Should I flush my Danio?

Kim

[quote="iamntbatman"]Also, never flush a fish, live or dead!quote]

Well, I don't think that flushing a dead fish if you have a septic system is a bad thing. It will end up in the ground anyway.

NEVER flush a live one though, that is just terribly disgusting, a horrible way to end a life with a long, painful death!

Exodus

My Recommendation, Use Salt and Raise the water Temperature.

Find the Maximum temperature that all your fish can tolerate and set it to that. Ich's reproductive cycle goes a lot quicker the warmer the water is. This is important, because the Cyst stage, which is when you see those salt looking specs on your fish, cannot be harmed by Salt OR medication.

Even if you have Cory's I highly recommend against using Medication of anykind. Use Salt, it has two benifits.

1.) When Ich moves into it's free floating stage, can can be killed by salt
2.) The way most fish die, is from Lack of oxygen because Ich ends up covering up the fish's gills. Also the Higher your water temperature, the less oxygen can be in the water. Salt Makes it easier for Fish to breath.

If you raise the temperature, raise it no more than 1 degree an hour.

IF you do have Sensitive Fish, increase the amount of salt inserted in small increments. Observe your Tank once an hour, if it looks like your fish are stressed, then Stop adding salt. The less salt you put in, the longer it will take to kill all the Ich, the more you put in, the more that will die when they turn free floater.

With sensitive fish, it is Far more important how you remove salt from their evironment, than it is how you introduce salt.

Removal should take place over a 2 week period, where you remove 10-20% everyday. DO NOT go over this ammount, as it can put your fish into shock.

Using the methods listed above I was able to treat 6 Clown Loaches, with serious Ich infestion. All Survived. ALL of them...

Salt is the way to go. Chemicals produce stronger variations of ich.

aunt kymmie

How much aquarium salt per gallon should be added for non-sensitive fish?
How much salt per gallon for sensitive fish?
Can I assume catfish & loaches are sensitive? Who else is a sensitive fish?
What if you're keeping both sensitive & non-sensitive in the same tank?
I keep Rams, barbs, cats & loaches in the same tank.

For what period of time do you add salt (on a daily basis)? What is the max threshold for salt? Is there a test for this?

I know somewhere on this forum are detailed instructions for this treatment. Wasn't this in a thread somewhere where Pasfur gave instructions? At the moment I can't find it....

I also read somewhere that fish previously treated for ich will develop an immunity from reinfection??

Jenavee

Just an update. I didn't flush my danio, I added the medication, the danio is fine and signs of ich are gone! My pleco is also alive and well.

Exodus

It's actually listed on the Bottle, I think it's at least 1 tablespoon /5 gallon? Almost every bottle says the same thing, they list the safe dosage for senstive fish.

I had 6 loaches, 6 Pearl Gouramis, a Red Tailed Shark, 3 Zebra Danios. Just do a little research, only my 6 Clown loaches were sensitive. Treat the tank for your sensitive fish. The others will just get better at the same rate as the senstive ones.

Just look for information on your fish, and you'll find out.

Stick with the recommended dosage and you'll be fine. Remember Removal of salt is much more important than adding salt. Do 20% water changes daily for a week. Don't do an 80%, because the loss of that much Salt will put your sensitive fish into shock.

Add Salt Hourly. Before you put in your next batch, look at your fish, and see if their stress level has increased. If it has, stop adding. This happend to me with my loaches, they were more stressed, so I had to stop adding salt. So in the end it took longer for the salt to kill the Ich ( a week extra ) .

I'm not sure what the max threshold is, but there is a test, which you need to buy a hydrometer.

I found a really nice thread on this but for whatever reason I can't find it right now, I'll post a link here when I find it.

Never heard of that, I do know that loaches are highly suseptable to Ich. If there is one spec of ich in a tank.... THEY WILL GET IT!

So if you add any fish that is stressed to your tank, always quarentine them for a few days. if you can.

Exodus

Here we go, Found the link.

I recommend having this link stickied, since it is a common thread.
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php