who were affected the worst. I think I might have lost an oto in there somewhere, but apart from that, there haven't been any casualties. And the inverts are doing fine, too.

Thanks for helping me out when I didn't have the time to research about treating invert tanks for ich, or even do much of anything for the tank for that matter! You guys rock. The tank is still sick but I'm hoping the worst is over. :)