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Did I diagnose this right?


LudwigiaLarry
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I thought my fish had ich, so I've been dosing my fish in a 10 gallon hospital tank for over a week with ich x. But it hasn't seemed to make a difference and after it's progressed like on this tetra it doesn't seem to look like ich to me. We've got the life of 40 fish on the line. Any help would be nice.

Avg ph 7.6 

No nitrates, nitrites or ammonia temperature hangs around 78.

PXL_20210322_230038929.jpg

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16 minutes ago, Daniel said:

The Co-Op linked to a good video on ich (looks like ich to me):

 

Yes I've watched the video, I'm even at the point where I'm dosing twice a day with the ich x . The only thing I haven't done is raise the temperature because I don't have an adjustable heater in that aquarium. It's been over a week and it's only progressed further...

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3 minutes ago, LudwigiaLarry said:

The only thing I haven't done is raise the temperature because I don't have an adjustable heater in that aquarium. It's been over a week and it's only progressed further...

I would raise the temperature, even if that means getting an adjustable heater.

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What I would do (and have done).

another tank 10, 15, or 20 gallon.

Bare bottom.

Day 1 fill tank get temp adjusted to near what they are now.  Treat water for chlorine/chloramine if required.  Add fish.

Day 2 test for ammonia (don't worry about nitrites or nitrates as we are not going to cycle this tank (at least on purpose).  Add a 50% dose of aquarium salt.

Day 3 test for ammonia and tank salt dose to 75%.

Day 4 test for ammonia and tank salt dose to 100%

Test for ammonia, Test for ammonia, Test for ammonia....  Water change as necessary.  If you do a water change you will need to calculate and dose some salt to replenish what was removed.

By day 7 you should see improvements.  You could speed the recovery by increasing the temperature.  But I'd only increase a couple of degrees a day (I'd hold at about 82 degrees), these fish are already under enough stress.

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https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/freshwater/preventing-ich-full-article#:~:text=Three Life Stages,leading to the host's death.

 

Scroll down to "Lifecycle of Ich"

Salt and Water

Other methods, such as adding salt, increasing water temperature, and changing the water are also used by fish hobbyists to treat ich infection in an aquarium. Parasitic trophonts usually stay in fish for five to seven days at a water temperature of 22º to 25ºC (72º to 77ºF). The treatment may need to continue for five days to one week in order to remove the parasite from the infected fish. The complete ich lifecycle lasts three weeks at 9º to 10ºC (48º to 50ºF) but only six days at 24º to 25ºC (75º to 77ºF).

 

Because of ich’s sensitivity to water temperature, you should heat the aquarium water to about 30ºC (86ºF) for the duration of the treatment, if the fish can tolerate the temperature, to accelerate the lifecycle of the parasite.

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Then...

You will need to tend to the tank where the infection happened.  The warmer you can make it the less time for the lifecycle to complete.  If there are no other fish (hosts) in the tank this should be done well before the fish are ready to go home.  Water changes help here also.

When preparing to move the fish back I always do 3 50% water changes over 6 days on the hospital tank to lower the salt content to near zero (titrate down).

All said you are probably looking at a total of 3 weeks max from start to putti9ng fish back in their home.

 

Is some of this overkill?  Probably, but I've never lost a fish to Ich (knock on wood).

 

And be mindful of cross contamination if you have other tanks. 

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