[stunnerman]

I purchased an infected Pleco and put it into my tank. So far 4 fish have died because of the ich, and only 3 are left. This happened months ago, and the remaining fish have no ill effect. I just found out what the problem was.

I don't want to buy any more fish until I can get rid of this problem.

Would it be a good idea to take the rest of the fish out, empty the tank and give it a GOOD cleaning, change the gravel, etc. to get rid of this??


I don't know much about this disease

Thanks

 

[Bristle nose]

No! Just raise your water temperature to about 28 to 30 degrees celsius and treat you tank with white spot/ich cure that you can buy from a LFS. But make sure that you have good aeration.

 

[Lupin]

Hi and welcome aboard.:wave:

It's not a good idea.:shake: It would require you to cycle your tank again and this will also kill the remaining survivors brought by ammonia and nitrite spikes.:shake:

What is the size of your tank and what are the fish you have?

To treat ich, raise the temp to 30oC. Make sure all your fish can tolerate this temp. The high temp will trigger the ich to speed up their lifecycle. Then add salt. Pls dissolve the salt in a cup of water before adding it to your tank. Grains of salt at the bottom of your tank can burn skin of your pleco and other bottom dwellers. The salt should be able to destroy the ich as ich are most vulnerable at free-swimming stage.

Prepare an airpump as the high temperature also has low oxygen content which will cause your fish to gasp to the surface and aside from that will easily succumb as they have been infected already with ich.

Do the treatment for 14 days. Lesser than that will not completely destroy all of the ich parasites and they will reappear again once your fish suffer from stress again.

Oh, and next time, pls quarantine the new fish in a spare tank which will serve as your quarantine tank. This will protect your current livestocks from possible diseases. Ich serve as a 'contaminant' and is not part of the tank's ecosystem. They can remain in your tank undetected once you introduced a carrier which is usually an unquarantined fish.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Lupin]

Here's the other thread which also has a similar problem.
http://www.fishforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2984

 

[stunnerman]

Thanks for all the replies. I have a 25 Gal tall tank.

We have 2 Gourami's and a small catfish left -- these were not affected.

The Pleco, 1 Gourami and two sharks have died (they got infected).

I have a question regarding quarantining new fish - If I buy a new fish and keep it alone, what should I be looking for before joining it with the others??

This is all really new to me -- Thanks again for all the responses!!!

 

[Lupin]

I have a question regarding quarantining new fish - If I buy a new fish and keep it alone, what should I be looking for before joining it with the others??

You have to quarantine them though. They may look healthy but they can be carriers of diseases too. You do not see any symptoms until they succumb from stress.:shake: