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I was using maracide by mardel.I used the suggested amount and I am on day six. Increased temp to 82 to speed up ick lifespan. Water parameter normal. The original fish that had it showed signs of improvement on day 3-4 and now is showing more ick than on day 1. The ick appears to attacking mostly the fins on the front of the fish and some spots on body. The couple of other fish that had shown some ick on day 2-3 appear to have no symptons right now, just the original from what I can see. The question is should I remove my large apple snails and treat with aquari-sol (soluble copper salts) or should I waste more money on maracide and not have to worry about removing the copper at end of treatment. A lot of people told me that maracide is a good cure and probably is. Has anyone had it fail for them and what could be a reason that it might of failed. How about the aquari-sol, I was told the copper based meds are very powerful at removing ick. Is this true. The tank is 75g and has a mix of malawi and some victorians.
Thanks for info ..........openwater

Some species of ich, and there are several, may be becoming immune to our constant use of meds...

Rid Ich or Rid Ich Plus if you have some scaleless fish may stop the invasion.

Do a 35% water change of the same temp and pH, raise the temp to 86 degrees, remove all carbon and dose the med according to directions.

--garyroland.

--Vero Beach, Florida.

i had ich a couple months ago - really freaked me out cause i've never had it before. i went to the store and got a product called 'nox-ich' and it worked great! even using 1/2 dose for my scaleless fish! i upped the temp to about 84C and did 10% water changes each day and after about day 2 it was 'gone'. instructions recommend repeating dose for 3 days, but i used it for a week. only thing is: some people have showed concern over malachite green and that's the active ingredient (and table salt! NaCl!)

That is what the maracide has in it for the active ingredient. Well I'm going to use the rest of it, one more treatment is all I have left in the bottles(three bottles for a week at $10 each), and then I'm going try the copper treatment aquari-sol($7.00 treats 2000 gals), maybe I'll raise the temp a few more degrees to 83-84. If the ick species that are in my tank are resistant to the malachite green as garyroland suggests, can they be resistant to the soluble copper salt( personally I think not). It would wonderful to have a fish that could eat parasite such as ick. Another question is it possible for the three apple snails that I have to be carriers. If I remove them to another "holding" tank, can they transmit ick to there and then back into my 75g after the ick is destroyed and I filter out the copper and then put the snails back in? Will the copper treatment harm my bn pleco?
Thanks....................openwater

I didn't say that ich was resistant to Malachite Green...

Maracide does have a dye in it called Aniline Green.

It would seem that you have your own ideas about treating ich and are not interested in following good, experienced advice.

One would wonder why you asked for help in the first place.

--garyroland.

"Some species of ich, and there are several, may be becoming immune to our constant use of meds..."


Which meds are some species becoming immune to? I didn't imply you said all ick, I was wondering if my ick infestation was. I also didn't imply the maracide failed completely. I still wanted give the treatment more time, but at the same time still worried for the fish and wanted to explore plan "b". I already have the bottle of aquari-sol. What does the rid ich have in for active indredigent? The ick did clear from the tank, or atleast I can not see any spots of outbreak on my fish. I do appreciate experience advice that is why I like this site and believe that this site is very important to everyone keeping fish. Also do you believe aquari-sol with copper salts is more effective or is the Malachite Green more effective? The reason I ask for advice was for comparative information from what I was told by other people I know, knowledge LFS employee and vastly experienced people like yourself. You can get alot of information and sometimes it is hard to believe which is correct. One last question please, what does the Aniline Green dye (I presume it attacks the ick somehow, how does it boilogically affect the parasite) exactly do and what is the difference between it and malachite green?
thanks..............openwater

Last edited by openwater at 17-Oct-2004 22:16