Ick Medication

[neon]

What's the best medication to use for Ick in a planted tank?

[beowulf]

It depends in part on the fish you have.  I am at work so I don't remember the one I used a year ago but it worked well, I'll post what I used tonight.

[Saltcreep]

It's been a while since I've had to deal with an Ick infestation but, IMO, you should try a non-chemical solution first. I always try to use a 'chemicals last' approach if possible. Try raising the temperature of your water (slowly) to about 85 F. The cysts don't tolerate higher temps very well and you may be able to break the life cycle this way. I've also heard that the addition of a small amount of aquarium salt can help. Note that this is not marine salt. It is sold especially for freshwater tanks for just this purpose and available in small quantities.

[neon]

There is a ghostknife and 2 clown loaches, scaleless fish.

[beowulf]

It's been a while since I've had to deal with an Ick infestation but, IMO, you should try a non-chemical solution first. I always try to use a 'chemicals last' approach if possible. Try raising the temperature of your water (slowly) to about 85 F. The cysts don't tolerate higher temps very well and you may be able to break the life cycle this way. I've also heard that the addition of a small amount of aquarium salt can help. Note that this is not marine salt. It is sold especially for freshwater tanks for just this purpose and available in small quantities.

I agree was thinking of adding that to my post.  Temperature is a great way of doing it, it does not kill them outright from what I understand but speeds up the process to adulthood and then prevents them from multiplying.  Especially with the loaches which often do not take to medication well.  If you end up going down that road make sure you half the dose on the bottle.

[speckledmind]

I have tried a Bunch of methods, and here are my notes on the matter.

Scaleless fish are the most difficult to treat as they don't have much protection against ICH apart from there slime coat, and usually the ones to catch the illness first, or get infected by it in the worst of ways.

This is the least intrusive method to use.
- Raising the temps : If you do increasing the temps, make sure you use an air pump to supplement the tank with additional oxygen to the water, not all fish tolerate high temps.
- Salt for freshwater : If you go Salt as a medicine, you will need to go half dose because of your scaleless fish, or will loose them.
- Vacuum the tank every day, and make sure to get deep in the substrate as the eggs stay there before they hatch.
From my experience, this was more trouble than it was worth, I ended loosing all my scaleless fish, and part of the other fish as well, then I had to clean everything in the tank real well with a brush ( including my Fluval 404 ) because of the salt residue left behind, even after doing many water changes as the weeks went by.

Last time I got ICH in my tank, I ran to the store and got myself ' Quick Cure " of witch contains Formalin and Malachite Green, and treated the tank as indicated, from the 4 Clown Loaches I had, two died but they where very covered with ICH, and the rest of the fish did very well.

There are a lot of medication on the shelves to treat ICH, don't buy anything on the Quebec side as the medications are not as effective as the ones on the Ontario side, even when carrying the same labels ( Laws for medications are different ), and when confronted with the choices on what to buy, it all came down to choosing one with " Formalin and Malachite Green ", and doing the best I could.

Note, that Malachite Green will discolor anything in your tank that is a light color, including the clear silicone, but I figure that it's a small price to pay if you want to have your fish back to health asap.

Edit : I purchased the small 4 oz. ( 118 ml ) bottle of " Quick Cure ", and it treat up to 2,000 gal. of water, so don't go crazy and buy the large one, or you will have some for the next 100 years : )

[neon]

I've heard that aquarium salt will kill the plants.  what about the medications?

[Saltcreep]

I've heard that aquarium salt will kill the plants.  what about the medications?

Not in the recommended concentration. The medication will work, if you must use it. I have also used Quick-Cure in the past when choices were limited and found it quite effective.

[charlie]

There is a medication by Jungle lab called ick clear, the pkg says it is plant safe, there is also Maricide, but hard to find locally.

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/ctl3664/cp18003/si1317464/cl0/mardelfreshsaltwatermaracide16oz

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/ctl3664/cp18005/si1317366/cl0/junglelabsickclear8tabs  - this can be found @ Petsmart.
Regards

[twiggypants]

I have also had very good results with Jungle Labs Ick Cure.  I can never seem to find it in the store at BA or SP but have bought it at BA online.  Usually the ick is gone after the second day of treatment and the fish seem to tolerate it fine (as well as plants).

[dpatte]

I have had very good results with ich-cure, or rid-ich. I have a large bottle if you need to borrow it for a while. The plants are not affected.

Remove all carbon from your tank (it absorbs medications)

Forget the dosing instructions on the bottle, except for the amounts.

Dose day 1, 2,3 then every 3rd day after that until 6 days after the last spots disappear.

Also keep your tank warm, as warm as your fish are happy with, but no warmer - as too warm will stress the fish and make their recovery questionable.

Since your fish are scaleless, you will have to use a low dosage as marked on the bottle.

[mseguin]

Personally I have been having good results with AquariSol.