ICH

[fishingjedi]

Guys I just noticed one of my Discus has ich & IM wondering whats the best way to cure it.
I dont have a hospital tank.

please help. :(

[Benny]

Hey Mate, there are a few ways of going about treating this situation?

But can you please describe the symptioms that lead you to think its ich? It should like small white pimples over the fish, usually on the fins too...

What is your tank temperature at, and what other fish are there in there?

Is it a planted tank?

refer to this link, or otherwise buy a commercially available medicine, but turn off any UV's and remove any activated carbon...

Make sure any other tank inhabitants can cope with a higher temp, but increasing the temp, is the first step in the treatment...

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=218

Regards,
Benny

[fishingjedi]

Thanks benny, yep little white spots, though only a couple at the moment. One of my clown loaches has a mild case as well. Clown loaches & neon teras & venezualean rams are the tank mates, temp is at 29c.

[Benny]

Im not sure what they can handle, i lost my clown loaches to whitespot.. :(

But dont attemt a saline treatment if your tank is planted.....

Wait patiently for LR's response....

But i sucessfully treated ich with a comercially available medicine...

[fishingjedi]

YEah its pretty heavily planted, I was thinking of using melafix, ive used that succesfully b4, but not with discus. So was after some opinions. Thanks for the advice mate.

[mcloughlin2]

Dont put normal ich medication in the tank with the clown loaches...it will kill them as they are wat is called are naked scaled...u will have to buy catfish safe ich medication...i woudnt raise the temperature of the water to high as some catfish r affected by that...

[Benny]

Nah u use a half-dosage or somethin for scale-less fish....

Read the directions before buying anything i guess..

[mcloughlin2]

Yeah i think its half dosage for baby fish an scale-less fish or something like that lol...i like to play it safe though so i would go for the catfish safe medication

[Benny]

Keep us posted with how things eventuate...

Hope all is well..

Regards,
Benny

[fishingjedi]

Did a 25% water change this morning, then added a dose of Melafix & an airstone for extra aeration. They all seem to be doing fine at the moment, eating & swimming happily. I'll keep dosing for the next week & do another water change after that & hopefully it should be all good.

Cheers.

[Benny]

LR has said numerous times that she doesnt think melafix is overly effective with treating discus... Is melafix reccomended for treating ich?

Benny

[Merrilyn]

Hi fishingjedi, are they showing any improvement. Although I like Melafix, and have used it with success on other fish, I've never found it successful on Discus.

Not sure why. Whether it's to do with the slime coat or not, but that's been my experience. Being an antibacterial, I don't believe it's recommended for treating white spot, which is a protozoa.

There are a lot of treatments available on the market for treating white spot, but some of the strains are becoming resistant, and don't respond to normal medication. There are some alternative treatments here in this forum.

White spot is pretty nasty, and can kill you fish, so it's best to hit it hard right at the beginning.

Some interesting reading in this link:-

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/disease_3.html

[fishingjedi]

Hi Lr, they seem do be looking a bit better, Ive teated Ich b4 with melafix (although not on discus) & it worked pretty good, however i'll keep a close eye on it over the next couple of days & if it gets worse I'll definately switch to something else.

Thanks for the advice & the link.

[fishingjedi]

Ich's all cleared up, you were right LR, melafix didnt do much after 4 days so I switched to Wardleys ich treatment & now its all cleared up. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more discus soon, thanks for the tips. :D

[Merrilyn]

That's the sort of story we love to hear. :D

Well done.

Don't forget to quarantine those new fish before putting them in your display tank :P