Help! My first ich infestation!

I bought 4 mollies yesterday at the LFS, and all seemed perfectly healthy. Today I come home to feed and 3 of them have white spots on their bodies, one of which is almost completely covered. I quickly netted all 4 mollies and moved them to my hospital tank. They were in the tank for less than 24 hours.

What now?

The hospital is a 2 gallon with an under gravel filter. They were in a 29 gallon with some gouramis and a red tailed shark before I netted them.

I know I need to treat the mollies with medicine, but do I also need to throw some in the gourami tank?

What is the likelihood of the ich spreading to the gouramis if the ich was noticed pretty much as soon as it showed up?

How do I remove the carbon from my filtration?

How often should I do water changes?

I'm in total chaos right now, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

medicate gourami tnak if the m,ollies were in there

buy the medicine and use it according to directions....

carbon is in the filter pads if you have it for your tank....take out the pad...

for ich, also bump up the temp to 88-90 degrees and add about 1 tablespoon of salt for 5 gallons...waterchange after your done medicating for how ever many times the medicine says to

 

Ok, thanks. Walmart here I come.

Thanks very much for the help. If there are any other suggestions...post them because I'll be doing a lot of reading on ich tonight.

 

the temperture is jsut b/c ich is a parasite and that speeds up the process alot....also i would suggest keeping aobut 1 tablesppon for every 5-10 gallons always to help prevent future parasite outbreaks.

 

Ok, both tanks have been treated. The directions said not to increase tank temperature because it may lower the availability of oxygen in the water, leading to more stress for the fish. Since you've said it's only to speed up the process, I guess I'll leave the temperature alone.

I actually bought the mollies to breed them so that I can use the fry to feed my African cichlids. Turns out the mollies wanted to get me before I got their babies.

 

lol yea....with mollies and breeding, they should have brackish water...i dont think the gouramis would take brackish water though.

 

Im pretty sure some ich meds can harm ur redtail shark so ask ur LFS person

 

Well, the LFS was already closed by the time I noticed the ich. I ran to walmart and read bottle after bottle of ich treatment. I chose the Wardell brand because it said that it does not harm scaleless fish. I'm a little skeptical of that claim, but I figure it's better to try it and see what happens than to sit and do nothing.

I did a 3/4 medication last night, and there were no ill effects this morning when I woke up (about 10 hours). I was also worried about the mollies being ok in the 2 gallon because it was a new tank that had only cycled for a day, but they were also fine this morning after spending 12 hours in the tank. I guess I'll find out when I get home....

This is a lot more stressful than I thought it would be!

 

I really wish you better luck than I had. I noticed mine pretty quickly and starting medicating and mine all died. But you've got your seperated thats a good start. I was told to do a 25% water change, take the carbon filter out and when I refilled the tank to add prime and stuff for chlorine and to turn the temp up to about 80. I was told this would make the parasite fall of and die. Ick is some bad stuff and I never would have thought it would be so hard to get rid of or to kill them so quickly. Good luck I hope everything turns out well.