Ich - Have snail and catfish

[FishRBeautiful]

I think my black neons might have ich (classic white spots starting to show). I have Cory’s, a mystery snail, otos, and a pleco. Is there a way to treat in naturally with salt and high temps? I did so one other time but didn’t have catfish or crustaceans.  I don’t want to kill my nitrogen cycle. I’m not a fan of medication. If not salt, maybe an essential oil or something? I think I read that once somewhere.

[nabokovfan87]

The snails wouldn't like the salt, but you can pull those snails.  If they are nerite snails they might tolerate it a bit better.

I would recommend using Ich-X, adding air, and using salt. 

I wish you the best of luck. When I had ich and I had a similar stocking (minus snail) I ended up losing about half the tank. 😞

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I have had personal success with this. Also recommended to another forum member and they have too. Chop a garlic clove. Pour boiling water on it. Let cool. Pour that in the tank. (Also I put a halved garlic clove, raw, in the tank) Also, raised temp, slowly, to 86. Left it there until several days after ick was gone. Gradually reduced temp. This treatment was safe for all my inhabitants, even the inverts. (I did lose 2 fish— ich is a fast progressing parasite and they had it the worst)

*warning! Your whole fish room will smell like garlic, esp when you open that tank lid!

Husband: did you make spaghetti?

Me: Yeah, but I already ate it.

**warning #2: other hobbyists may disagree with this method, in preference of commercial products. I try not to share it too often for that reason but if you are already planning to avoid meds, I’d go this route.

More detailed instructions are in the video. You may have to put this guy on 2X speed. He’s a slow talker, lol

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[FishRBeautiful]

Thank you, Chick-in-of-the-Sea. (Didn’t want to quote the whole long message). That’s great advice. Do you think I should remove the carbon filter when adding the garlic? I absolutely try EVERYTHING before medication, both on myself and my fish. My hope is catching it early make natural methods more effective. I always have fresh garlic in my fridge. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/2/2023 at 9:48 AM, FishRBeautiful said:

Thank you, Chick-in-of-the-Sea. (Didn’t want to quote the whole long message). That’s great advice. Do you think I should remove the carbon filter when adding the garlic? I absolutely try EVERYTHING before medication, both on myself and my fish. My hope is catching it early make natural methods more effective. I always have fresh garlic in my fridge. 

Yes, I’d pull the carbon since carbon filters a lot of things out. You can keep that in a bucket of tank water in the meantime.

[Ben P.]

Personally I would take out the mystery snail, crank temp up to 85-87, and add salt.  The amount some people will debate a bit but I do approx one tablespoon per gallon of water.  Works great for me

[FishRBeautiful]

On 10/3/2023 at 10:19 PM, Ben P. said:

Personally I would take out the mystery snail, crank temp up to 85-87, and add salt.  The amount some people will debate a bit but I do approx one tablespoon per gallon of water.  Works great for me

Wish I had seen this sooner. I had success a while back with this treatment (when no catfish). I’ll keep this info for future reference. Unfortunately I was dead set on a natural treatment (without seeing this message) and wanting to at least try it first. So I went ahead and tried the garlic. Killed 13 fish (only 2 or 3 possibly had ich). It was a little devastating. So I proceeded with medication at that point. Fish that survived were two gouramis, 1 pleco, and mystery snail. I’m actually in love with what’s left but still sad at the great loss. No fault of anyone. I made a choice to take a risk and I learned. I think if I hadn’t tried it, I’d always wonder. But cost some fish for sure.

[nabokovfan87]

Very sorry for your losses @FishRBeautiful  I had the same result trying meds out and it's a tough disease sometimes.  It moves fast!  Hoping for the best for you and that things get easier soon!

[FishRBeautiful]

 

On 10/12/2023 at 10:15 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Very sorry for your losses @FishRBeautiful  I had the same result trying meds out and it's a tough disease sometimes.  It moves fast!  Hoping for the best for you and that things get easier soon!

Thank you! I think the garlic is what killed them because only 2 of the fish had visible ich and it hadn’t spread in a couple days prior to garlic and the fish all died shortly after adding garlic.  I Googled it and garlic can be toxic to fish and there are methods out there using very specific measurements which I assume is much safer. I’m not going to risk the method again based on my experience. Hopefully I’ll be more confident next time it creeps up. (Because ich happens to everyone sometimes so it probably will happen again.) My first time I had a terrible case of ich, the salt and raising the temperature cured all fish, which was probably like 10 fish at the time. I’ll try that next time and pull out the snails and hope the catfish make it. 

[Colu]

On 10/13/2023 at 10:43 AM, FishRBeautiful said:

 

Thank you! I think the garlic is what killed them because only 2 of the fish had visible ich and it hadn’t spread in a couple days prior to garlic and the fish all died shortly after adding garlic.  I Googled it and garlic can be toxic to fish and there are methods out there using very specific measurements which I assume is much safer. I’m not going to risk the method again based on my experience. Hopefully I’ll be more confident next time it creeps up. (Because ich happens to everyone sometimes so it probably will happen again.) My first time I had a terrible case of ich, the salt and raising the temperature cured all fish, which was probably like 10 fish at the time. I’ll try that next time and pull out the snails and hope the catfish make it. 

Sorry to hear you lossed your fish If your evey dealing with ich again the most effective treatment is ick X and aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons as ich causes massive electrolyte loss and salt adds back in essential electrolytes