ICH with new Green Tetra

[Xr4tiCrew]

I just bought 8 green tetra's Saturday and noticed today that one of them may have ICH. Should I be concerned that this will spread to the rest of the tank? If so, what steps would you recommend I take? I do not have a quarantine tank and the only medication I have currently is some Fritz salt.  Or would this possibly disappear on its own?  

[nabokovfan87]

You'd want to treat the tank, yes.

What is the temp you're at now?

Salt - 1/2 cup per 10G.  Order Ich-X and then it's on the way.  I would suggest order 2 bottles so you have enough after treatment to have it on hand.   You may also want to get additional salt.  Not required for something like a 20G or smaller, but it doesn't expire and you're going to use some. 

General guideline here...
1.  Dose in salt + Ich-X.  Follow directions on the Ich-X bottle. 
2.  Raise temps slowly, 1.5-2 degrees per day essentially.
3.  Get the temp to about 78+ for GTBs and then you'll want to leave it there while treating the disease.

[Xr4tiCrew]

On 2/13/2023 at 3:16 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

You'd want to treat the tank, yes.

What is the temp you're at now?

Salt - 1/2 cup per 10G.  Order Ich-X and then it's on the way.  I would suggest order 2 bottles so you have enough after treatment to have it on hand.   You may also want to get additional salt.  Not required for something like a 20G or smaller, but it doesn't expire and you're going to use some. 

General guideline here...
1.  Dose in salt + Ich-X.  Follow directions on the Ich-X bottle. 
2.  Raise temps slowly, 1.5-2 degrees per day essentially.
3.  Get the temp to about 78+ for GTBs and then you'll want to leave it there while treating the disease.

Current temp is 78.6. Once I put in 1cup of salt how long do I leave that in there before cleaning the tank? Also, this will have no effect on my other fish?  Also, I feel like that is a lot to put in the aquarium for a single fish having ICH. Would just dosing with 1/2 cup of salt be worth a shot for a few days to see what happens? I assume it's just from stress. Fingers crossed. 

 

Fish:

1 Honey gourami
3 Oto cats
9 Ember tetras
2 guppies
1 scarlet badis, lost two of them today 😞 

Plants:

Java Fern
Java Moss
Water Sprite
Micro Sword
Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus
Scarlet Temple
Anubias Nana petite
 

Water Parameters:

Ammonia 0 ppm 
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 15ish ppm

Edited February 13, 2023 by Xr4tiCrew

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/13/2023 at 2:53 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

Current temp is 78.6. Once I put in 1cup of salt how long do I leave that in there before cleaning the tank? Also, this will have no effect on my other fish?  Also, I feel like that is a lot to put in the aquarium for a single fish having ICH. Would just dosing with 1/2 cup of salt be worth a shot for a few days to see what happens? I assume it's just from stress. Fingers crossed. 

Salt is used for external parasites (dehydrates them) as well as helping fish fight diseases.  This would help your fish who are showing symptoms recover as well as help others in the tank to fight off the disease.  It will also help the cysts in the substrate to die off, eventually, once they progress through the stages in their lifecycle.  You don't remove the salt necessarily.  Let it "stew" and do it's thing.  Salt won't evaporate.  You're going to basically remove it through water changes with time.  Right now you're at 100% concentration for the dosing you need for your tank.  after your first WC with the ICH-X you'll lower it. After a few WCs then you can add more in. 

Secondly, if you know the amount of water you're adding in, you can dose salt into the water during those WCs. this would keep it at the level you need be to help fight the disease.  I tend to let the levels taper off and then repeat with multiple doses of salt.  After say... 3-5 big WCs of 50-60%, then I'll dose the tank with salt again.

On 2/13/2023 at 2:53 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

Would just dosing with 1/2 cup of salt be worth a shot for a few days to see what happens? I assume it's just from stress. Fingers crossed. 

