I handle ich like a pro.

Kelso

Assuming this is my FOURTH case of ich now, I defeated it in a week flat. Switched fish from my 28 to my 75 and moved the puffs to the 28 and was able to use it as a quarantine tank. Once I started proper treatement it's pretty much gone!

Romad

Good on ya :)

What's your treatment exactly? I'm currently in the middle of my first outbreak.

Angel079

Your puffer's are under attach now? Take it your new fish & them shared a home huh? It really does seem ich these days is much more common then back int he day

Kelso

I use ich attack and for them the temp is at 86. And what happened Natalie was they acquired ich about 2 weeks ago but I hadn't started any treatment until last week. I did some movement among my tanks so now they are alone in the 28, which makes treatment a lot easier.

Angel079

I hate it by now, I just plain hate it by now LOL I'll finish medication my 45g (for the 2nd time around) tonight, been pretty stubborn this time took me almost 3 weeks to get rid of it, I hate that stuff!

PaperclipGirl

I just finished a second round of treatment for my first case of ick ( but I think the previous user had tons of it since the pharmacy that came with the tank had several types of ick treatments). I just turned the heat up on my tank a little so hopefully this will help. Per the bottle of instructions I have one more round to go - but I still have the white spots. URG!

Bottle up some of that luck and send me some, k?

~cheers

n1zjd

Ive only had Ich once and it only lasted about a week. Its my understanding that you should do NOTHING special to treat it unless its severe. Raising the temp just causes more stress. Stress is what brought on the Ich in the first place right? The fish should be able to fight it off by themselves from what Ive been told/read. Just keep the water conditions perfect and wait it out. Obviously if its bad enough then treatment may be necessary though

Mean Harri

Go Kelso go Kelso. woop woop
Ich, the parasite, is unaffected by medications until it leaves the fish. Higher temps speed up the life cycle of Ich. There is about a 3 day window to get the parasite killed with meds before it surrounds itself with a secretion in the gravel after leaving the fish and respawns to attack again. Once back inside the fish it is untouchable by meds in the water. Thus the longer treatment regimen and recommended raising of temp. Just an fyi. While ich is stressful as is raising the temp, the higher temp is not as much stressful as most tropical fish can handle the higher temps. Lower temps extend the ich life cycle. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ich.htm

Kelso

I hear what you're saying, and it's how I have handled ich before. However, with puffers, they take ich to a whole new extreme. For some reason they are incredibly susceptible AND it takes forever for them to lose it.

n1zjd

I kinda figured there was a good reason for the method your doing. I just wanted to also share what I had learned from my run-in with Ich. For all I know I was lucky with how easily it went away, and for all I know I may not be done with it yet! I did know that raising the temp speeds the life cycle. Just also wanted to point out that it adds additional stress to some species of fish even further weakening their immune system. I read everything I could to try and save my fish when they got it. Theres many different methods of getting ridding of it/speeding up the process however not all are safe for all species. I lost two fish with my Ich outbreak that could have possibly been prevented had I properly quarantined!