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I have a 10g with 2 mollies, 3 bloodfin tetras, 2 glass cats, a chinese algae eater, 2 ghost shrimp, and a snail. My tank has been cycled and up and running with these fish for over 6 months. Well, now, my 2 mollies have ich. I don't have a hospital tank, so I don't know what to do. Do I just need to go ahead and treat the whole tank and if so do any of the fish/shrimps/snail need to be removed (I just don't know how ick med will effect shrimps/snail)? The mollies are acting fine so far but they look like they are turning into reversed dalmations. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!!
Casey

You'll have to treat the whole tank...

Shrimp may indeed be affected by ich meds but the gentlest med would be "Rid Ich Plus" dosed according to directions.

I can't guarantee the shrimp or large snails will survive but there's not much of an alternative.

Hospital tanks are ineffective for the ich parasite that infects the whole host tank.

--garyroland.

[span class="edited"][Edited by garyroland 2004-07-10 13:07][/span]

I would move the shrimp and the snails you want to keep to another container. YOu can even use a rubbermaid bin with just an airstone. Always use a check valve unless you can put the airpump above the water line.

Ich can be carried by these creatures, but an isolation of a few weeks will take care of it.

I believe that anything containing formalin, malachite green or victoria green, as well as any copper-based med is deadly for inverts. Using any copper treatment may render your tank unsuitable for inverts in the future as it can get into the silicone and continue to leach out into the water. I don't know about formalin or dye-based meds.

Best of luck and hope to see you in our forums. Let us know how you fair. And keep in mind that ich can keep coming back if you are not careful. It has several stages and when you see it on the fish is when it is least vulnerable to ich meds. It falls off the fish to the gravel where it goes through further development then releases many more parasites. When they are freeswimming and searching for a host is when you need to catch them with the meds. This may mean running it a few days longer than you planned.

It may be a time to try the heat method, but I would not go above 85 and would only increase 2F daily. You would need to drop in several airstones as oxygen can be depleted rapidly in warmer temps. Don't use heat with any product containing formalin or formaldehyde. It is a gas and already chokes out oxygen. Combine that with heat and it can be deadly.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Cory_Di 2004-07-11 12:14][/span]

Im not sure i would raise the tank temp!! on most of the treatments it says not to!

Don't use heat with any product containing formalin or formaldehyde. It is a gas and already chokes out oxygen. Combine that with heat and it can be deadly.

That's why I made this statement

Comon, Diane...

The "high heat treatment", no meds, doesn't work at 85 degrees if that's what you were referring to.

In tanks over 50 gallon the temp must be 95 degrees as I've stated in other ich posts.

--garyroland.

[span class="edited"][Edited by garyroland 2004-07-11 16:35][/span]

Any increase in temp will speed up the process. 95 may be good clowns which normally reside in higher temps to begin with. But for fish that normally reside in lower temps, the 85 is a decent go between.

This marks what I've read elsewhere on ich and temp - read further down under "What not to do".

http://www.aquamaniacs.net/ich.html

Not sure how the poster wishes to handle it with inverts involved.

Diane



[span class="edited"][Edited by Cory_Di 2004-07-11 16:53][/span]

Well, let's face it...

Not all that you read is accurate.

I always state that some species cannot tolerate the "high heat treatment" if they're in a tank smaller then 50 gallons because of the smaller volume of water resulting in a reduced level of saturated oxygen contained in the water.

Many that have tried the high heat treatment with other species involved in larger tanks have reported good results with no noticeable side effects.

There have been instances where a few fish were compromised by sickness and died from the heat but that could be expected.

Again, 95 degrees with no meds is a valuable tool in large tanks especially with those who have tried other means to kill ich and have been unsuccessful.

You're not taking into account that some of the ich parasites that refuse to die, and there are several species, may indeed be building an immunity to our meds. That's where the high heat treatment really shines.

I bet you haven't read where hobbyists were unable to rid their tanks of the parasite at all and the result was a complete loss of their fish.

Or, perhaps you haven't read where all Clowns infected with the parasite were killed from dosed medications.

--garyroland.