The Chronicles of Rid Ich

By Josh Day

The following information is my two month experience of combating ich in a ten gallon planted aquarium. I've selected the highlights from my blog and chronicled them here.

Feb 19, 2005

I woke up this morning and discovered my newest black neon tetra covered in ich. This was the most recent blow in a long series of disasters befalling my heavily planted ten gallon. I can trace the mess back to 8 cardinal tetras, which are wild caught fish. Half died, taking with them a kuhli loach and a prized golden male betta. With frequent water changes, I seemingly stabilized the tank, but then I foolishly bought more fish. My most recent purchase, the black neon, looked fine at the store, ate and swam perfectly for three days, and this morning it was covered in ich.

Ich is a microscopic parasite with a difficult and hellacious life cycle. It is only visible as white tiny cysts on the fish, which look like grains of salt, and each cyst explodes and gives life to hundreds or thousands of new ich. They settle to the gravel and enter their dormant phase, which can last anywhere from 2-7 days. They then become free-swimming and embed themselves in other fish... they become visible when they're ready to burst with thousands more.

As you can see, you can have a tank that may look sparkling clear but could be infested with thousands and thousands of ichers.

No other fish appeared infected, save for one cyst on the fin of the hatchetfish. Ich in a planted tank is a delicate situation because most meds kill plants too. I don't like using meds and believe they cause more harm than good, often killing more fish than the disease in a shorter period of time. Also, some meds like malachite green are believed to be carcinogenic.

In my experience and in the experience of many others, the hands-down best approach is the heat and salt method. Slowly raise your temperature to 86-88 F and add 1-2 Tbs of aquarium salt to your tank per five gallons. The heat speeds up the life cycle, and most ich strains cannot survive in 86 and above degrees. The salt affects the osmotic process and causes the little bastards to burst... and the salt also induces the slime coating on the fish to protect them against the ich.

Alas, salt is as bad for plants as meds.

I made an executive decision and put the infected fish down. I'll talk more about euthanizing a fish in a later post, but there are several ways to do it which are believed to be painless. I caught the fish in a net and then put it in the freezer in a baggie of aquarium water.

The reason I put the fish down was because no other fish showed signs of infection, other than the hatchetfish. Hopefully, this will cripple the strain before they really multiply and the other fish will fend off the dormant parasites while my raised temp. will speed up their lifecycle and/or kill the ich.

I did a 35% water change too.

Only time will tell. With the raised temp., I should see new cysts either tomorrow or the next day if it's spreading... regardless, I'll have to leave the temperature up that high for about 5 days to be sure the ich is dead, which means goodbye ghost shrimp :(

As you can see above, I've put a lot of time and money into this planted tank, and it would be a disaster to see it go, which can easily happen with ich.

In the end, this was my own fault for buying that black neon when I wasn't 100 percent that the tank was secure and ready for new fish. Of course, if I had a Q-tank, then none of this would have happened... but I'll talk about my philosophy on Q-tanks in a future post.

This sucks...

... but, on the bright side, if the worst case scenario ensues and ich spreads like malaria ripping through a coastal south Pacific village during the rainy season, I'l tear apart the whole tank and turn it into a nano-saltwater. Of course, that means a lot more time, a lot more money, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Feb 21, 2005

Day 3, still no visible signs

No cysts have broken out on any fish yet. But again, this doesn't really mean anything.

However, I've witnessed some ich-like behavior in a few of the cardinals and neons. They glance against java moos and other leaves. Glancing, or flashing, is when a fish rams its body along a hard surface to scratch. This is a sign of ich.

I expect to see an outbreak tomorrow.

My next step will be tracking down a bottle of Stop Parasites by Chem-Marin. It's a natural substance designed to be used in reef tanks to combat protozoan, but people have reported success with freshwater ich too. I called one store already and they don't carry it, and the other store that will most likely have it is closed today.

I'll call around tomorrow and if I can't locate it in Asheville, I'll have to order it online and get it sent next-day... could be a thirty dollar hassle.

Feb 22, 2005

Ich infestation

Cysts have appeared. No use worrying about it now. I'll double dose the metro tonight, then keep on with the bottle's prescribed directions.

Also, no Q-tank. I thought of maybe moving the frogs to the krib tank with a divider, but that would be so ghetto and would not give the frogs any room to swim.

Time for some liquid V-X

To hell with the metro... I want to kill this ich.

I damned the torpedos and added a very low dose of Quick Cure, which has two ingredients, both VERY active... formalin and malachite green. Malachite is a deadly substance but when combined with formalin, it's like penicillin against ich.

I'm dosing three times a day with 60% reduced normal dose. 20-30 percent water changes after every dose. I'll dose approximately three times today, and tomorrow I'll see where I'm at, and I may reduce the dose and/or the frequency.

Turns the water blue and stains the silicone.

This will be fun.

Feb 23, 2005

Ich: Day 5

Well, I just dosed with today's first treatment. I've upped the dosage to five drops, three, maybe four times today. The water is not blue, nor is the silicone appearing to stain. This is due to my frequent 20% water changes.

Amazingly, casualties are zero as far as I can tell. There may be some dead kuhlis under rocks, but usually the bodies are kicked out by the live ones and lie at the bottom of the tank or in plants. I only see three ghost shrimp, but I have a feeling they're dying off since I haven't seen the full five in over a week.

Last night I had a scare before going to bed. The surving shrimp were swimming frantically, and the oto looks really bad, gasping at the bottom of the tank. I immediately did a ten percent water change and kept the water level a little lower for better aeration. That got them through the night.