Yes. It can work.  I believe this is how @Chick-In-Of-TheSea handled their Ich treatment, maybe it was columnaris only, due to having only salt available on hand.  I do think there is a thread.

[knee]

If you only have salt, that alone can get rid of ich. I have a different method of using salt and it has worked for me whenever I get a fish with ich.

When the white spots appear I slowly raise temp to 82 or as high as the fish can handle. I observe the fish daily a few times a day. This is important because as soon as you see the spots drop you'd need to add salt, then leave it in the water for 48 hours (72 if you want to be super safe) and then a big water change after. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/13/2023 at 7:19 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yes. It can work.  I believe this is how @Chick-In-Of-TheSea handled their Ich treatment, maybe it was columnaris only, due to having only salt available on hand.  I do think there is a thread

Negative. It was columnaris and I used 2 commercial products in conjunction with salt.

[Xr4tiCrew]

On 2/13/2023 at 6:09 PM, knee said:

If you only have salt, that alone can get rid of ich. I have a different method of using salt and it has worked for me whenever I get a fish with ich.

When the white spots appear I slowly raise temp to 82 or as high as the fish can handle. I observe the fish daily a few times a day. This is important because as soon as you see the spots drop you'd need to add salt, then leave it in the water for 48 hours (72 if you want to be super safe) and then a big water change after. 

I’ll give it a go. I appreciate all the advise from everyone. 

[Xr4tiCrew]

I ended up ordering ich-x from ACO and it just came today. But after doing some additional research while i was waiting for it I read that it will stain my tank. This unfortunately is not something I want to do. Who here has used it and what all did it stain in your tank? I have already lost 5 fish and need to probably act quick but am hesitant about using this ich-x now after spending hundreds of dollars on getting the tank setup. Or is there another product that works but will not stain my tank.

[Colu]

I would definitely start treating with ick X straight away I have used it to treat a fungal infection and it didn't stain anything in my tank @Xr4tiCrew

Edited February 19, 2023 by Colu

[Xr4tiCrew]

On 2/18/2023 at 6:05 PM, Colu said:

I would definitely start treating with ick X straight away I have used it to treat a fungal infection and it didn't stain anything in my tank @Xr4tiCrew

I'll take your word. I just started my first dose and will continue the process. Question is, how many time should I do this? 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/18/2023 at 3:48 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

Who here has used it and what all did it stain in your tank?

I've used it many times. Silicone will have a blue tint. It's really not that big of a deal and doesn't ruin the aquarium.

Both of my tanks have had it. So you can see the color of the silicone in the videos and photos on my journal.

[DeadStang]

The silicone at the side of my tanks stained blue but is barely noticeable from prolonged ich treatment x 2 or 3 rounds. It did stain my airlines, which I just replaced. It stained none of my plastic tank "furniture" and did not hurt my plants or snails -- but I did not use salt, just Ich-X (and I keep my tanks at 77 degrees -- I did not raise the temperature). And I treated for 3 weeks each round.

[Xr4tiCrew]

I started dosing Saturday night and have continued since. Things are starting to look a lot better but unfortunately lost 5 fish along the way.  I'll definitely be ordering another bottle to have on hand if this happens again. Quick question, how soon would I be able to put new fish in this tank once I am certain the ich is gone?

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/21/2023 at 7:04 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

I started dosing Saturday night and have continued since. Things are starting to look a lot better but unfortunately lost 5 fish along the way.  I'll definitely be ordering another bottle to have on hand if this happens again. Quick question, how soon would I be able to put new fish in this tank once I am certain the ich is gone?

I'd recommend waiting at least 30-45 days. You don't necessarily have to, but that's my recommendation.

You want to give the ich time to die off without a host, clean the tank a few times, give the fish time to recover from wounds and treat those wounds if necessary. Let the plants, everything stabilize and then move forward.

When I had ich in my tank, yeah, it's tough. I hope you're through the worst of it.