# Neon tetra ich I think help please



## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

I have a 75G community tank right now with the following fish:

10 Neon tetras
5 Guppies
3 Otos
2 Gouramis
2 Red wag platys

I also have a 29G that I recently started which is planted and is doing very well. It only has 2 zebra danios in it right now. My plan was to put my neons 1 gourami and my otos into this tank. 

However the neon tetras in the 75G don't seem to be 100% to me, a lot of them have a few white spots (some more than others) and some of them have curved spines and also seem to be bloated quiet often. The bloated ones are swimming very weird but this has been like that for a while and they are still all alive so it is not NTD. 

I have a spare 10g tank that has everything and is ready to be setup I could use this tank to treat the tetras before introducing them to the 29g.

How should I go about this? 

Also I should note that my water pH is pretty high from the tap and also in all my tanks, it reads 8.2pH.


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## Lisar (Dec 29, 2010)

Hey!

Cycle your tank! I had to do almost 5 days of cycle to help out my angelfish with ich.


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Cycle my tank? I don't understand, my tanks are both cycled.


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## Lisar (Dec 29, 2010)

with Nutrafin "Cycle" ?


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Doesn't nutrafin cycle only help build up bacteria in your filter? What does this have to do with ich?


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## Lisar (Dec 29, 2010)

Elvis said:


> Doesn't nutrafin cycle only help build up bacteria in your filter? What does this have to do with ich?


 That is what we use at our pet store, I am guessing because it establishes safe biological aquarium environments. My angelfish is nice and healthy, and ich can kill your fish nutrafin is safe stuff so even if it doesn't work it won't hurt. 

Just my two cents


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Ich lives in the substrate tho, are you sure your tank is completely cured of ich?


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## Lisar (Dec 29, 2010)

It has been Three weeks so heres hoping!


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Here's my favorite article on Ich:

The Skeptical Aquarist

Elvis, neon tetras can be sensitive fish, and a PH of 8.2 is very high in order for neons to be comfortable. 6.0 to 7.8 is what I've widely read as a range for these fish. That being said, if you are seeing white spots it sounds most likely that they do have Ich, and you will need to medicate the tank. If one fish has Ich the entire tank has been exposed to Ich. You are keeping otos in this tank and being that they are a "scaleless" fish they are very sensitive to meds, so meds should only be used at half strength. I have always used Kordon's Rid Ich+ at half strength when I have had to treat my tank for Ich. Good luck and HTH.


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Wow thanks so much for that info, that cleared up so much for me =)

I will be getting Kordon Ich Attack asap tomorrow! This will be good for both my tanks because the Zebras that are in my planted tank came from the infected tank, and this seems to be more safe for plants and tetras too.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Elvis said:


> Wow thanks so much for that info, that cleared up so much for me =)
> 
> I will be getting Kordon Ich Attack asap tomorrow! This will be good for both my tanks because the Zebras that are in my planted tank came from the infected tank, and this seems to be more safe for plants and tetras too.


Your welcome and keep us posted on your progress. ;-)


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## Lisar (Dec 29, 2010)

Ya boy is my face red!!cycle Certainly helps with stress reduction when they have ich but at the store he cure it with aquariam salt and heat!!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Alright so I went out and bought the Ich Attack, cleaned the 75g pretty damn good! Vacuumed the whole gravel and removed my carbon, did about 50-60% water change just now. The temperature is also raised currently at 27 Celsius.

I put about 7.5 teaspoons of ich attack in and so far so good. I also put 2.5 teaspoons in my 29g planted tank which has 2 zebra danios that came from the other tank. I noticed a little white dot on one of the danios so I thought I would do this tank as well. It doesn't have any carbon in the filter anyway so I just added ich attack without doing any cleaning or preparing.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

The one thing to keep in mind... you continue to dose meds for THREE entire days AFTER the last visible white spot has been seen. Good luck, keep us posted!


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

So this has been taking forever! I still see white spots on some of the tetras it does seem to have 'slowed down' but I doubled the dosage starting today so hopefully that will speed things up.

How long does this usually take?


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Yikes! Doubling the dosage could be deadly for your fish. Patience, grasshopper. It took me tank three weeks (meds at half strength) to be rid of Ich. It's only been five days since you purchased meds. As my mom is so fond of saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day". ;-)


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

The stuff I bought is the organic one, and it says that its very safe so doubling the dosage apparently won't hurt the fish. 