Frankly, I was astounded to see the oto still alive and apparently no worse for the wear this morning. Shows the power of water changes.

Unfortunately, there are still cysts, about the same as yesterday but in different places. I see that 3 or 4 drops was too little now. I'm going to do five all day today, and if the fish seem ok, I'll do a fourth round.

I moved out the largest and healthiest ghost shrimp. It's now in my secondary betta vase, the small one. Tomorrow if I go out I'll get a bunch of mayaca for the vase to help with the waste and dissolved organics.

All four treatments, each dosage 5 drops, are completed for today. I gave the last dose a little under an hour ago. I turned on the light briefly and I didn't see any dead bodies, though the oto was under the cave. It didn't seem to be breathing as rapidly as it had done last night. Once again, I'll be surprised and happy to see if it makes out the night.

Feb 25, 2005

Day 7

A shrimp presumed dead has appeared, alive and well. It's been 48 hours since I turned out the lights; today they come back on for the plants as well as for better inspections of the fish. Every fish is alive and well, amazingly. Unfortunately, the ich is also alive, but as per being well... I think it's on its way out.

When I first inspected the fish, I saw no cysts whatsoever. However, a little later when I looked much closer, I discovered a few very minute white spots on one of the neons, two of the cardinals, and one on the hatchetfish's fin. The medication is certainly working: the fish no longer glance against the plants and gravel, they don't shimmy, and they're schooling once again and their color is better. However, the cysts remain.

I have a couple explanations.

1. The temperature is too low. It's been at 80-82 for the past 72 hours. I want to boost that to 85-86 today and speed up the lifecycle. I could possibly be seeing cysts that were in the fish 4 or 5 days ago that are now surfacing. Their lack of flashing leads me to believe they are not being attacked by new parasites.

2. I've been doing too much water changes out, and/or too weak a dose per frequency. At 1 p.m. I'm going to nuke the tank with a full dose and monitor the fish carefully for an hour or so. If I see adverse affects, I'll immediately changes out 20 percent of the water.

Of course, there are a dozen other reasons, but the two above are the most likely. Worst case scenario, the ich strain has developed an immunity to formalin and malachite green, which would mean I am screwed.

The tank looks beautiful. Plants are looking good, no blue stainage as far as I can tell, and the fish, other than the very few spots, look vibrant and healthy. This certainly sounds like the meds are working, don't you think?

Feb 27, 2005

Day 9

All the visible cysts are gone. I dosed this morning with 5 drops, and it's about time for the second treatment. I'll try to do three more treatments today, each at 5 drops. Tomorrow the same, and the next day, and then it should be eliminated.

Feb 28, 2005

Day 10: cysts are back

Goddamnit.

This morning I saw three elevated white cysts on one of the cardinals. I was hoping to knock off the treatment after tomorrow night, but it looks like I'm in line for another three days of this shit.

Cranked the temp all the way to 89, which means the temp. should stay at about 85-86. Added eight drops this morning. At noon I'll add 8 more, this afternoon 8 more, and tonight, ten, for the tenth day of this crap. I'm going to turn the water so blue it will look like an airplane toilet at 36,000 feet.

March 2, 2005

Day 12

This morning I saw no signs of ich. Put in five drops of Quick Cure. I haven't done a water change since 3:00 p.m. yesterday. I'll monitor the fish today, and if they can take it, I'll drop in another five drops tonight. No water changes.

We had a cold snap last night so the temp. dropped down to 80.

If things continue to look in the clear tomorrow, I'll repeat today's treatment and then call it even. If things look rough, I'll do a 10 percent water change and drop 6 drops.

March 3, 2005

Day 13

I think I'm seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Status is most definitely Guarded, and all ghost shrimp are 100% confirmed dead. I have not seen a trace of a white cyst in two days. The blackout of yesterday and the lack of water changes must have kicked that last strain that was hanging in there. I don't want to jinx it and say I'm in the clear, but I think I mostly got it. Regardless, treatment will continue today-- a total of ten drops spread out over 16 hours at two doses. I turned the light back on because some of the plants were looking wilted.

I also took all the peat out of the filter cartridge. That might have been absorbing the meds or just diluting them enough to cripple the ich, not kill it.

Fish look good, plants look good for the most part

April 6, 2005

(Editor's note: I stopped blogging about the ich for a while. I'd think it was gone for a day or two, and then I'd see a cyst pop up. Continued treating with formalin and malachite green.)

Ich is still present in the planted tank. The fish are all alive, as are the plants, and I continue the tired old regime of Quick Cure. I'm amazed this toxic stuff hasn't killed anything yet. Good news is all the previous fish that were afflicted seem to be immune, at least on the surface. I only saw one spot today, so hopefully, in four days I can stop this nasty blue malachite green shit forever.

April 20, 2005

The ich strain is immune to Quick Cure. Now it's time for Rid Ich+

I've heard good things about this med, even better than QC. It uses a much safer form of malachite green, and it's also supposed to be plant safe.

Tomorrow I'll run carbon for a day, do a huge water change, and then start on the Rich Ich+ regiment.

And finally...
(Note: I added three tablespoons of aquarium salt to the tank and jacked up the heat. This was the only thing that took care of the ich strain. I only recommend the salt and heat treatment, and I will never use an ich medication again.)

May 29, 2005

I can now finally, safely say ICH is no more. The meds were total crap. Didn't do anything but strengthen the strain and make it super-immune. The salt and heat destroyed it, though. Absolutely no sign of ich for a week now. I lost the banana and sword plant, but banana plants are cheap and grow very fast in my tank. A small price to pay.