I hate Ick

[Pat Kelly]

I have not had any outbreaks of ick in years. Recently I have had it in now 5 different tanks.
Temp is stabile. Water is being changed,. nets are bleached. I just don't know why its moving from tank to tank in two
different rooms. I have been very careful since the first tank. I make sure nothing from one tank goes to another and
yet it hits about 4 days apart. Fish all respond well to treatment.
Driving me crazy.
Yet another day in the life of a fish keeper
lol

 

[Becca]

I have not had any outbreaks of ick in years. Recently I have had it in now 5 different tanks.
Temp is stabile. Water is being changed,. nets are bleached. I just don't know why its moving from tank to tank in two
different rooms. I have been very careful since the first tank. I make sure nothing from one tank goes to another and
yet it hits about 4 days apart. Fish all respond well to treatment.
Driving me crazy.
Yet another day in the life of a fish keeper
lol

Sing it, sister... er... brother... I find that no matter how hard I try to avoid cross contamination, I'm almost never completely successful. We haven't had any ich outbreaks this year (yet), but 'tis the season. We did have a nasty unidentified infection that showed up in QTd fish 10-14 days after they came home. It wiped out two whole tanks of fish and I'm just glad I held them in QT for the full 2 weeks because it took that long for symptoms to show up.

 

[Freakgecko]

I got it in two tanks and one of them was near impossible to treat. Took at least 10 days using a combination of high heat, nox ich, and herbtana. The other tank resolved with just herbtana and heat

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

I didn't realize Ich could be seasonal, it seems that nothing is safe these days.

Pat - how are you doing water changes? I know I've struggled in the past with cross-contamination when it comes to draining/filling mechanisms.

 

[Becca]

I find ich to be seasonal. I think it's got something to do with the temperature swings we experience in spring and fall. This is when I tend to have the most trouble with it. I also have more issues outside of the fishrooom than I have inside of it. I usually turn heaters on in the early fall and turn them off in the late spring, but even with heaters, big temperature swings seem to impact tanks that are in the main house and not as well-insulated as the ones in the fishroom.

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Makes sense, any change in stability can affect fish, and I know ich definitely seems relevant to temperature changes.

 

[Goonie]

I just lost 3 synod in qtine recently to ich, had 9 of them (tiny) in a 20l with snails treated with heat and rid ich( screw the snails.....who all lived mind you) would have much rather lost a few snails than loosing 3 cats .

Was the fastest I had ever seen it spread though surprised I only lost the 3 as young as they were.

Every ones been spot free for about a week now, I'll give them a couple more weeks and move them into another grow out tank.

As far as cross contaminating my wife nailed me on what I was doing .... each tank has it's one python end, eachntank has it's own nets, but I wasn't washing my hands between tanks.... I was the vector.... made me feel bad lol lesson learned.

 

[Pat Kelly]

I guess I have been lucky. I have not lost any fish. As soon as I see fins down I look close. The first tank did not respond for about a week but the others
have looked good after just 3 days. Ick medicine along with salt. I turned the temp up in the 150 gallon tank when I was treating that one but the ones in
the fish room have been only the medicine and salt. I don't want it to be any hotter in the upper tanks.

 

[Pat Kelly]

Pat - how are you doing water changes? I know I've struggled in the past with cross-contamination when it comes to draining/filling mechanisms.

Water changes? What is that?
LOL yeah it could be a factor too.

 

[Goonie]

I didn't catch it cause the little buggers were hiding... put in hides for them to reduce stress and paid for it.. q tanks will be bare from now on

 

[Wet Sleeves]

I've lost several tanks of fish these past 2 months to Velvet/Oodinium. You think Ick is bad? I wouldn't wish this garbage on anyone. Sorry you guys are dealing with this also.. My hands have smelled of bleach 24/7 for the past month. Only thing that worked for me is super ich by API and ProFormC, which I have to thank chriscoli for putting me onto. I have coppersafe in several cichlid tanks now also as a precaution because honestly, thats all that coppersafe is good for. Scorching hot water with bleach dip for at least 10 minutes, then rinsing with more scorching hot water, then dipping in dechlorinator, then air drying for at least 24hrs is getting old fast, but....its working. Too be honest this has been somewhat of a turning point/"awakening" in the hobby for me. Biosecurity and properly quarantining are so important not just with fish but with these beautiful little plants also. As a result of so many lost fish, breeding projects, a 40 gal fully planted aquarium melting/dying off, and newly empty tanks, I've decided to moving into more catfish species and I'm only going to keep and or breeding a few cichlid species.