Darn, ich in my planted tank!

[hobbit6003]

It's been a long time since there's an ich outbreak in my planted tank, and just as my plants are doing very well, it strikes!

In the past, I used to place the fishes' health above that of the plants and I'd medicate the tank immediately. The concoction that I've always used is a formaldehyde-methylene blue-malachite green combo, which would certainly dye the plants and compromise on their health instead, although this is a definitive ich treatment, one which works everytime.

This time round, however, I decided not to go this way, and perhaps source for an alternative to this. I've now decided to use the heat method, and increase my water temperature to 32 deg celcius. The only question mark is, would all my plant species be able to take this? Furthermore, it is always contentious as to such treatment would eradicate ich effectively, though these protozoa are known to be intolerant of temperature higher than 30 deg. Celcius.

My plants consist of java ferns and moss, heterazanthera zosterfolia, anubias sp, ech. rose, ech. tenellus, ludwigia arcuata, cyperus helferi, blyxa japonica, nymphae sp, aponogeton undulatus.

The next question is, if anyone had success using other commercially available medication/preparation without compromising on the plant health?

When coming to treating fish diseases, I'd usually hardly raise an eyebrow. But this time round, the plants look so healthy and the tank almost spotless with algael growth, it'll be a waste to see such an effort going down because of this ich outbreak....

Kenny

[plantmania]

Medication is the fastest way to remove ich... Ich treatment(methyl blue ?) dont really damages plants.

1) You need to treat double the period as stated in the instructions. Usually about 7 days. This is to kill off the "Ich" in the water column, substrate as well as those that are buried under the skin of the fish. Ich unburied themself from the skin and substrate after 3-4 days...

2) UV-C can help in removing Ich forever.... It kills all the free-floating Ich parasites.

If 1+ 2 is done, the chance for 100% removal of Ich parasites is high. If a few germs got away.... the cycle will begin again.New Ich will only be re-introduced by "infected" fish...

[hobbit6003]

[quote:d3270557cc="plantmania"]Medication is the fastest way to remove ich... Ich treatment(methyl blue ?) dont really damages plants.

1) You need to treat double the period as stated in the instructions. Usually about 7 days. This is to kill off the "Ich" in the water column, substrate as well as those that are buried under the skin of the fish. Ich unburied themself from the skin and substrate after 3-4 days...

2) UV-C can help in removing Ich forever.... It kills all the free-floating Ich parasites.

If 1+ 2 is done, the chance for 100% removal of Ich parasites is high. If a few germs got away.... the cycle will begin again.New Ich will only be re-introduced by "infected" fish...[/quote:d3270557cc]

Well, I used to use FMC (Formadehyde-methylene blue-malachite green), but it always stain my plants and they don't seem to do so well for a while thereafter.

Most of the time, I'd just contact trace and isolate the affected fishes for treatment, and the rest of the inhabitants would be alright. However, this time I really let my guard down and a few more fast swimmers are affected, making it impossible to catch them out.

Yeah, I do agree that medication is the fastest way to go, but I've decided to try other alternatives such as heat treatment, unless there's other proprietary medication out there which is not dye based and will not harm the plants....

Kenny

[plantmania]

You must remove all traces of Ich.... not just infected fish. Some fish looks normal but might have ich buried in the skin. The white dots are just cyst(like human puss from an infected wound) , not the Ich at all.

Ich is everywhere, on the fish, in the gravel and swimming in the tank water. You had to treat the main tank irregardless. Do a long treatment once and for all, and wipe out the entire Ich population.

Plants might be stunted after treatment, but they will heal.

Raising temperature only speed up the life cycle of Ich, and only helps if you have other treatments done concurrently. Else you will be just raising new generations of Ich....

[hobbit6003]

[quote:1150f721cf="plantmania"]You must remove all traces of Ich.... not just infected fish. Some fish looks normal but might have ich buried in the skin. The white dots are just cyst(like human puss from an infected wound) , not the Ich at all.

Ich is everywhere, on the fish, in the gravel and swimming in the tank water. You had to treat the main tank irregardless. Do a long treatment once and for all, and wipe out the entire Ich population.

Plants might be stunted after treatment, but they will heal.

Raising temperature only speed up the life cycle of Ich, and only helps if you have other treatments done concurrently. Else you will be just raising new generations of Ich....[/quote:1150f721cf]

Hi plantmania,

Ich is usually dormant in the tank, and is possibly endemic. As most of the time, healthy fishes in established tanks are usually resistant to them, or have developed a certain immunity, that they remain assymptomatic.

Contact tracing and isolation does help me to prevent an epidemic in the past, just that this time round, it is much more difficult to do so in my current setup and with my fish types. I knew something like that is going to happen when I did my water change last night, and found out only at the end of it that the hose was detergent coated, urgh!

Yeah, heat treatment is quite controversial actually, although it had been mentioned in many literatures in the past. However, since I've never tried this alternative before, I'm going to see if it can work. You see, I'm always a medicine man before.

Kenny

[tawauboy]

use salt, 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons.
no impact on fishes as well as plants. search the forum for more information as there are many posts on this subject.
keep up the dosage when you change the water (per normal routine).
and keep the salt concentration for 2-3 weeks after ich disappears.
slowly dilute the salinity by normal water change.

[GaspingGurami]

I used salt in my recent case of ich. it's effective, with no effect on even flimsy plants like cabomba, vals and riccia.

[hobbit6003]

Thanks guys,

Salt is something I'd rather not use for the time being, as I'd not want to alter the present osmotic gradient. The TDS reading is already 280ppm in this tank.

Having a water temp. of 88F/31 deg. Celcius seems to be working, as most of the spots seems to have dropped. It's probably accelerated their life cycle and hopefully the tomites are killed too. Guess will have to wait for a few more days to see its progress.

Cheers,

Kenny

[tawauboy]

since temperature treatment works, keep it going. don't mix treatments.
maintain for about 2 week after all spots have dropped off.

[cookiez]

I used salt in my recent case of ich. it's effective, with no effect on even flimsy plants like cabomba, vals and riccia.

Hi can u emphasize on the salt treatment?
Just add aquarium salt into the tank?

[Navanod]

Bro, this is a 2004 thread...you really super digger

But I had recently cured ich in my new office tank using Sera Costapur and the plants and even the shrimps and snails were fine.

The trick was to use at half dose but I dosed on the 2nd day as well (supposed to dose 40 drops on 1st and 3rd day, I dosed 20 drops for 3 days)

There were also claims that Waterlife Octozin tablets (normally used for marine tanks) can be used safely with plants and invertebrates.

[jiajuen900]

used salt treatment plus heat treatment in tank. Worked eventually. But note ich is usually caused by stress.