How I beat Ich.

[in_the_zone]

I tried using the method locked at the top of this forum and ended up loosing both of my clown loaches. I figured my Kubotai was going to die anyways since he was completely covered, so I decided to salt my tank and drop the temperature since my dither was very stressed. I also stopped being so diligent on the water changes since I lost all my favorite fish. The salt was truly the turn around for my tank and my last surviving loach. I read that it changes the way that water moves over their gills, so that must have something to do with it. I've decided that any salt and medication is far less harmful than Ich itself, so do whatever it takes to get rid of Ich as quickly as possible. This is my routine with some added hindsights. The following treatment was done successfully at 80 degrees. Buy a specific gravity tester; do not guess on the salinity of your water.

Day 1:
Remove all carbon
50% water change
Salt tank to .006-.007
Full dose of Rid-Ich

Day 3:
Salt tank to .012-.014
Full dose of Rid-Ich or mix of Rid-Ich and malacite green

Day 5:
50% water change
Full dose of Rid-Ich

Day 7:
Full dose of Rid-Ich or mix of Rid-Ich and malacite green

Repeat Day 5 and 7 until Ich disappears.

Essentially, you medicate every other day and change water every fourth. You can use a mix of straight malacite green treatment the medicate before the water change without stressing your loaches too much. It does seem to work a better due to it's higher concentration.

Regarding salt. Fish start to get stressed by the salt around 1.5 - 2 weeks of sustained high levels, so that's why you only do it at the beginning. It will go down on it's own with water changes. If you need to re-treat with more salt wait until levels reach near 0. That should take about 4 or 5 50% changes to get it back to pure freshwater. Contrary to popular belief, Ich doesn't actually hate salt, it hates salt fluctuations. Marine fish can get Ich too, and it's common practice to freshwater dip them. You can see the Ich peel off after 5-10 minutes! I don't recommend dipping your freshwater fish though.

Another thing I thought was interesting...I put in a powerhead and cleared out the gravel on the opposite end. It blew all the Ich dots down there and you could see them sitting on the bottom of the glass. There very easy to vacuum that way. Also, the fish seemed to EAT them! I could be mistaken though; it's possible they were all tiny, yummy snails. Who can tell?

In any case, Mikey (botia kubotai) lives and is now happily sifting through the substrate. I am happy to see him no longer flashing on everything in sight. He was so miserable! I kept throwing in 1 wafer at a time because he would sit on it and let the other fish bump him around. It must have felt so good.

Good luck to those of you who stumble on my post who are riddled with Ich and the loss of your precious loaches.

[chefkeith]

Removing salinity needs to be with great caution. 50% water changes can put fish though osmotic stress and kill the fish. Recovering fish will have even a more difficult time adjusting to a lower specific gravity. It's best to wait until they are fully recovered before dropping the salinity. 10-20% daily water changes are the safest bet either way.