New Red Terror Cichlids

MrWynO14

Hello all, it's been a while since I've posted to the forums and I have a couple questions. I just recently bought some 1 and a half inch Red Terror Cichlids from my local pet store. The tank I'm using is a 135 gallon, that I recently took my 7 cichlids out of that were about 8 inches each or so. The water chemistry is great as it's an established tank that housed my other cichlids perfectly fine. I just did an ammonia test last night (about 24 hours ago) and it read 0 ppm, along with the nitrIte being 0 ppm, and the nitrAte being around 20 to 30 ppm. The pH is at just around 7.5 also.

Anyhow, I noticed these little cichlids are getting ich and I'm wondering why. My experience in the past with ich was that it comes around when fish are stressed. When my other cichlids had it (which was in a seperate tank by the way), it was due to my tank not being all the way cycled, I believe the nitrite was still dropping and turning in to nitrate. This tank is definitely cycled and none of the cichlids I had in the tank ever had ich at all, but I did buy this 135 gallon tank used and kept the gravel and lava rock in it from the previous owner. I tried ich medicine a couple years ago in my 29 gallon tank that housed cichlids and it didn't work at all, I believe it was the Malachite Green formula. All this stuff did was turn my silicone seams blue without helping my fish, and I really don't want to use this stuff again.

My Red Terrors are still getting used to the tank, and they all eat, but right when they get comfortable and start swimming around and someone passes by the tank or goes to observe them, they dart away to go and hide in the lava rock. I think this may be stressing them out and am wondering if I should cover the tank with a blanket or something until they get used to the tank. If I SHOULD cover the tank, should I keep the light on for them? Will this ich go away on it's own or do I HAVE to treat it?

I know this is a long post and really appreciate any help I get from you all here at Tropical Fish Keeping. Thanks.

jeaninel

The fish most likely came with ich from the fish store. Anytime you introduce new fish to your tank they should first be quarantined for a few weeks. It is much easier and cheaper to treat ich in a smaller QT tank rather than in a larger main display tank. Plus you reduce the risk of infecting your existing fish.

You're going to have to treat the fish using either the heat and salt method or with an ich medication. Ich will not go away on its own. Personally, I've always had good results using Quick Cure. Make sure you treat for at least 2 weeks to be sure to get rid of any lingering parasites and do plenty of water changes during the treatment.

Red Terror are an awesome fish. The females are gorgeous. Are you planning on eventually getting a pair out of the 7 and re-homing the rest?

MrWynO14

Thanks for the reply, I actually have 10 Red Terrors, the 7 fish I was talking about were the fish I had before. I am planning on getting a pair out of them because they are nice looking fish indeed. Should I remove these guys and put them in a 5 gallon tank to get the ich out of them? If I do remove them, will I have to treat this 135 gallon tank also? I wish I would have just put them in the 5 gallon in the first place!

1077

If ICH is present on fish in 135 gal, then you will need to treat the 135 gal for the paraiste is there.
Moving fish now, would mean treating two tanks.
Agree with Quick cure as per direction's after removing any carbon in filter.

jeaninel

Yea, as 1077 said you'll have to treat the 135 gallon. Ich is very contagious. Be sure to continue treatment for at least 3-4 days after you no longer see any spots on the fish to make sure any free swimming parasites are killed. Good luck with the treatment.

MrWynO14

I wanted to give an update on my fish. Keep in mind that my fish were at the early stages of ich and only had an average of roughly 5 white spots per fish or so. Also keep in mind that False Red Terror Cichlids (AKA Mayan Cichlids) can survive really high temperatures of water and this method may not be suitable for all types of fish/plants.

I went with a basic heat treating method to get rid of the ich because I didn't want to use any medications if I didn't have too. What I did was drop the tank level to half way to let my filter splash the top of the water for more surface agitation. While siphoning the water out, I vaccumed the bottom of the tank in case there were any ich eggs (trophonts) in the gravel, I wanted to make sure I got as many as I could from the get go. I also added 3 air stones for more surface agitation to help oxygenate the water since a rise in temperature can deplete oxygen from the tank. Most websites online say that ich cannot survive past 86 degrees, however there were a few sites that suggest 90 degree water is the temperature that ich dies at. So with this information, I then slowly bumped the heat up to 90 degrees, not increasing past 2 degrees per hour. I did this about 5 days ago, and after the second day I noticed all ich was off of my fish. I'm still treating the tank just to make sure the ich doesn't come back. So far it hasn't.

I understand that most won't agree with this method, and it may not be for some people due to the fact that they have fish or plants that cannot survive temperatures this high. I myself find it working, and like using this method better than treating with medication because of my past experience with malachite green products and the stain they leave on silicone. I also remember that malachite green has a warning about it being known to cause cancer and this is another reason I don't like using it. I do however understand that there are other products/medications that can be used for ich that do not contain malachite green although I haven't had any experience using them so I don't know how they work, or if they work at all.

There are a lot of contradicting websites out there on treatments for Ichthyophthirius multifilis (ich) and this can be frustrating. If you want to check out a website that helped guide me to using this method, check out the following website. Keep in mind that there are a couple things listed on this website that I didn't do to treat ich. For instance, I didn't remove my gravel or use salt.

Using Heat to Treat Ich in Freshwater Tropical Fish - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish

The following is an excerpt from the website listed above.

"It has been found that Ich does not infect new fish at 29.4°C/85°F (Johnson, 1976), stops reproducing at 30°C/86°F (Dr. Nick St. Erne, DVM, pers. comm.), and dies at 32°C/89.5°F (Meyer, 1984), [1]"

I hope this post helps someone out there, thanks for reading.

umcalleg

Hey there

I had an Ich infestation about a year ago. I just got a small bottle of Nox Ich from petland, took out my carbon from the filter and followed the directions for about 4 days. Worked like a charm and I haven't seen any sign of it since.
It also turns your water blue, which looks pretty cool! Cheap, quick and foolproof. I'm sure any similar medicine containing malachite green would work just as well.
I went through the same thing though when it came to research. Some people swear by some methods and others denounce them outright. It can be frustrating, and I often learn what I can and figure out the rest through often expensive trial and error.
It seems like you have a handle on things in your tank though and I hope it works out, but if it doesn't, my experience with malachite green was completely positive and as long as it's used infrequently i'm sure it's harmless.
Good luck!