HELP!!!! ICH ATTACK

[watergate]

I went on holiday and came back seeing my tank been under attack by ich ....... I intend to use normal medicine but i read about an article that says medicine can kill plants. By the way my tank is a 4 feet tank with lots of plants. And i got 5 discus, 30 cardinal tetras, 20 rummy-nose and 2 clown loach. Almost all of them has been attack by ich.

So can anyone tell me what type of medicine to buy to cure those ich and in another without killing my plants?
Thank you for your help :'(

[Ardan]

Hi,
If the temp is 86F, then ich can not survive. If it looks like ich and the temp is 86 F it could be another parasite, possibly velvet. Usually temp in the 94F range for up to 10 days will kill these parasites.

hth
Ardan :sun:

[watergate]

Hey you are right
Its velvet......... so any suggestion other than rising the temperature?

watergate, Velvet ( OOdinium pillularis ) is also rare in discus as the parasite does not tolerate temperatures of 84 and above . It can lead to secondary infections that can cause mucous membrane detachment leading to mortalities. For this to have either been Ichthyophthirius or Oodinium, you would have had the temperatures at 78 degrees or lower for some time. Is this what happened??? ??? Joe

[watergate]

Errrrr........ I dun think so
My tank temperature is kept around 29 degrees. Right now the ich(only at the fins) has turn out to be velvet and had spread to the fishes bodies.
I think the disease should be spread from the cardinal tetras

Watergate, place the fish in a hospital tank and try raising the temperature as Ardan has suggested. Copper Sulfate can be used but is pretty scary and will kill the plants. Copper Sulfate can only be used in water with a German Hrdness of more than 10 degrees. If the heat increase does not work, then I would recommend a med from the pet store. Joe :-\

I agree some what!

But Oodinium limnecticum is some what diffrent from Oodinium pillularis. One thing is its only found in north america. and likes the cold but not the heat. On the other hand Ooinium pillularris is only found in the wamer regions around the world.

So IME it is very rare in Discus but has been reported!


IMO I do not think its velvet because of the spotting. Velvet attacks will cover the body like a shadow like the Discus has been dusted with flour. I would look more to the Chilodonella cyprini family. Heat will work good with salt + marcide. other forms of dyes work well to and IMO would mix 1 of them in with salt and heat. Copper will work to as Joe explained. But if you don't have the water hardness to treat with pure copper try copper safe. I would also use blue or marcide mixed in with copper treatments. Also no lights when useing dyes and treating for protozoan's

HTH YOU free your Fish
takeCare,
Cary Gld!

[nalah]

Cary
what does the lighting do??

Hi Pascale,

The lighting will degrade the med and IMO help the parasite find its host.

HTH
Cary Gld!

[nalah]

thanks Cary.
pointers like this is always appreciated because you dont get information like this in books.

[BlueTurquoise]

Wow, didn't know that. And all this time I have been doing dye treatments with lights on... Pascale is right on the money. Can always count on you Cary! :thumbsup:

Chong

[watergate]

Actually i been a newbie to this type of disease happening in a planted tank. And i lived in Southeast Asia so the temperature is all round humid. While right now the temperature seems to get cooler and my tank temperature hovers around 28-30 degrees.
So any recommend medicine? I saw a med that indicate a coppersafe name but it warn that it can harm plants.........so right now i have been using a local med which say that it doesnt harm plants. I've been using it for 4 days and doesn't turn better...... :-\