JD and pictus with ick

teddyzaper

ok so my tank has ick and it is ALL over my pictus and there are about 2 dots on my JD. i have started treatment with this stuff that is about 5-10yrs old, would it still work and if not would pecto stuff be fine?
1. What is the size of your tank? 35gal

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used. 7.4 ph, 5-10 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 150 hardness,120 alkalinity, no chlorine (well water)

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water? fresh

4. How long the aquarium has been set up? 5 months

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them? 1 JD, 1 pictus cat, and a couple Convict Cichlid babies about 2 months old

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)? well when i put them in i took out all other fish but the babies so i just floated them for 20min or so, no.

7. What temperature is the tank water currently? hovers around 80 F

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium? no

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity. penguin biowheel 150, rated for 40gal, change filter cartridge monthly, dont touch biowheel

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)? 2 air pumps for an air wall in the back

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)? like 1 hr of daylight, just a petco flourescent tube bulb

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate? 4 days ago yes i vacum the substrate

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule? i feed hikari dried krill and some cichlid flakes and the ocasional snail from my planted tank

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish? nothing, very active, just one small spot

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis. never




pic:

DustyBZoo

I would get new meds just to be safe. It would be a bummer if for some reason the old meds didn't work and your fish got worse.
I recently had a bad run in with ick and lost my pictus cat. I think the meds were too strong. I used QuIck Cure, however in hindsight I would have used aquarisol.

aunt kymmie

You already started the treatment? What is the exact name of the med you are usinig? Pictus are sensitive and meds should only be used at half strength. I successfully used Kordon's Rid Ich at half strength when treating my tank (tank holds loaches and a pictus). I've read numerous times that Aquarisol is also safe and effective for scaleless fish. I'm sure the meds you're using have some sort of expiraton date on them (as most meds do) but I wouldn't know what that was unless we knew what type of med it was. Sorry your fish have ich.

teddyzaper

its called Kordon rid ick plus (it does a little more then rid ick)

OK im pissed now. i have another tank that is 30gal, and is pretty new and hasnt stabalized yet. i ordered 2 german blue rams and tried to cancel the order after reading here that i have to let my tank cycle more. they wouldnt let me cancel the order so now im stuck with 2 GB rams in my tank that isnt stable (2 nitrites) this morning i woke up and checked on the fish, and they are half covered in ich. i only got them last fryday so im guesing its because of the place i ordered them from. i already spent $20 on them so im just wondering should i just give them back with ick on them or try and have them survive. i know its not my water quality because i had a pleco in there since i set it up (i know its bad) and he didnt have ick. i cant see him now so idk if he has ick but i really hope not, this tank has some plants in it so should i do something diferent, i heard that doing a pwc then turn off the lights and have a total blackout could kill the ick. should i be feeding during the treatment? please help and thanks for all the replies!

Twistersmom

It is said, that ick is always in the water. Fish develop ick, when they are stressed or their immune system is weak. The new fish, could have come with ick. Also, a possibility that the stress of being moved and stress from the nitrites, caused the ick.
It is not proven (to my knowledge) that a blackout will cure ick. Some meds are weakened by light, so using these meds, it is recommend to turn out the lights.
There are a few effective ways of removing ick. The use of meds and the heat treatment. I would not use meds on a tank with ammonia/nitrite readings. I would do daily water changes get water quality under control first.

cerianthus

Sorry to hear all the difficulties. It seems When it rains it pours!
Let's not panic and take one thing at a time.

First with Pictus tank
Although I know of the med you are using but 5-10 yrs old after opening, I am not sure of its effectiveness and/or its toxicity. Good idea to replace if possible. Do agree that pictus along with many other scaleless skin fish are more sensitive to antiparasitic med. Should read the label thoroughly for any warning on the scaleless fish.
By raising heat gradually to 86F with extra aeration and proper dosage as per instruction of med usually worked for me. Sometimes heat alone worked well.
Aquarisol that other members suggested only works well with high temp (86F as instructed on the bottle). I usued to use salt even with pictus regularly also but if you never have used salt in the tank, I would not recommend it unless you have tried before.

Now GBR Tank:
Although nitrite of 2 is not good, it seems you have no choices.

