Help ! Ick is getting worse!

My ick problem is getting worse instead of better and I have been treating them for 3 days. The severums seem to be the only ones to have it. I really don't want them to die what should I do?

 

dhutch~

have you removed all carbon from your filtration system? Carbon will filter out the med.

Water changes daily? Or every other day? What med are you treating with?

 

Hi dhutch2352, I have never found Methylene Blue to be very effective in treating ick. It normally is not a good idea to change medications during treatment, but there are most likely other things that can be done to help. Need the following information.
1) What fish are in the tank other than the Severums?
2) What is the water temperature, and is it constant?
3) If the temperature isn't constant, how much change are you getting in a 24 hour time period?
4) Are you using aquarium salt in the tank? If so, how much salt are you using?
5) What size tank are the fish in?

 

I have a 20 gallon tank and I have a silver dollar, (which I just got). a couple of small coreys and a plecotamus. Thats probably not how you spell that but I tried. I was told the water temp should be brought up to 82 and turned the heater up a little and it went up to 86 so I turned it back down and its about 78 now. Probably not good, huh? I don't have any salt in the tank. The green sev seems to be a little better but the yellow one is still hiding I'm not sure if shes still eating. The carbon filter is out.

 

Maybe this would be better to treat the ich.


dhutch - VERY VERY VERY important - if you have a pleco in there (scaless) you really need to cut the med in half or remove the pleco. Scaleless fish are highly SUSCEPTIBLE to this med and will suffer at full dosage...

 

Hi dhutch2352, Pekemom is correct. I believe the coreys also fall into the same catagory.
If at all possible I would try to move the Coreys and the Pleco into another tank. Increase the tank temperature to somewhere between 80 and 82 degrees. Treat the 20 gallon tank with 4 tablespoons of aquarium salt. If they haven't improved in 5 days, do partial water changes of 25% per day over the next 4 days, keeping the water temperature up during the whole process. After 4 days of water changes I would recommend switching treatment to Maracide and aquarium salt treatment (as listed above) for an additional 5 days.
The reasons for the water changes are to remove debris which may be feeding a bacterial flareup causing the ick, and to remove all the Methylene Blue so that you can switch medications.
Causes for Ick: 1) Introduction of fish carrying the parasite, 2) bacterial problems, 3) rapid temperature changes - plus or minus 2 degrees F in a 24 hour period.
Hope this helps.

 

I know its terrible to say but if the other fish die I could deal with that but I do not want to lose the sevs and they don't seem to be getting any better. I'm afraid they'll die before I can get them any better at all. I didn't think I could put aquarium salt in a freshwater tank. That won't hurt them? I don't have another tank for the other fish what else can I put them in?

 

Severums Dying

Well, I think I may have lost the battle. My yellow sev is laying on the bottom. My green one is not looking much better. I just wish I had caught this sooner. I didn't realize how fast it could get worse and that it could kill them. But you could hardly tell anything was wrong when I started treating them and then they just went down really quick. I don't know whether to keep medicating the tank or not. Seems a little useless now. Damn, this has really made me mad and feel irresponsible. Thanks guys for all the help and suggestions.

 

Well, both of my sevs died today. Its really depressing. The green ones skin was peeling off, why would it do that? Thanks for trying to help.

 

I'm sorry you lost your fish. As I stated in a previous post, I've had greater success batteling Ich with medications other than Methylene Blue. I hate to tout or advertise for any particular medication, but I've had such good success with the Mardel products I have to recommend them. Next time you're at your LFS take a look at Maracide, Maracyn and the rest of the Mardel line of meds.