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A couple of my fish have come down with a bit of ich. I'm going to treat with malachite green. Occupants include 4 arched cories, 6 black neons, 3 platies and a keyhole cichlid. I'm going to 1/2 the dosage due to the cories. The instructions on the bottle say to treat on days 1, 3 and 5. Should I extend this treatment to days 7, 9 and 11 since I'm half dosing? Also, do I need to do water changes between treatments? I took all the carbon filters out and quickly made one out of some foam I had bought to make sponge filters.

Parameters are normal...0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, between 10-20 nitrate, pH 8.2 and temp 78F

1. Do a large water change (50%),
2. Bump the temperatures to 82F to 84F to speed up the life cycle of ich and to interrupt its life cycle,
3. Keep the dosing schedule per the directions,
4. Do a large water change between each dose,
5. Maintain the dosing schedule for two weeks.

Here is a very good article on this very treatable problem"

BadMan



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Best of luck. I just went thru this Ick problem for the past 2 weeks.
I used Maracide and like you I used it at half doseage as I have scaless fish.
It was a rough go. I lost many fish. Scarred one of my cats and had a mess.
I treated for 10 days as directed. I think I am rid of the ick. Then again, I am rid of most fish so ??
Good luck, listen to the pros here and follow their advice.

Hi guys, i'm replying to this thread coz i now have an ich problem. I've read the link provided by Bob W., but i don't think there was any mention of what happens after the indicated duration of treatment.

I'm currently using Protozin white spot & ich treatment, and it says use on days 1,2,3 and 6. Today is Day 6, and i've added the last dose to the community tank. However, my fish still has ich on them. In fact, the severity has increased! Only my clown loaches and pictus seem to be affected by ich - the other inhabitants, mainly corys, hoplos, and congo tetras, don't seem to be affected in any way. As of today, i've removed the clown loaches and pictus and put them into a hospital tank with a 75%dose of protozin in that new tank( I think I should do a 2nd week of treatment for these guys).

With regards to the community tank, what should i do now?

The first thing to remember is that the duration of treatment should be two to three weeks not six days. The life cycle of this parasite varies according to temperature. At lower temperatures the life cycle is longer and at high temperatures the life cycle is shorter. You raise the heat and extend the treatment to make sure that the parasite has the chance to go through several life cycles to ensure that you have eradicated it in your aquarium.

Be sure to raise the temperature in your tanks. Also be sure to do water changes and vacuum the gravel between treatments. You are doing water changes to minimize infection as the trophonts (feeding stage) die on your fish and convert to tomonts. The tomonts float around for several hours before attaching itself to your substrate, plates and anything else in the aquarium. You are vacuuming the gravel to suck up as many of these tomonts as possible. When it reaches the gravel it encysts and in hours to days it bursts releasing hundreds of tomites called theronts that swarm looking for a host. Of course, each of these stages are present at the same time in your tank. You can only kill the organism in the theront stage.

Just because you can't see a trophont on your fish doesn'y mean that the fish are not infected. The "grain of sand" is the fully mature critter on your fish that is 50 times the original size. Additionally, ich attacks the fish gills, a less visible and much more fatal attack site.

So, your course of action is:
1. Do a large water change (50%),
2. Bump the temperatures to 82F to 84F to speed up the life cycle of ich and to interrupt its life cycle,
3. Keep the dosing schedule per the directions,
4. Do a large water change between each dose,
5. Maintain the dosing schedule for two weeks.

The loach and pictus cats are very susceptible to ich and it will be much more difficult to treat the parasite on those fish as they lack scales to protect themselves. Treating them in a bare bottom hospital tank will help. Bumping the temps to 86-88F for those fish will also help.





__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

HI Bob, thanks for the info!
um, but just to clarify again, if i do 50% water change every dose (which is on days 1,2,3 and 6), wouldn't this large amount of water change done so frequently affect water chemistry (esp bio filtration) and all that?

if i do 50% water change every dose (which is on days 1,2,3 and 6), wouldn't this large amount of water change done so frequently affect water chemistry (esp bio filtration) and all that?

I was just thinking the same thing, but I think the medicine kills the bacteria anyway. So its probably a good idea to keep an eye on ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings. Maybe adding some cycle after done medicating would be a good idea? I've never used cycle before, have people had good experiences with this?

The large water change will affect the chemistry. It will make it better. It will not affect your bio-filter.

When you do your water changes and gravel vacuuming you will be reducing the theronts present in the water and the tomonts present in your gravel. You will also be improving the quality of the water in your tank. Better quality water in the tank helps your fish to survive the parasitic attacks by ich.

Ich is not a spontaneous disease. It is not airborne but it is introduc3ed to a tank. When conditions are right, it's population will explode resulting in a tank wide epidemic. The right conditions for an outbreak of ich are bad water or marginal water conditions that weaken a fish's immune system.

What is a bad water condition? Poor or extended maintenance such as vacuuming gravel, water changes and filter, all lead to maintenance problems.

The best time to correct these problems is when fish are sick or under attack. Think of cleaning your house when a family member is sick so that they have a better chance to recover.

Now, in my opinion, the idea that a large water change (50%) and gravel vacuuming can disrupt the bio-filter in an established aquarium is not true. Your bio-filter bacteria covers every surface in your aquarium. You simply cannot vacuum bacteria off gravel and if you could, you could not vacuum off enough bacteria to create an ammonia spike.

However, if you overfeed your fish, you can create an ammonia spike. If you significantly increase the bio-load in your aquarium you can create an ammonia spike. If you lose count of your fish and don't find that floater for a couple of days, you can create an ammonia spike. If you clean your aquarium and do a water change, then do any of the above, I bet that you'll think that you killed your bio-filter with the large water change.

Water changes are the healthiest thing that you can do for the fish. Frequent water changes help you maintain the water in your aquarium near the water parameters of your water supply. That means the water parameters become much more consistent, nitrates fall, fish grow and disease is reduced.

If you don't believe me, ask my fish. I do 50% water changes at least 3 times per week.





__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright