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The first clue I had that there was trouble in the aquarium was when I realized that we had not seen our Clown Loach in about two days. He normally hides in a big artificial log that decorates the aquarium but comes out at feeding time. We noticed a white “powder” looking substance scattered all over the aquarium fixtures and, since I had seen something similar involving other aquarium additives, I disregarded the “powder.” Having a busy day otherwise, I passed the absence of the Loach off with the thought that “We’ll give him another day”. The third day of not seeing the Loach started my wife panicking so I began a diligent search for my reclusive friend. Peering in all the openings to the fake log I finally spied his tail through one of them. I was not surprised when I noticed the white spots covering his tail and knew immediately that Ick was the diagnosis.

Ick, a common affliction caused by a parasitic protozoan called Ichthyophthirius, is quickly lethal to tropical fish. It appears as white spots all over the body,fins and gills.

I haven’t been satisfied with any of the recent Ick treatments that we’ve tried, so I reluctantly applied 30 drops of the current remedy, “QuICK Cure”, into the aquarium and went on to work. The normal dose for this medication is one drop per gallon of aquarium water, but the instructions state that, if you have tetra species, one drop should be used for every two gallons. Needless to say, we have both Lamp Eye Tetras and one X-ray Tetra. I was feeling pretty guilty about not taking things a bit more seriously when my wife first mentioned the missing Loach and I started looking for better remedies. Upon returning home, I remembered once reading that turning the temperature up to about 85 degrees in an aquarium can aid in killing the free swimming Ick, so I turned the heater up as high as it would go (setting it at 83 degrees). We obviously keep our aquariums in the normal temperature range determined by the requirements of the predominant tropical fish type, which varies, in the aquarium, and then try to keep it in the higher part of that range.

The next evening the temperature was right around 85 degrees. Since I had more time to do research, I medicated the aquarium with 45 drops of QuICK Cure, trying to balance the risks between too much medication for the tetras and the need to treat the loach in a hurry.

By this time, I was noticing more tropical fish with symptoms of Ick. Both of the Rubber Lip Plecos (which are new and may have been the source of the Ick) and two of the five Angelfish have the white spots. At this point, the Loach is still hiding in the log, I haven’t seen hide nor hair (or scale) of the recently purchased Rainbow Shark, the Corydoras Catfish are too well hidden to see if they are infected or not, and the Lamp Eye Tetras all look pretty good as do the two female Pearl Gouramis. The research that I was doing was concentrated primarily on web sites that I “googled”. One of the web sites referred to the different remedies available at pet shops while another recommended raising the temperature to 85 degrees. Since I had to leave for work right after reading through this information, I treated the aquarium with a full dosage of 60 drops (thinking I’d at least save the more important tropical fish – sorry tetras), and hoped for the best. I noticed that my loach was now outside the log and in extreme distress with secondary fungal infections. I didn’t have time to do much about it, so I threw in a dosage of “Melafix” by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals for the fungus

The next day, after working all night and sleeping for about 5 hours, I was armed with new information and was determined to solve the problem for good. Unfortunately, the Ick had already taken its toll. I knew that the first thing that I was going to do was to change a large portion of the water and clean the aquarium floor of debris as well as I could. While accomplishing this task, I moved logs and plants and uncovered one small Rainbow Shark, one large Clown Loach, one male Fancy Guppy, one Rubber Lip Pleco, and one Xray Tetra all dead due to the Ick (or poor treatment methods). After changing the water and retreating with QuICK Cure, I sat down for further research.

One website was particularly helpful and discussed the many different methods of treating Ick,  a few of which I had never heard of. I learned from this site that you should not use a chemical treatment and increase the temperature at the same time. I immediately turned the heater down and allowed the aquarium to normalize around 82 degrees, the high end of the normal range. I also confirmed that you have to continue treatment for about three days after symptoms disappear.

The Ick was successfully eliminated after seven days, but with the loss of the other Rubber Lip Pleco. The remainder of the tropical fish in this community aquarium survived. Obviously, I continued treating the aquarium for another four days to prevent a reinfection and on the twelfth day inserted the new filters.

The medication that I used successfully in this aquarium is called “QuICK Cure” by Aquarium Products,  which is very reasonably priced at $2.99 per .75 ounce bottle. It contains two of the most popular Ick remedies: Malachite Green and Formaline. If you catch the Ick disease early enough and follow the directions, it really works quite well

In a previous outbreak of Ick, which, oddly enough, was isolated to a single Angelfish (which had a secondary infection of body fungus), I had tried putting the effected tropical fish in a 20 gallon hospital tank  with another Angelfish and a Swordtail, both infected with body fungus, which I had been treating with the anti-fungal “Maracyn” by Mardel. The hospital tank was maintaining a temperature of around 82 degrees and the water quality was good. Upon introducing the new Angelfish to the hospital tank, I added to the aquarium an Ick remedy that I had never used before. (Remember – the tank had already been treated with “Maracyn” for fungus.)This was a total and quick disaster. All three tropical fish died within 24 hours. I can’t say with absolute certainty, but I would strongly suspect that the combination of the two medications and the stress of putting them in a hospital tank caused the quick demise of the already weakened tropical fish.

I had read in many of the more predominant web sites and books that the best way to treat diseased fish is to move them to a hospital tank. The reasoning for the isolation is to prevent the spread of the disease to the other tropical fish. This sounds like it makes pretty good sense, BUT,  I always seem to have to treat the entire aquarium for the disease anyway. After my 39 years of experience keeping freshwater tropical fish, my thinking is why put any of the infected fish under the stress of a changing environment, which greatly weakens them further. Since the aquarium is already infected anyway, leave the tropical fish in the tank and treat the whole tank. I have to say that whenever we tried to treat sick tropical fish in a hospital tank, we always lost them. I get better results leaving all the tropical fish in the tank and, if I’ve caught the disease early enough, even the first infected fish survive. I strongly feel that hospital tanks have killed more of my fish throughout the years than any disease. Needless to say, we no longer have a hospital tank.

For more information regarding Tropical Fish visit: http://www.Daxxan.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/treating-ick-in-a-tropical-fish-aquarium-4526820.html

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