Ich question

[Jackson]

I just saw that the two goldfish I have had with my Mbu for the last 5 months have ich. They have been disposed of immediately. I can see some spots on my Mbu and it seems less active. I have no idea where this came from but I have a feeling it's from the frozen blood worms I fed the goldfish this week. It's the only thing I have added to the tank that is not a regular thing. Water is perfect so it's not a water quality issue.
I have been reading the Dr. Pleco article here and it mentions kordon ridich+ is there a better medication that I can find in Canada or is that one better then most?
I'm going to treat my Mbu and CW-28's because last week I added a plant from the Mbu tank to the Cory tank and I don't want to give the ich a chance to take over. I don't see any on them but I want to take preventative measures. Is the kordon ridich okay as a preventative medication?

Thanks

 

[VickiandKev]

Hi,

Why not try increasing the temp and aeration and adding salt for 3 days see if that clears it before trying meds. Try 0.25 of salt per L then divide by 3 to get your daily dose. Don't do any water changes for this period.

Hope that helps...

 

[Jackson]

I'd rather start off with meds first. I already see it in my Mbu and they don't do well with ich. I have had bad experience once with ich where it wiled out a whole group 12 l-239's. I tried the heat salt and dark treatment and it did nothing all of them were gone in less than a week and a half. Before that that treatment always worked. I would rather not take that chance again. Plus my Mbu is my baby and the cw's are very very hard to find.

I'm just going to go ahead with Dr. Plecos treatment.

 

[Doodles]

Rid ich + is supposed to be pretty good and not so harsh. Increase aeration in the tank as most ich meds contain formalin which removes oxygen from the water.

 

[Jackson]

Rid ich + is supposed to be pretty good and not so harsh. Increase aeration in the tank as most ich meds contain formalin which removes oxygen from the water.

Thanks Doodles

I'm going to start today. One good thing so far is my Mbu is swimming around and ate two apple snails. I can see less ich but that means nothing.

 

[Doodles]

The reduced ich just means they have left the fish to go reproduce. Don't be surprised to see more ich for the first couple days when treating, it happens a lot and people often think the med isn't working. Good luck and please keep us updated.

 

[Doug]

Ich can be airborne, sometimes it come from nowhere and alas there is very little you can do about it. I use UV sterilisers on my tanks as I have had some big looses when it comes to Ich in the past. Since setting them up I have had no issuse with Ich.

 

[Lornek8]

Ich can be airborne, sometimes it come from nowhere and alas there is very little you can do about it.

Don't know where you got this info from but ich is not airborn. It is a parasite and requires a host to survive extended periods.. Unless you have misting from an infected source, ich won't travel through the air. Ich is found in most water sources and outbreaks can be triggered through stress when infection was not previously apparent, thus the reason ich sometimes simply "appears".

 

[Doug]

Hrmm, i was told different.

I was told the parasite itself is not airborn, but its cysts can be. Particually in tropical areas. The cysts can survive out of water for as much as a few days.

that said i can not remember where I heard it, I thought it was one of the academics here at uni but could have equally come from my local fish shop.

either way a UV will deal with it before it becomes an issue

 

[Lornek8]

Here is a reference to airborn ich. While I guess it has shown possible, note that it is talking about 91cm, under 3 feet. Thus unless the other infected tank is in close proximity, ich will not just "appear".

"Two potential disease vectors are airborne pathogens and gametes. Bishop et al. (2003) showed that a fish protozoan pathogen (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis) was transmitted by an aerobiological pathway to infect fingerling channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) at a distance of 91 cm from the pathogen source tank."
FROM: http://www.lib.noaa.gov/retiredsites/japan/aquaculture/proceedings/report32/lee_corrected.pdf


REFERNCE: Bishop, T.M., A. Smalls, G.A. Wooster, and P. R. Bowser. 2003. Aerobiological (airborne) dissemination of the fish pathogen Ichthyophthirius multifiliis and the implications in fish health management. Pages 51-64 in C.-S. Lee and P.J. O’Bryen, editors. Biosecurity in Aquaculture Production Systems: Exclusion of Pathogens and Other Undesirables. The World Aquaculture Society, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

 

[tutters187]

Disposing of the first 2 infected goldfish was a bit hasty :dk:

I find that it's mostly from temperature changes - up or down or usually like all other diseases stress - ie, poor water, bullying tank mates, wrong diet can all lead to the fish becoming weaker and more susceptible to different infections.
Certain parasites are usually always present on fish but when the fish is healthy they can better cope with them.

But as others have said it's an external parasite and needs a host to live and reproduce, once the spots leave the fish to spore it may be effective removing all fish from the infected tank for 48 hrs to a new tank (as Ich will die without a host).
Turning up the heat helps speed up the life cycle of Ich, as VickiandKev mentioned you will need to increase oxygen if you increase temperature, salt will also help treat external parasites, this is still a treatment just more natural.

A good product made by Aquasonic is Ichonex (Malachite Green & Copper Sulphate). 15mL/115L and repeat dose on top in 48 hrs, then 50 - 100% wc with pre-cycled water in another 48 hrs.

Just because you can't see whitespot on the fish that doesn't mean that you're free from it, treatment may need to be repeated for up to 2 weeks.

Whitespot can easily kill fish if untreated (with any method) as it covers the gill plate and the fish can no longer breathe, resulting in death, or secondary bacterial or fungal infections can also occur but ALWAYS treat for parasites first in cases of multiple infections.

Cheers
Stace

 

[Jackson]

Disposing of the first 2 infected goldfish was a bit hasty :dk:

I find that it's mostly from temperature changes - up or down or usually like all other diseases stress - ie, poor water, bullying tank mates, wrong diet can all lead to the fish becoming weaker and more susceptible to different infections.
Certain parasites are usually always present on fish but when the fish is healthy they can better cope with them.

But as others have said it's an external parasite and needs a host to live and reproduce, once the spots leave the fish to spore it may be effective removing all fish from the infected tank for 48 hrs to a new tank (as Ich will die without a host).
Turning up the heat helps speed up the life cycle of Ich, as VickiandKev
mentioned you will need to increase oxygen if you increase temperature, salt will also help treat external parasites, this is still a treatment just more natural.

A good product made by Aquasonic is Ichonex (Malachite Green & Copper Sulphate). 15mL/115L and repeat dose on top in 48 hrs, then 50 - 100% wc with pre-cycled water in another 48 hrs.

Just because you can't see whitespot on the fish that doesn't mean that you're free from it, treatment may need to be repeated for up to 2 weeks.

Whitespot can easily kill fish if untreated (with any method) as it covers the gill plate and the fish can no longer breathe, resulting in death, or secondary bacterial or fungal infections can also occur but ALWAYS treat for parasites first in cases of multiple infections.

Cheers
Stace

It was not hasty at all. The were dithers and my puffer is much more importsnt to me than the $.10 goldfish. It might sound hasty but I'm not going to risk my Mbu trying to save them.

As I mentioned the heat and salt is not the method I'm willing to go. IMO it's a hit or miss treatment.

I will continue with Dr. Plecos method. I just wanted to know how harsh of a med the ridIch+ is. Doodles was kind enough to answer my question.

Thanks for the reply