Since both tank seemes to be going thru outbreak, how about using some of media from other tank (well established0, rinse with tank water and use for GBR tank in order to boost the cycling process along with necessary water changes to keep nitrite down.

If GBR tank did not have same outbreak, I would NEVER recommend this.
Wether GBR came with ick infestation, it is possible but it may not have been shippers wrong doing. It couldve happened during ttransit as most of pathogens may not be visible to our naked eye. I am not trying to defend anyone but to point out the other possibilities.
And again it could have been your fault by using same net/equipments w/o boiling or steriliziing them.
At this time you should just concentrate on what you need to do. As far as treating GBR, you could do the same with temp+ med.
If memory serves, all parasitic med for Ich only work at certain stage of their life cycle, not when it is on the body. Raising temp will fasten their life cycle so it can come off the body and start multiplying. This is when med will do the trick by killing them. I also do remember that by stablizing high temp (86F) alone can kill these offsrings w/o med.
It is your call. When med are properly dosed and used for certain fish, it will work well.

Hope all goews well.

teddyzaper

ok well with the ick on the GBR i added 3 tablespoons of aquarium salt (says to add 6tablespoons) and im slowly raising the temp, should it stay at 86 for a long time and also do i really need the ick medicine because its expensive and i have no money right now (just bought new filter). also could the new filter be the cause? i cleaned it before adding it to the tank but it still couldve been a result. i never mix stuff in tanks unless its like a tank buddy, aas in transfering fish ill add a rcok from the other tank. i will add the biological from the other tank but my question is once it is done cycling can i put it in the tank again? i was thinking of putting my biowheel in there but i need it for the other tank so i cant just dump it. any other sugestions? the tank is only 10 gallons (the stabalized one) so there isnt to much in it.

Twistersmom

I personal use the heat/salt treatment for curing ick. I am not sure how important the use of salt is. I once did the heat treatment, without salt, and it worked as well.

Slowly raise the temp to 86. No more than 1 deg a day. 1/2 deg every 12 hrs, even better.
Turn up all available air. Higher heat, depreciates oxygen levels. You can even drop the water line, to get more air from the hob filter.
If you add salt, I went with 1 tablespoon Per 5 gallons of water. Always dissolve the salt in water first! Any grains landing on sensitive fish, will burn them.
Leave the water at 86 deg, for a week, after all visual signs are gone. This will help make sure the free swimming ick, is killed off. They are said, not to be able to reproduce at this temp.
Then you can slowly lower temp to the normal setting.
Study the fish you have, to make sure they can survive the heat.

Water changes throughout treatment, will help remove some of the ick. It will also help keep the ammonia and nitrites under control, so no added stress. Just remember to match the new temp, as best as you can.

Once the ick is removed, it should be safe to switch the biological media back to the other tank. I keep sponges and/or other biological media in my filters, so I do not have to depend on the bio-wheels themselves. Also, give me something to seed new tanks or the qt, when needed.

QT any new fish after the treatment. Adding new fish to the main tank, you risk bringing ick, back into the tank.

cerianthus

Handful of gravel in filter of 30 is better than nothing. Like I said only because both tank is experiencing same problem. This way gravel can be easily remove later on. If wishes to put the gravel back to original tank, treat them with oiling water before dumping back.
It's up to you. Steady 86 F could do the trick along with pwc as spots disappear from the body (physically removing fallen parasites) but dont forget the aeration unless already on the tank.
You could add the rest of salt in 30G. Could add 1 tbspn at a time if you wish.
When using net/equipments for several tanks, it is good idea to sterilize in hot water.
Temp shuld stay at 86F well after the infestation subsided. Just make sure lower gradually when lowering.

How are they doing so far?

teddyzaper

ok thanks, ill just keep on this and do a 20-30% water change every 2-3 days. my water temp was already at 82 and my heater is very slow to heat stuff up so i changed it to 84 which will take around 1-2 days to heat up. ill go put the biowheel in the tank and test the water perams now.

my nitrates have spiked up to around 40 so i hope that my cycle is on track, nitrites around 2-3 and everything else is the same as my tap water.

i have a question, after a couple of days my tank has this coulorful oil looking stuff on top of the water, does that mean something? it only comes out with a water change and a couple hrs later its there again, is there anything i can do?