Ich (Ick) - White Spot

Used the last of the medication today the ich is all but gone a few snails died in the process due to the treatment but thats not a big loss, hopefully it wont rear its ugly head again.

 

Hi Larch,

Glad to hear its cleared up thought I would let you (and others) know, that I have used bio-elite and it worked perfectly well, took a week longer than chemical meds, but at the end of the day it was safe for all the other fish and also safe for the plants and didn't stain the silicone.. I also wanted to ask, what was the cause of your Oscars erratic behavior that you spoke of in another thread? (was the ick related perhaps?)

Cheers,
Candice

 

The erratic behavior came from a parasitic infection not from ick unfortunately, wished it was ick though would have meant been much less traumatic for me and the now dead fish...

 

OMW, sorry, I did not realise he didn't make it... glad you were able to save your new fishies though with the ick outbreak...

 

Yeah most likely stress from the new environment that caused it I was surprised to learn that Oscars are just as prone to ick as clown loaches.

 

Okay some bad news it seems the Ick I treated has become resistant to the Waterlife medication because it stop working (yes I did check the expiry date) So I went out and bought a bottle of Bio-Elite will see how it works.

 

Just remember to wait a few days before using a new type of medicine...

 

Well the last dose (empty bottle) was 48 hours ago and thats the time period according to the back of the bottle that I should wait before using other meds.

 

Found a nice PDF explaining the life cycle in detail: http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/pdf/476fs.pdf

 

I slowly raised the tanks temperature to just above 30 degrees celsius and so far Oscar seems to be handling it pretty well did a 30% water change before adding the treatment will see how it goes.

 

Good Luck with the Bio-Elite treatment, hope you sort it out...

 

Thanks hope so too I have been slowly raising the water temperature overnight to see how much my Oscar can tolerate using and air stone for extra aeration and it is stable at 32. The fish shows no stress or gasping at the surface and is active and feeding. My idea behind this is to speed up the process and kill the ick using the combination of the heat and the medication, from all of the scientific research I have read most ich strains dont reproduce above the temperatures of 30, it does this by interfering/stopping with it's ability to successfully reproduce. So if I keep my temperature at current levels for more than 4 days the ich cycle should complete but not be able to reproduce because of the heat and die by using that combination with the medication. But to make sure its dead I will keep going for another cycle (4 days) and see what happens. So in total it will be 8 days of sitting and waiting to see what happens.

 

Just a quick update the heat treatment combined with the bio-elite seems to be working its day 3 now and the Ick cycle has sped up most of the small spots has gotten bigger and fallen off and I dont see any re-infection so I am figuring the ick is unable to reproduce in water warmer than 30 degrees (my current temperature is 32) I will keep going for another 5 days so I will be going through 2 ich cycles and maybe an extra 2 days which will make it 10 days to make double sure.

 

Glad to hear it! much better using something natural hey

 

Thanks Aqua I should have used the natural way from the start I think I was a bit hasty using the other meds. I just need to be more patient the natural way is better less stressfull on the fish but slower and requires more patients.

-Charl-

 

Hi Charl,

Yes, its better all around

Very happy to hear that its working for you!

Candice

 

Yeah its day 5 now and the ick is all but gone now will keep up the heat treatment and medication till day 10 to make sure its totally gone, lucky for me I only have a single fish to treat.

 

Okay so its day 6 now still no returning ich the temperature is still sitting at 32 and fish is showing no stress. The bio-elite medication is almost finished (Should be enough to dose for another 2 days) so I will stop the heat treatment once the medication is finished. Then I will slowly lower the temperature back down to 27.

 

I think my 1 fish has the first signs of ick, scratching on rocks once or twice, small particle type white dots on his fins. I will try bio elite and raise temp, and see how it goes. Once i start treatment must i do water changes, or wait until the medication is finished, and must i remove the carbon from my canister?