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Ick! My fish have ick!

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PhoenixFeatherz
Post subject: Ick! My fish have ick!
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:22 pm
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I have a 29 gallon tank and i want to put salt in it to kill the ick but I was wondering if the salt will hurt any of my fish. I have 4 guppies, 2 corys, 1 angel, 1 betta, and 1 bumble bee goby. I also have plants in the tank. How much salt can they tolerate? From what I have read online I should put 1 tsp of salt per gallon. Is sea Salt ok to use?


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Admin
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:35 am
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Posts: 11375
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Location: Millis MA
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There are many ick cures.

Whatever you do, DO IT NOW.

Ick is easy to kill, but will wipe out your tank if ignored.

If I were you:

I would take out the live plants and leave them in another tank or just a bucket of fresh water (change water occasionally, or add an airstone.)

Put in 2 teaspoons of salt
per 1 gallon of water,
into the ick infested fish tank.

Turn up heat to 81 degrees F.

Optionally, you can use another medicine
instead of OR in addition to the sodium chloride...
I like to use salt with one of the above because there are more than one species of ick.

Copper based medicines will kill shrimp AND snails AND ick.

Malachite green & formaldhyde medicines will only kill ick,
but need to be re-dosed every 12 - 24 hours
(the dye breaks down with light, or gets locked up with filter carbon... the formaldehyde evaporates faster than water.)

(if you use salt , put it in only ONE TIME...
the salt only comes out of the tank when you take water out of the tank)

As the medicine starts working, it will look as if the ick is getting "worse",
but it will be getting better.
The marks will go from white to sort of greyer, and bigger.
What you will be seeing is the damage to the flesh.
As the ick leaves the body, it makes a tear in the fish's skin.
If you water is not clean sometimes these small wounds can get infected.

Ick is water born, so use different equipment so that you don't bring it from tank to tank.

Freshwater ick can't stand saltwater.
Saltwater ick can't stand freshwater.

Any type of Sodium Chloride will work against freshwater ick.
2 TEAspoons of salt per 1 gallon of water is the MOST salt you can use on freshwater fish.

Ick won't survive out of water for long
(it will dry & die.)
Ick won't survive in a tank with zero fish
(it will starve to death in about 2 weeks,
it feeds on the juice of live fish only....
kind of like a tick on a mammal.)

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Ned
unclenedsfishfactory@gmail.com
508 533 5969
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MrkFnd
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:10 am
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Ned,

You should make an "Ich" page to point us to when we need to treat our tanks.

I must admit I had forgotten the salt quantity even thought it has only been a month or two!

When I used your treatment I was worried up until nearly day 10. The fish kept looking worse and worse, but then around day 9 or 10 they cleared up almost magically! I used the salt and formaldehyde combo, kept going until the second bottle of formaldehyde ran out (about day 12) and did not change any of the salt water until at least day 14. Worked like a charm. I did not lose a single fish once the treatment started.


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