Ich in my fry tank

[ChrisD90]

I have just noticed white spots on a fair few of my fry in my 50L fry tank. What would have caused this? I have never had ich in any of my tanks before, the water parameters are all fine the only thing I can think of was the water temp went up to 28°C the other day because its was so hot outside. 

How do I treat fry for ich? I have about 50 fry of varying ages in the tank a combination of swordtails and guppy. I'm guessing you can't treat with normal medication due to their age and size.

Any help is greatly appreciated thank you. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I think you can treat them with meds but you may want to go to a higher temp and add salt first. This will often get the ich to shed off the surface and then good cleaning of the bottom of the tank should eventually rid you of it. Raise the temp 2 degrees a day until you get to 29-29.5 - The lifecycle of ich is about 7 days, so hot water and thick salt for a full 7 days would do the trick. Add extra oxygen in the form of an airstone. I think the temp was not the cause necessarily, it could have stressed them out to bring it out though. Most likely if you are sharing equipment between tanks, using the same buckets, this or when you pulled the fry you brought it with. 

This is from Aquapros.

So essentially all these things - salt, temp, meds try to inhibit them at one point of their lifecycle. 

[Flumpweesel]

I've certainly had extra corys appear after treating my community tank for ick but that was pure chance and it was possible that the treatment aided the hatching at least as it contained malachite green. 

[ChrisD90]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:02 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I think you can treat them with meds but you may want to go to a higher temp and add salt first. This will often get the ich to shed off the surface and then good cleaning of the bottom of the tank should eventually rid you of it. Raise the temp 2 degrees a day until you get to 29-29.5 - The lifecycle of ich is about 7 days, so hot water and thick salt for a full 7 days would do the trick. Add extra oxygen in the form of an airstone. I think the temp was not the cause necessarily, it could have stressed them out to bring it out though. Most likely if you are sharing equipment between tanks, using the same buckets, this or when you pulled the fry you brought it with. 

This is from Aquapros.

So essentially all these things - salt, temp, meds try to inhibit them at one point of their lifecycle. 

Thank you so much for the info it's really helpful. I have turned up my heat up and added some salt, not too sure about how much salt to add though so only added a small amount to start with but will add a bit more later today. It is really disheartening to see as everything was going so well I really hope my little fish make it through this.

Thanks again for the help.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I have used 1/2 to 1 tablespoon per 3-5 gallons depending on what I am using it for and what type of fish it is. These are livebearers and the breeders for these guys typically ramp up the salt and they can take it without any trouble. I would go with a full tablespoon per 5 gallons to start. If after a couple treatments it seems to be working I would ramp it up to 1:3. Going forward you'd be well served to add a tablespoon with each water change. I buy a big bag of instant ocean and keep it around. It has a ton of minerals as well so it is overall well tolerated and has a multitude of uses (I also have african cichlids and opae ula shrimp I need it for). You can also buy the salt they use for water softeners and Dan's Fish uses something similar that is super cheap. I just like that I know what's in the Instant Ocean. 

Breeding fish is like this. Unfortunately, they can be hearty or fragile and there's nothing you can do about it. Take heart we've all been there. Ich is a stress induced event often and the key from here forward is consistency. You'll get there. Let us know how we can help. 

[ChrisD90]

On 12/5/2021 at 9:50 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I have used 1/2 to 1 tablespoon per 3-5 gallons depending on what I am using it for and what type of fish it is. These are livebearers and the breeders for these guys typically ramp up the salt and they can take it without any trouble. I would go with a full tablespoon per 5 gallons to start. If after a couple treatments it seems to be working I would ramp it up to 1:3. Going forward you'd be well served to add a tablespoon with each water change. I buy a big bag of instant ocean and keep it around. It has a ton of minerals as well so it is overall well tolerated and has a multitude of uses (I also have african cichlids and opae ula shrimp I need it for). You can also buy the salt they use for water softeners and Dan's Fish uses something similar that is super cheap. I just like that I know what's in the Instant Ocean. 

Breeding fish is like this. Unfortunately, they can be hearty or fragile and there's nothing you can do about it. Take heart we've all been there. Ich is a stress induced event often and the key from here forward is consistency. You'll get there. Let us know how we can help. 

Well after 10 days it looks like the disease is on the way out which is awesome I can't see any fish with it on them anymore which is great. I'm glad I didn't use any meds and I ended up only losing one of my fry which is not too bad.

Thank you so much for your info you have really really helped me solve this and this knowledge will definitely help me in the future.

 

Thank you once again!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@ChrisD90glad to hear it. We’re all just trying to put tools in the tool box for when something like this happens. Cheers!