treating ich with heat alone - 2015 result

[Jack L]

I recently introduced ich to my tank due to careless q-tank procedure. Note: I keep tank at 84-5 and the ich spread fine at that temp. However I’m sure there are cooler spots in tank.
Point of this thread is to let people know that heat alone worked.

When I was looking over the web on forums, on pages, on university papers, and in books; there was a lot of conflicting info.
I have treated ich before with kordon ich plus, it goes on for days and not all that cheap especially when you have to treat 170 gallons.
I have killed tetra trying to treat with heat/salt.
I have melted plants with salt before.

After a ton of reading, this time I decided to treat with heat alone
I raised the temp to 89 over a day or two. Adjusted returns to agitate water. Fish showed no signs of needing more “air” from heat. I left it there for 10 days. Ich gone.

In tank are Discus, corie, black neon tetra and farlowella, all are fine with heat. It didn’t kill the unwanted snails either.

The crypts and java fern didn’t like the heat, but survived. Java fern faired the worse. The added heat seemed to bring on some new types of algae. But some pruning will rid tank of that.

So anyway, web is so full of conflicting info. And I am sure you won’t find the info on kordon, api, tetra or any other site selling you meds. I’m not guaranteeing it will work, but it worked for me. And I’m trying again. My next batch of ottos had ich, and THIS time they are in the qtank for long time. I’m only using heat, I’m only raising it to 87. If 87 doesn’t do it going up to 89 again.

[bluelagoon]

I've done it with a temp of 86F,no meds/salt needed.

[pitdogg2]

Been telling people for years to use this to treat ick. The heat speeds up the life cycle so fast it just can't keep up. Most aquarium keeper still think that you can treat the visible cyst. Untrue that cyst is impervious to all meds it can only be treated at the free swimming stage in which heat will speed it to then kill.

[strawberryblonde]

I've only faced ich once in all the time that I've been keeping fish. It was quite recent and broke out right after I introduced my QT fish into my discus tank.

To treat it I played it very safe and slowly raised my temps. First to 86, held that for 3 days, then slowly to 91. Held that for 8 days, then slowly reduced to 86 again and finally back to 82.

The reason I went so high on temps is because there are some strains of ich that are resistant to high temps, but most can't survive at 91. I decided not to take chances and simply raised it to 91F.

It worked like a charm and didn't harm my cories, cardinals and plants. 14 days total of high heat and the ich has never come back.

[Jack L]

well hopefully some others will benefit if they find this thread. thanks others for chiming in.

when i was searching i found lots of arguing about heat alone. the heat resistants stains etc, etc.

one reason i when higher than 86 was to heat up any cool zones in the tank. i used an IR gun and i did notice some variance at different spots in tank. i also have hobby grade thermometers and their accuracy is questionable, everyone one of them reads a different temp.
i do have 4 returns, but as i don't do BB, there are some dead zones that form behind wood, in the grass, etc.

i wondered when i read about "heat resistant strains" if people were just not getting the tank to 86 , cool zones and non precise thermometers

[Jack L]

strawberrry

what plants do you have in your tank?

my java ferns went to black

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Jack,

I have swords, crypts, valsineria and anubias.

[pitdogg2]

Heat resistant strains is new on me. In years past I spent a lot of time at the ACA site. It was there were I first brought this up and it was confirmed by a well known member and ichthyologist who stated that it cannot survive above 88*. I confirmed this my self as I had fed feeders to my big brute cichlids. Even though some feeders did have ich they never affected my fish in the heat of summer. Once below 85* all bets were off. So at the time I only fed feeders in July and august then back to pellets and worms and chunks of seafood.

[Jack L]

Hi Jack,

I have swords, crypts, valsineria and anubias.

thanks
i have a compacta sword, it hasn't done well in this water (more than one tank). crypt/val i have and are doing fine

[Jack L]

no more white spot on the remaining ottos in q-tank doing heat only treatment, will back it down soon

i returned the deads to store, i saw a bunch of ich on the fish there. in hindsight i should have started treating them for ich immediately and i bet i wouldn't have lost as many.

bought 9, 5 remain.

[Jack L]

just to follow up on this, lowered heat in q tank and observed for several days.... and no ich returned. so again heat alone was enough.

[Jack L]

i'm not longer convinced the heat treatment totally eliminated all the ich from display tank
my heater can't get temp up over 90, maybe some cool spots in tank harbored some ich.

the heat definitely knocked the levels down. but recently a temp drop due to unheated water, 2 days later, see ich spot again.

if it was TOTALLY gone, it wouldn't have shown up again. there is a variable though, i added the ottos 10 days prior, and they had ich when purchased. i qtanked and treated them as i was able to raise the q-tank over 90 for them and the ich seemed gone in q tank.

however if it was on the ottos, i think i would see white spot sooner after adding them.

my thought is some remants remained in main display since i couldn't get it over 90