Question:Hi there,
been live cycling 100 gal planted tank with external eheim filter for about 2 months now. This will eventually be a Discus tank. I have schools of scissor tails and rummy nose tetras, 5 corydoras, 3 small loaches and 5 siamese algae eaters. Over the last couple days I noticed one of my Rummy nose had a couple of points... ich! The others are still fine, except for one of the loaches who has been scratching in the gravel. I had to look really closely but he has them. I have always had my tank at 28 celcius, but have it now at 86 degrees F. I had ich in my 14 gal before and the meds never did work, only two of my fish made it through. Before I get discus, I have now learned my lesson and will quarantie for at least 2 weeks before I introduce them. Right now things look good in my tank but with my experience I know they will get worse! Has anyone here had success with simply raising the temps, no salt or meds, and will the high temps bother my other fish at all? Thanks
Answers:
Yes, that is the way I have always treated ich. Here is the procedure I have used successfully in the past.
If you have already tried medication without results, there is another way to cure ich. The other approach is to actually destroy the organism with heat, and can be combined with the salt treatment, but not with meds.
The data that was studied (including a report by the Southern Regional Aquaculture Center) suggests that most strains of Ich cannot reproduce at temperatures above 85ºF.
To use this temperature treatment approach, slowly (no more than 1 or 2 degrees per hour) raise the temperature to 86ºF, while maintaining strong continuous surface agitation to oxygenate the water.
This is extremely important because water holds less O2 at higher temperatures. (This is why meds should not be used in conjunction with high temp – most Ich treatment products also reduce oxygen levels. Less available oxygen, combined with the respiration difficulties an infected fish is already faced with, could be fatal.)
The adjusted temperature should be maintained for approximately 10 days, or a minimum of 3 days after all signs of the parasite have disappeared (the life cycle of the parasite is 7 days). Do not discontinue treatment when the spots go away.
This is critical, because we know that the parasites are visible only as a white spot (trophont) on the body of the host, and not during the reproductive or free-swimming stage. We also know that trophonts on the gills are impossible to see.
You should also be doing gravel siphoning at least 3 times during the time the heat is up to 86. The young ich parasites will develop into adults in the gravel and if you siphon regularly during the heat treatment you can remove many of them so the fish do not have to deal with them.
Once the adults have stopped breeding, they will eventually all die out. The average life cycle of the ich parasite is 7 days, less at higher temps and more at lower temps.
High temperatures alone can kill ich, but they need to be higher than 86F. 87.5F will damage the ich adequately to kill the infestation, but will take at least 2 weeks to do so with any reliability. I can certainly understand avoiding typical ich medicaitons in this tank, but the amount of salt to assist the cure would pose no problem. That being 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons, or 1 gram per liter.
MM
turning up the temperature isn't gonna get rid of the ich it will just make more and more of the only reason you turn up the temperature in the first place is to speed up there life cycle for the eggs because there's no treatment for the eggs but turn up the temp for a week while adding salt then after the first week turn the temperature back down to normal and continue the salt for another 2 weeks then after all the spots have fallen off get a stress reliever and put it in the water every week and same with the salt to prevent ich from happening again my fish had ich once from buying a fish from wal mart that was covered in ich and i didn't know that i didn't even know what ich was but now i know never to buy fish from wal mart
As with MM, for me like you I have botia, they are scaleless fish so proprietary treatments will damage there skin. You have a high temp already which is probably why your not getting a full blown infection, so a few more degrees should do the job, because your likely stocked I'd not be overly worried about the oxygen content during the day but I'd certainly run an air pump over night when plants use oxygen.
Your loach's are probably the cause they're very susceptible when they're small.
You should find that if you get you Discus from a reputable dealer/breeder there should be no need to quarantine them.
AJ
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