Look up Kordon's Ich Attack thats the stuff I have


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Elvis said:


> The stuff I bought is the organic one, and it says that its very safe so doubling the dosage apparently won't hurt the fish.
> 
> Look up Kordon's Ich Attack thats the stuff I have


Taken directly from Kordon's site:

Kordon LLC - Kordon - Ich Attack

*"NUMBER OF DAYS NEEDED FOR DAILY TREATMENT 
*This depends upon the kind of infection, its strength, whether multiple infections are involved, etc. If Ich-Attack is being used as a preventative and against mild infection, it can be that single daily treatments are needed for a week. If the infection is more serious, and multiple, daily treatments as described above are needed for several weeks -- daily treatments as described above may be needed for a month or more."

Note that they say several weeks (sometimes even more than a month) may be needed. Either way, if it was me (and it's not) and when keeping sensitive fish (which neons and otos are) I would stick to half strength dosage and just wait it out.


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

This is also from there:

Regarding the toxicity of Kordon Ich-Attack to fishes and aquatic invertebrates -- it is not toxic to them. It may be that fishes and aquatic invertebrates die during treatment but numerous repeated experiments at more than ten times dosages of Ich-Attack have shown that the causes of their deaths are not the Ich-Attack treatment, nor does it contribute to the causes of deaths. What has caused the deaths besides the infecting diseases, that are too far advanced to be cured by treatment, needs to be determined by the keeper.

I started the double dosage last night at 12:00 and this morning again at 12:00 so I don't know should I continue with the double dosage? So dose again at 12:00 tonight or just wait till tomorrow morning at 12:00? The fish seem to be OK nothing has died yet. It also says to do it twice a day if infections reoccur and that has been happening I've been getting new spots on the tetras almost everyday .


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

So I just ran out of this crap and ich is still very present.. I went to look for more of this "Ich-Attack" at the pet store but they ran out... looks like I'm gonna have to go with another medication.
My temperature is currently at 30 degrees Celsius and has been for a while now.
This is really starting to annoy me :evil:


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Can you find Kordon's Rid Ich +?? Or Aquarisol? Either of these two meds is what I would use.


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Ya Rid-Ich I think is pretty available at the petsmart I go to. I think I'm gonna have to go and get that one but keep in mind I have tetras and otos in the tank. 

I bought this stuff "NOX-ICH" but it looks pretty hardcore and I read that it stains things so I'm not gonna be using that one in my big tank.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Elvis said:


> Ya Rid-Ich I think is pretty available at the petsmart I go to. I think I'm gonna have to go and get that one but keep in mind I have tetras and otos in the tank.
> 
> I bought this stuff "NOX-ICH" but it looks pretty hardcore and I read that it stains things so I'm not gonna be using that one in my big tank.


I know you have otos and neons, just use meds at half strength. Nearly all ich meds will stain as one of the main ingredients is a stain causing ingredient. I have never had a problem, as my tank is acrylic (no silicone seams) and I do not have any type of decorations that will stain (just plants and driftwood).


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Ok I will try this, should I wait a couple days and do some water changes before adding this? 
My water is pretty orange right now from the Ich-Attack stuff.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

I would do a huge water change to remove the "orange" stuff. How badly off are your fish right now?? Just a few spots or riddled? If they are riddled, and if it was me, I wouldn't wait. Do you have any carbon you can add to your filter after you do a big water change to suck out the residual meds in the tank currently, before you start the new regime of meds??


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Ya I have carbon I could add, and the spots are ONLY on the tetras but they are there. Some of them have like 3 or 4 spots but some don't have any at all.


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

Ok so I am trying a different method, the heater that was in my tank only went up to 30 degrees but I had another one lying around and I installed it and now the temp is at 31 degrees (Celsius). 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe that ich can't live at these temperatures so leaving it like this for a few days would kill it off right?


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

87.8?? That's what I've been told but your neons and otos will fry at this temp. Sustained heat at that level will shorten their lives.


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## Elvis (Dec 6, 2010)

This seems to be working pretty good, the neons have a lot less spots on them already today I think I will keep it like this for another day or 2 and hopefully all will go well. 

I'm just sick and tired of fighting this ich stuff and want the neons and otos in my planted tank already its been ready for a while and I'm loosing my patience.


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