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RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Lumberjack — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:04:00 GMT

I just coral them into a bowl and slide it up the tank side.

Malachite green and its many aliases is in fact a carcinogen that stays in the fish so it is banned for commercial fish if memory serves.

BTW I agree with David on the half dose... if you fail to kill the bug then it will become much more resistant.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Hailey — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:27:50 GMT

Coppersafe is supposed to be safe for scaleless fish, but will kill invertebrates and live plants.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

sharonM — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:19:44 GMT

I did not lose any of my more delicate fish this time with the half strength cure. The bottle has warnings for humans, though, as a carcinogen which is pretty scary. I raised the temp slowly in my tank to 86 and will leave it there for a while. I had clown loaches way back and they were both infected by ich. Both, however, were almost totally covered. I check the fish daily and felt I had caught it pretty early in the out break which seemed to make a difference. I'd like to know how people can actually catch active fish in their tank for quarantine or treatments outside of the tank. I cannot catch a fish to save my life in my tank!!!!! As for the rational behind half strength, I'd love to ask a company producing the product why. Now, Coppersafe, can it be used on scaless fish?

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Hailey — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:58:56 GMT

The bottle says to use it at half strength for scaleless fish, so I always have, with good success. IMO as long as you use it long enough that the spots have been gone for over a week (two is safer IMO if the fish are taking the meds well), it's pretty likely dead anyway (unless your water is quite cool). It just means you treat for longer. I have heard of fish losses when treating scaleless fish with these meds full strength, so I've always erred on the side of caution with that. I hear you on treating some things with anything less than full strength meds though. If you can't see the pathogen (be it an internal parasite, bacteria, etc) you can't know that the meds worked and you may just be creating medication resistant strains. But ich is kind of unique in that the life cycle dictates that there will be a trophont stage within a certain period of time, and that stage is usually visible (unless it is fully contained in the gill area, which on a weakened fish would be very unlikely). So that's my reason for the half-dose of Quick-Cure for treating ich.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

David Lass — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:49:05 GMT

Sorry -- but I can't keep quiet.

IMHO, using any medication at half strength is a very bad habit to get into. All you may end up doing is "wounding" the parasite, protozoan or bacteria, and helping to develop a strain that is immune to the med. Quick-Cure (formalin and malachite green) is fine to use at FULL STRENGTH -- using it at half strength makes no sense to me. I use it every time I do a water change, which I do at least once a week, on all of my tanks -- down in the fish room and the show tanks, I use it on clown loaches (after I have treated them with quinine for the Far East Super Ick), cardinals, neons, everybody.

Just my experience. I'd like to hear the rationale behind using it at half strength.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

sharonM — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 06:51:18 GMT

Hi Hailey! Well, one fish loss that I know of, a Neon. I have not seen my 6 Kuhli Loaches out at all. One of my catfish has fin rot so am treating the tank with Melafix. I am going to leave the carbon in, though, and just let the treatment be a mild one. Do you know if it will affect the biological filter? I do not know if the good bacteria is even still in the tank because of the power loss. The one good thing was the temp. It stayed very warm so I did not have to worry about the tank temp.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Hailey — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:01:23 GMT

Uh oh. What a string of bad luck! I hope everything goes well this time.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

sharonM — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:53:31 GMT

Well, cleared up the ich and only lost 1 fish. Now I am on a watch again. We lost our power due to a freak storm on Northern NY and I just got it back after 4 days without. OOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Hailey — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:19:55 GMT

I'm sure the filter change was the cause. Make sure you keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite throughout treatment and do water changes as needed.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

sharonM — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:14:14 GMT

Hi There! Yes, I have started treatments with Quick Cure, half dosage. I really need to act fast as I noticed my Bleeding Heart Tetras acting very funny, hiding in strange parts of the tank with the tell tale signs of white spots starting. I will do a 25% water change daily and treat for the week after. I know what I did to stress the tank. My filter stopped working, I am sure it was just worn out so I bought a canister filter and figured I had enough bacteria in the tank to just switch it over. Stupid me. It's been exactly a month and lo and behold. So, I will have to hope for the best and just do the treatment. I removed the carbon from the canister and was impressed how easy it is with a canister filter!!!!

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Hailey — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:50:53 GMT

A half dose of Quick Cure should be alright for the plants and the loaches. It also happens to be one of the most effective ich treatments I know of (although I have been introduced recently to Quinine as a treatment for ich, which is supposed to be more effective...I just don't know how plants and scaleless fish do with it). I would use the half dose, monitor all the fish closely for signs of stress, and do water changes in between doses to keep the level low. It says on the bottle to use for a very short period of time (I think it is two days), but you need to keep dosing until a full week after the last spots are gone to be sure the ich is dead. As long as you do the water changes in between the level should not build up too quickly, but do watch the loaches closely.

Also check your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH to be sure nothing is amiss there. I'm sure you know that, and you probably already have, but a reminder never hurts. You probably should check your tap for all four parameters too because this is the time of year when tap water undergoes changes from farm runoff getting into the reservoir.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

sharonM — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:12:52 GMT

Hi Hailey. I was hoping you would be on. Yes, I have live plants but no invertebrate. I am more worried for my loaches.

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Hailey — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:15:17 GMT

Are your plants live? Do you have any invertebrates?

RE: Treating delicate fish and ich

Lumberjack — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:28:47 GMT

Well first the bad news, your tank has ich and simply moving the infected fish wont work.

Your choices for treatment depend on a lot of factors. You need to find a method that will work for all the fish and the tank. There is a large thread on ich treatment, please take the time to read it.

One way to break it down is to figure out if any one treatment will work for everyone. Salt is one possible so long as your fish can all tolerate it. Sometimes splitting the fish up will allow you to use separate methods/medications.

Treating delicate fish and ich

sharonM — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:46:00 GMT

Hi My Key Hole cichlid has some very noticeable with spots, like salt, forming on his back fins and a couple on his sides. I would love to isolate him from the other fish, however, I would have to break down my 55 and plants just to catch him. I would like to start treament before the other fish get the ich. I have glass catfish, debauwi catfish, kuhli loaches, sand loaches, and a yo yo loach I would really worry about with the treatment. I have coppersafe as well as quick cure. What would you recommend?