Just Got home from vacation and my fish have ick

[partobe]

Hi Everyone
I just got home from vac and noticed my fish have ick. I had someone coming in to feed them every day. I had the fan on so the water wouldn't get too hot so I have no idea what could have caused it.
So how do I treat ick in a planted tank with shrimp and snails?
Thanks.
Patrick

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Well, ick doesn't come when it's too hot. It rather more likely due to sudden coldness. The weather has been jumpy since you went to vacation.


There are couple ways to do that but why don't you ask the question in TPT and let other planters who have similar combinations like yours to answer you. I have a feeling most will tell you to raise the temperature. You can give me all your shrimps then. LOL

 

[skene]

unfortunately, I don't know how well plants would react to warmer water... but you can try and raise the temps up to speed up the ich cycle.

 

[partobe]

thanks skene Ive had the temp up now for a cpl of days if a see where the plants arent happy Ill bring it back down I would rather the fish go than the plants

 

[Greg Nyc]

Ick Solution

I don't understand people when it comes to FRESH water temperature. In the summer my tank is close to 105F. Fish breed more, eat more, and are more active. All you get is MORE. Ick can't live in high temps. Neither can most other diseases, either because the pathogen can't survive or the fish's natural immune system is MORE effective. You following? Unless someone met me they wouldn't believe the alchemy that is my fish tanks.
Rule #1 there are no rules.
Rule #2 most people repeat what they have heard but with stalwart confidence even if they haven't done it themselves.
Rule #3 like a game of telephone what is repeated is often not what was said. Rule #4 effective hard work produces results. Everything else produces a smell similar to rotten vegetables.

Crank the temp. No temp is too high. These are TROPICAL fish. Their native water temp is damn near 100F at least 10 days of the year ambient in most freshwater bodies. Scared? Do it to one fish in an isolated setting.

Don't simply do this overnight if your tank has been in the 70's since you set it up. You can but you have to shock the water with ice cubes at the same time to get the fish comfortable with fast changing temperature. 5 degrees a day is a decent average.

And it won't have any effect on plants if you crank the temp. You substrate, dosing, or CO2 are the issue if they start melting. The plants will uptake the nutrients faster in certain cases. Be an astute observer and use intelligent judgement.

 

[maxi]

plants

most of the plants will not like the increase of temps over 86f. Your best bet is to remove sick fish and treat in a smaller tanks or remove shrimps add meds. Or you can do a couple of daily water changes that usually works for me.

 

[DeeFromBrooklyn]

Only course for treating the inverts would be garlic which has been excellent for me...

 

[DeeFromBrooklyn]

Any copper or metal based Meds will linger in your tank indefinitely and has never proven productive for me. I know many that use Selcon but I have had good results with garlic Boost added to the food. I've had tetra's in freshwater as well as a case with a yellow tang go away after a few days of that treatment.

 

[Reef Fixations]

I don't understand people when it comes to FRESH water temperature. In the summer my tank is close to 105F. Fish breed more, eat more, and are more active. All you get is MORE. Ick can't live in high temps. Neither can most other diseases, either because the pathogen can't survive or the fish's natural immune system is MORE effective. You following? Unless someone met me they wouldn't believe the alchemy that is my fish tanks.
Rule #1 there are no rules.
Rule #2 most people repeat what they have heard but with stalwart confidence even if they haven't done it themselves.
Rule #3 like a game of telephone what is repeated is often not what was said. Rule #4 effective hard work produces results. Everything else produces a smell similar to rotten vegetables.

Crank the temp. No temp is too high. These are TROPICAL fish. Their native water temp is damn near 100F at least 10 days of the year ambient in most freshwater bodies. Scared? Do it to one fish in an isolated setting.

Don't simply do this overnight if your tank has been in the 70's since you set it up. You can but you have to shock the water with ice cubes at the same time to get the fish comfortable with fast changing temperature. 5 degrees a day is a decent average.

And it won't have any effect on plants if you crank the temp. You substrate, dosing, or CO2 are the issue if they start melting. The plants will uptake the nutrients faster in certain cases. Be an astute observer and use intelligent judgement.

I may be wrong but I think your thermometer is broken. :knockedou I haven't had a FW tank is over a decade (maybe 2) and I agree that they can take higher temps than SW. If u are right than that is pretty amazing that fish can take those kind of temps.

How do you keep them steady too at around that temp? I get that you're saying it happens slowly but there are certain times of the year that there are huge temp swings between day and night by maybe 30 degrees so I imagine you're going to have significant temp swings in a tank during those periods. (don't get me wrong, I'm not being argumentative, I'm just curious. Everyday we learn something new in this hobby)

 

[Reef Fixations]

I don't think I ever got ich in any of my planted tanks before. Just lucky I guess.

If u want, you can take out the fish and QT them. If that isn't an option than I imagine you can at least dip them in a medicated bath with Quick Cure for 20 minutes with an airstone just to give them some relief and possibly a better chance at fighting it. Make sure that you match the Ph of the dip water to match your tank Ph. Also make sure that the temp is the same. The airstone is to compensate for the loss of oxygen because the Quick Cure will remove oxygen from the water. Raising the temp will definitely help but do it slowly and not so much that it will kill your shrimp & snails.

If you do choose to raise the temp as high as Greg suggests, I would think (and I can be wrong) that you'd want to make sure that the surface of the water is aggetated so that more oxygen is available to the tank because higher temps mean less oxygen in the water.

Are you using a UV sterilizer?

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Interesting that this thread get revived after so long of silence.

Most FW fish from Asia can really take VERY high temperature but aeration is extremely important at those settings. Not sure about the American and the African Cichlids though-I don;t have enough experience in that. For example, many ornament fish sold in fish market in Asia are kept in a small bag of water and display them until end of day. The water can easily get over 90F every day and they are energetic the whole day. At the end of the day, they were put back to the big holding tank. Next day, they are re-bag for display again. Heat is not their enemy, oxygen is most important there. That's why if you come across aquariums run by Asian with the fish trade knowledge in the home land, they all bag their stuff with oxygen even corals.