My tank isn't infected with ick, just if it does, I want know.
Thanks
Answers:
Treatment of Freshwater Ich, Ichthyophthirius.
It is believed that ich is present in all aquariums. Fish that have the disease exhibit small white dots about this size of a grain of salt. It is very contagious and it is fatal.
The best protection is a healthy tank with water changes done weekly or every other week with a gravel vac in the amount of 20-25% of the tank volume. A sound practice in fish keeping is to keep new fish in quarantine 4-7 days before adding them to your tank. The stress from being shipped from the wholesale to the retailer, the stress of living in the retailers tanks which may be overcrowded and poorly maintained and the stress of being bagged up and taken to your home can weaken a fish and make it most vulnerable to ich and other ailments. Rather than introduce a sick fish to your aquarium, it is better to quarantine it until you know it is healthy.
When sound fish keeping practices are not enough, fortunately ich is also very easy to cure. Freshwater ich should not be confused with marine ich, Cryptocaryon irritans. Salt will weaken freshwater ich, obviously marine ich, being in salt water already, this is obviously not the same treatment.
First step:
20-25% water change with gravel vac. Most likely your poor water conditions contributed to the outbreak of ich.
Second step:
Raise temperature (no more than 1掳 per hour) to 85掳.
Third step:
Add aquarium salt (not table salt) in the amount of one rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons. If you have scaleless fish such as loaches, catfish and "algae eaters", reduce that to one rounded teaspoon per 5 gallons, as they don't tolerate salt well.
http://www.aquariumpharm.com/en_us/produ...
Fourth step:
After 24 hours, a second 20-25% water change. Add more salt. If you took 5 gallons out in the change, put another rounded tablespoon in.
Adjust for your situation.
Fifth step:
Wait 24 hours.
Sixth Step:
A third water change of 20-25% and replace salt removed.
If this does not cure the fish, and no signs of improvement show up yet, you may want to use a commercial ich curative, all of which require removal of the carbon from your filter, or the carbon will filter out the medication. You can continue with the cleaning process and maintain salt levels. Brackish water fish such as mollies need to have some salt in order to maintain good health. Most other fish benefit from a little aquarium salt as well.
One of the most common is copper sulfate medications like Aquarasol http://www.aq-products.com/appro/aquaris...
In more extreme cases, Malachite Green is very popular.
http://www.aq-products.com/appro/quickcu...
In the case of scaleless fish such as loaches and catfish, a formaldehyde based Formalin
http://www.aq-products.com/appro/formali...
Be extremely careful with Formalin doses, many are super concentrated containing 37% formaldehyde, as 1 teaspoon treats 90 gallons.
Some are pre-diluted like Formalin-3, where the dosage is 1-2 teaspoons per 10 gallons. Formalin will kill the bacteria in your filter that break down the waste,
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/formalin/i...
Some products contain a combination of these medications. Read the labels and know what you are putting in your tank.
Good Luck
just goto a local fish store and buy the medicine for ick...so much easier
I've only seen salt cure ick if it's not a very bad outbreak. The best thing to do is go to the petstore and get some ridick. Salt is used more as a conditioner for fish - you can put about 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons. you can use fish salt, or table salt as long as the table salt is non-iodinized.
Ick or Ich or White Spot are common names of this disease.
The salt cure is not about the proportion of salt to the gallons of water.
It all depends on the tolerance of your fish to high salt levels and high PH levels.
Know these and you'll know how much you need.
To answer your question, its 1.5 to 6 tablespoons of salt per five gals of H2O. I suggest you slowly work your way up the level to protect your pet fish. Close observation to your fishes is needed. No changing of water for the treatment period of at least one week. Do not discontinue even if the spots go away.
For an off-the-shelf cure... Try CopperSafe.
Go to a local pet store and pick up Quick Cure, it will take care of the Ick in about 2 days by using 1 drop per gallon, make sure you remove your carbon filters when medicating as carbon will remove the medication from the tank. If you have scaleless fish (clown loaches etc) use only half the recommended dose as they are very sensitive to medications and may die.
DO NOT BUY ICK MEDICATION!!! Trust me! it will turn your silicone on the tank blue FOREVER, unless you redo it and take a chance of it leaking. Anyways here is what ick does. It attacks fish and uses it as food ever 3 day or so it goes dormant in the gravel and then spawns 2-3 times over, meaning it might be 50 white spots and 3 days later it is 100-200. It will keep doing this over and over till all your fish are dead. I would recommend to turn lights off and only turn on for feeding. Add salt as mentioned before. 1 Tsp. per 5 gallons. This will increase your Ph but it will go back down in about 1 hour or two. If you are that worried you can always do a water change in fact i would recommend it every other day just 10-20% Also raise the temp in the tank to about 82 tops. Ick needs light to reproduce and hates heat. I have lost a whole tank to Ick when I first started form one bad sick fish I got from a LFS in 2003. i have found Ick usually is a sign of low water conditions or a bad fish store so let this be a word to the wise. Inspect the fish in the store and decide if it looks like a clean Fish store before you buy.
I think it's 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons BUT all salt does is irritate the fish so that they generate a thicker slime coat, making it harder for the ich to burrow under their scales.
Healthy fish have a nice, thick slime coat to begin with so keep your fish happy by doing regular water changes and not overstocking and your chances of having an ich outbreak are lower. Always quarantine new fish for a couple of weeks before adding them to your new tank and your chances go down to pretty much zero.
If you DO get ich, the best treatment (for your pocketbook and more importantly your fish) is the heat treatment:
1) Turn the heater up 2 degrees F per hour until the tank is higher than 86 degrees.
2) Do a 1/3 water change every day.
3) After 10 days, turn the temperature in the tank back down to normal, again only changing it by 2 degrees F per hour.
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