How I cured Ich (ICK!) in about a week

Size of tank: 20 Gallon

Fish in my tank: 2 Lamp Eye tetras, 2 Rosy Tetras (deceased), 3 cory catfish, 1 black skirt tetra, 2 Red Minor tetras, 1 Tattooed Molly

Water conditions: tested weekly; no salt added due to cory catfish

This post came to me largely because when I was in the process of treating ich in my tank, I found that I couldn't find much on the web! I'm posting this hoping that maybe people will come across this post and they will be able to get some answers about how they can treat ich. First and foremost, from what I know of ich, and the parasite, it does NO GOOD to remove, or quarantine, your fish from the others. You MUST treat the entire tank with whatever medicine or method you use. If the parasite is in the water, it's already there. The parasite has 3 stages and you can only see it during the stage where it uses the fish as a host. It will then drop off, "ripen," as I put it, and then multiply when becoming a free swimmer. These free swimmers then look for hosts of their own; it multiplies exponentially, and left untreated will take hold on all your fish and kill them all. There are many methods to treat ich, and you can even combine methods.

SALT

One of the safest ways to treat ich is to add salt to the water and raise the temperature using an aquarium heater. This would have been great for me, however, cory catfish are not tolerant to salt, and that wasn't an option for me. After I finished treating, I did briefly think of removing the now cured fish and salting the whole tank before doing a 100% water change, however, this was going to prove more work than I'd like, and in the meantime I found another thing I could put in my tank as a preventative measure which worked better anyway (more on that at the end). At any rate, the whole idea behind salting the tank is that when the parasites break into free swimmers, no longer encased in their safe little home, the salt will kill them. The heat in the tank causes the parasite to incubate faster.

MEDICATIONS

• ORGANIC- Now I went this route first because I did not want my cory catfish to have any adverse effects to the medication you can use (malachite green). Also because you could safely double up the dosage on this with no ill effects on the fish. I used Kordon Ich Attack. I used it from Saturday morning until about Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon I switched to a different medication (more on that in a minute). The good thing about the organic stuff was you didn't have to clean frequently (you could wait until you were done medicating). The bad thing, however, was that you potentially could use it for a month and still be dealing with ich in the tank. And it stinks. Kind of like rotting meat. It's gross, and brown, and yeah... I am done with that rant. :)
• CHEMICAL- I switched to using a chemical (API Liquid Super Ich Cure) by Tuesday afternoon. I had noticed one of my fish that wasn't previously infected became infected, and one day had a couple spots, by the next day he was completely covered. I did a half dosage which was suggested on the bottle if you have scaleless fish (like corys). You administer doses every 48 hours. Cons are that it is blue and will dye things in your tank blue (like decor, aeration tubes, silicone sealant in the edges of the tank, etc.)

Before I used any meds, I unplugged my tank's filtration system and removed the carbon filter. While I was using the Kordon, I kept my decor in the tank. 2 days into treatment, I removed the decor and decided to let it air dry. The parasite needs water to live; I figured I could at least make sure to kill parasites on decor by letting it air dry. It turned out it was good I removed it since I ended up using the Super Ich Cure because it would have dyed those things. Once I saw that meds were working, I called a local pet shop (locally run, as in, not Petsmart or Petco) and consulted with them on my plan of action. I made a solution of vinegar water (1/2 gallon distilled water and 1/2 cup vinegar) and used that to clean up the decorations and plants. Figured it couldn't hurt. I let them air dry again. Then, I tested the water in my isolation tank and made sure the conditions were great. My plan was to move the (now) healthy fish there, and clean the 20 gallon really well and get the water conditions back where they needed to be in there, too before putting fish back in. So, I moved the fish on a Sunday afternoon, and left them there til Monday afternoon. When I set up my 20 gallon again, I had made an investment. When I purchased my Super Ich Cure I came across a lady that said she had cleared ich out only once, once was enough to cause her to get a UV sterilizer which prevented future parasitic outbreaks. It also prevents algae growth. The one I got was about $45. Not too bad when you consider it could save the lives of fish and create less of a headache for the aquarium hobbyist!

***I lost 2 Rosy Tetras in the process of curing ich. I'm pretty sure they are the fish that brought ich into my tank. It's my own fault as I did not have an isolation tank set up to start them in and observe them before putting them into the tank with the others. I can not stress enough the importance of an isolation tank. And on another sidenote, there were several people who reviewed the Kordon Ich Attack saying they would treat their new fish in an isolation tank with it (it's not medication, so it will not hurt them) just to be safe. Also, it's very important to make sure that the water quality in your aquarium is great. I will post on testing water at home next.