Tropical Fish Keeping banner

batteling ich in a gold fish tank.

909 views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  jaysee 
#1 ·
Hey guys,

I wanna start by saying I'm sorry if I posted this in a wrong spot. I wasn't really sure where to put this because its about gold fish but its also about ich. So, today I brought home two Pearl scale Gold fish. I have them in there own 20GAL tank away from my community fish where they will stay. Let me start off by saying that i have always wanted this kind of gold fish, when I saw them at my LPS, I had to get them, HAD TOO but the catch is, they have ich. I noticed it right away and decided it was worth it, so I got ich meds too to treat there water. I went home, set up the tank, reed up on ich and that is what brings me hear.. Everything says that it helps if you keep their water temperature high as ich has a hard time living in higher water temp but I know that goldfish are a cold water fish. I already treated the water in the tank, I also put salt in there and added stress coat.. But I don't know if I should put a heater in there and raise it slowly over the next few days to help the meds along or wait and see. I know they are stressed and I don't want to stress them out anymore then I have too. Any and all feed back would be appreciated. Thank you.

P.S. I know this is a tropical fish forum but I haven't found a goldfish forum yet.. I just got them.
 
#2 ·
There are a few ways to treat ich but what you don't want to do is subject your fish to all the treatments at once. Medications often utilize oxygen in the water so raising the temp with meds is not advised. Meds and heat both work on their own so there's no need to use salt with either treatment. Pick one method and see it through.

Goldfish can handle 90 degree water just fine. Just ask anyone with a fish pond. I've used heat on goldfish many times, and I've used meds a few times. Never used salt - never needed to. Heat is the way to go in my experience.
 
#4 ·
I think there's a difference between the concentration of your standard water and one with the therapeutic value to cure the fish of ich. So if you just have the normal amount you would otherwise have I don't think it's necessary to break things down.

Admittedly I've never used salt for anything, so I'm just speaking to that based on the information obtained and retained from others.
 
#5 ·
Many people keep salt in their tanks but I think in the last 5-10 years it has been shown keeping salt in the tank doesn't help any more than keeping a tank well maintained. And some fish don't do well with salt so it stresses them out for no reason. If you wanted to remove the salt I would just do normal water changes and not replace the salt that will slowly remove it and not stress the fish.


I like Jaysee I use heat for Ick.
 
#6 ·
If I'm not mistaken, one of the reason people claim salt is beneficial is because it is an irritant and makes the fish produce excess slime and that protects the fish. While I can appreciate the possibility of some benefit there, I agree with warhawk that a well maintained tank doesn't need such a "safeguard".
 
#8 ·
Yeah, it was a different time back then. We didn't understand the processes like we do now, and what little information that was out there wasn't so readily available. I call that the dark age of fish keeping, whereas we are currently in the golden age :)
 
#9 ·
I've used a UV sterilizer to good effect with ich before. Ran a borrowed unit (LFS where I bought the fish loaned it to me). Ran it for 2 weeks on my tank, after the first week the spots were gone but ran it for an extra week just in case.
In fact I just bought a 9 watt UV unit for my 20 gallon tank for $32. Just in case :)
 
#10 ·
UV is a great addition to your tank. I like the green killing machine, and it makes a great "powerhead" for a smaller tank, helping with circulation. You can run it 24/7.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top