When should Ick be treated? And how...

[SuaSponte]

Hi everyone, I ran into a speedbump on the road to my cichlid utopia last night when I noticed one, tiny, white spot about midway down the left side of my electric blue. It concerned me but I thought I might be paranoid so I increased the temperature to ease my worried mind and went to sleep. I checked in on them first thing this morning, before I went to work and noticed about 3 more white spots on his tail fin and a spot on another fish in about the same spot where my blue got his first. I'm pretty sure it's Ick now, and I'm prepared to treat it as I'm not about to lose any of my "little cichlid buddies" but I've treated it before in a group of bala sharks and didn't really have as much success as I would've liked (lost all 3 sharks). I'm looking for any suggestions you might have as to how to resolve this without losing fish, I've got the Ick cure medication, it's not aquarisol as that didn't work very well for me, it's some sort of three day treatment that's got a greenish blue dye to it. My fish are in a 55 gallon tank with 2 penguin 330's, and 2 penguin powerhead 550's. My questions are:
1)Should I treat immediately upon getting home or try to ride it out with just aquarium salt?
2)If I treat it, do I pull both the media trays AND the filter inserts in the 330's? Or should I just turn them off to avoid getting medication on the biowheels?
3)Should I be concerned or are cichlids in general hardy enough to survive a bout with the Ick?
Any answers you guys have would really put me at ease, because right now I wanna go home and keep an eye on them... :(

[SuaSponte]

C'mon guys... I'm really stressin over this... :?

[Scotty]

Sue- Busy at work, but here's a quick answer for you. Use your meds, and follow the directions as to what filter media to leave in/take out. You killed your sharks because you need special Ich meds for scaleless fish. The medicine won't do that to your cichlids. Going forward, Ich means something else is wrong. You either added too many fish too fast if you were still cycling. Otherwise it will be overcrowding/overfeeding/not enough water changes/ not enough filtration or some combination of them. Once you figure out the "real" problem, you should never see ich again. Hope this helps....Scott 8)

[SGypsyMermaid]

what was the temp before you raised it? a chill can trigger an ich outbreak, also.

[SuaSponte]

The temp was about 78, I've got it at 82 right now. I looked hard at every single fish in that tank and only one had any signs of Ick (and they were minute at that), was the electric blue. Maybe 4 spots total on the entire fish' body. He's eating and swimming without showing any signs of stress at all so I'm just going to continue to add aquarium salt again tomorrow and let it run it's course. If it get's any worse I'll use the malachite green meds I've got, but I'd prefer to avoid that if possible.

I tested my water again, the ammonia and nitrites still measure at 0ppm, The nitrates are at 10ppm which is expected as I do my water changes on Fridays, and finally, my PH is steady at 8.2. You guys think I'm doing the right thing by letting it go with temp and salt?

[SGypsyMermaid]

i know that you said that you didn't have good luck with aquarisol, but that is what i would recommend. hope everything goes well, whatever you do. :)

[Scotty]

Sue- Greatly increase your water changes and keep a real close eye on your fish if you elect not to medicate. Ich is a parasite with a three stage life cycle, adult, cyst and free swimming larvae. The concept of it running it's course won't work in the artificial, aquarium environment. Instead of the hundreds of free swimmers that the adults release being dispersed into a huge lake, they're all concentrated in your aquarium. You can get into a downward cycle, as a fish that already has ich has it's resistance drop while fighting it, then suddenly it gets inundated by the second wave of parasites. If you ever have the misfortune of seeing ich progress, you'll see why it can easily take you by surprise. You'll see the fish with just a few spots, several days will go by without it getting worse, and you'll think you're on top of it. Then one day you wake up and the fish is literally covered overnight.

Don't freak out or anything :wink: Ich can be treated sucessfully with the method you're using if the fish and water are in good shape to begin with (and it sounds like yours are), but if I were you, I'd be doing at least a 50% change every other day. If you see any signs of it getting worse, use the medicine. Good luck and keep us posted...Scott 8)

[SuaSponte]

Ya know, I don't want to take any chances... So I'm going to go ahead and use the meds tonight. :?

(There's no way I can do 50% water changes every other day as the water in my apartment complex has Ni levels coming out of the tap RED.)

[SuaSponte]

Just wanted to let everyone know I treated through the weekend with the instructions that were given to me by the LFS owner/Local African guru, this is how I did it:

Friday - Pulled media trays, left in the old filter pads, treated one drop per gallon.
Saturday - Treated one drop per gallon.
Sunday - Completed a 27% water change, let it settle, treated on drop per gallon.

Everyone seems happy and healthy, I think I beat it and I didn't lose anyone either. I think I'm going to celebreate by finding the electric blue hap a girlfriend :wink:

BTW, I've noticed people calling me Sue...
Sua Sponte is latin for "of their own accord" which is one of the motto's of the army regiment I'm a veteran of. Just wanted to clear up any misconceptions. I'm a guy. :shock:
-Mike

[SGypsyMermaid]

lol--i thought you were a judge! in the legal arena, 'sua sponte' means 'on the court's own motion'.

[SuaSponte]

No, not a judge LoL, but that would an extremely interesting job though wouldn't it?
I mean really, it would be a heck of a lot more fulfilling then being an IT person which is the path that I've chosen... :roll:

See I thought you knew that I was elisted at a Ranger Battalion and that's why you called me "your honor" LoL, look my ego taking center stage... :P

[Chet]

Glad to hear your fish are doing better! Monitor them closely for the next couple weeks and check your water parameters. I would hold off on finding the electric blue a girlfriend until you are sure that everything is ok. :D