ick

[jeff]

im down to 1 female guppy due to ick. i was wondering. She had babies yesterday and the water is medicated so im assuming the water bound ick wont affect the fry. Am i right. i think im going to loose the mamma today

[jeff]

the temp is at 84 too but i have not added any more salt as recommended by somefishguy

[Cesar]

Jeff what are you using the guppies for? If your using them for feeders then I would start from scratch, since guppies are fairly inexpensive.

[eklikewhoa]

The ich will attack the fry.

More water changes, replace the salt.

[jeff]

true that. But i have a baby Juli, baby yellow bristle nose, and a 3" bristle in the tank as well. the ick treatment is 1/2 dose due to the 2 upside down cats. Kinda want to save them as well. but the the guppies have value to me cause they are my 1st babies. I was going to remove the juli and put him in the minnow tank but that is the sump for my 90g.

[jeff]

The ich will attack the fry.

More water changes, replace the salt.

ok. will do

[jeff]

even w/ meds in the water though?

[eklikewhoa]

Only meds that seem to work for me is quick cure or whatever it's called. white round bottle.

But regardless I would still siphon the bottom and add salt.

[jeff]

in the 29g w/ the ick i changed 5g and added 10Tbl of salt. good enough?

[Zulaab]

Do not move any fish out of that tank.. unless its into a clean tank that has nothing else in it. I use Kordon's ICH-Attack -- it seems to kill the stuff quickly, but I still dont move anyone for 2+ weeks from that tank if I have ever had ICK in it.

http://www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm

Its 100% safe against scaleless fish. Its Herbal. I have had great success in killing off Ick in tanks.

[Somefishguy]

Yes I would try and find a treatment that is not gonna harm you catfish. I would not add anymore salt becuase the salt can irrarate the catfish. Do understand that ich will not go away over night. It usualy takes 5-10 days to get rid of the symptoms, and then you need to continue the treatement another 4-5 days to make sure all of the parasites in the tank have died.

[jeff]

yaeh

[PhishPhreek]

ICK or ICH ?

Ich is actually a protozoa called Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. There are three phases to the life cycle of this protozoa.

Adult phase – The white spots you call ick are like a tick, embedded in the skin or gills of the fish, sucking blood cells and skin cells. After a few days like a fat tick, drops off.

Cyst phase – The fattened parasite falls to the bottom forming a cyst and divides into many little icks.

Free swimming phase – Thousands of little icks are released from the cyst and go hunting a new host. (they will die if no host / food is found within 3 days) Once a host is found the cycle starts over.

The Ick life cycle is temperature dependant.
4 weeks at 70F but only 4 days at 85F
Adult Ick will drop off and become free swimming at 85F

This is important because you can only kill the little boogers when they are free swimming. Kill them with any of the following:



Salt
Coppersafe
Quick-Cure
Ich-Ease
Aquari-sol
Cure-Ick
Aquarisol
BettaZing
Quinine sulphate
quinine hydrochloride



Most commercial remedies contain malachite green and/or copper.
Malachite green will stain the plastic and silicone in the aquarium

[djmatthewblack]

I bought a puffer that had ich and I had success with using a med that contained malachite green as the active ingredient. For almost 2 weeks I dosed a drop per gallon per directions and I cured the fish, even with a thick soil substrate. Methylene is suppose to do just as well. Course puffers can be fairly hardy and I don't know much about the species you have.
It sucks having disease. In my experience guppies are great starters cause they are good looking and cheap, I started with them, but ultimately ended up abandoning them cause they seemed prone to disease. I had two cases of anchor worm and body fungus that were fatal in ever occurance. By the time I figured out what was going on I had lost most of my fish. Even a reputable dealer like Fish Gallery, I lost 8 beautiful cobra guppies to body fungus. Hope your little ones survive. I know how much fun they can be when they are that tiny.

[eklikewhoa]

Keep in mind a lot of the above listed meds are detrimental to inverts