# 8 NEW fish with early signs of ICH!



## SparkleMarkel (Jan 16, 2014)

The 8 fish I ordered online all are showing signs of ich. Some have more white spots then others but they all have "white spots". All the fish are still active and eating. This morning i did a 20% water change and vacuumed about half of the gravel and then added the required amount of aquarium salt to the tank. I also fiddled with my OLD heater in hopes of raising the temperature to around 80. It has been around 74-76. Tomorrow i plan to do an extensive gravel cleaning and removing 75% of the water and then again adding the salt.

Is this the right move?

And why did my 8 new fish get ich while the other 7 look fine!?!?

I do have a 10 gallon tank with 4 juvenile cichlids in it. Would i be better off moving my sick fish to that tank and buying meds from the store?


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## Dutch Guy (Jan 13, 2014)

I would do what your doing but I'd skip the huge water changes. Is your gravel dirty that you'd need to vacuum so much?
Raise the temp. but I'd try to go a bit higher&#8230;84?
ma==


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Everything you need to know regarding treating ich can be found here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php
It's very easy to cross contaminate tanks when you have an ich outbreak. Keep everything separate from tank to tank, like nets.


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## SparkleMarkel (Jan 16, 2014)

Ok did a 50% water change, vacuumed the gravel vigorously, and added 25 tablespoons of salt. The water temp is slowly raising, currently at 78. A couple of the fish look pretty covered in spots while the others don't seem to have to many. And still my original 6 fish a spotless and acting perfectly fine.

Any answers to why only the new fish caught the ICH!?


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## HevD32 (Feb 5, 2014)

I'm in the same boat. I've lost 31 fish in 2 days. Did 50% water change, raised temp, added salt, and super ich cure. Down to 2 with spots, the rest seem ok so far. Just waiting it out. I'm still learning the hobby, but this is very discouraging. Hope it works out for you.


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## SparkleMarkel (Jan 16, 2014)

Is it ok to add say one 5 gallon bucket of hot water to the tank to help raise the temp? My heater hasn't raised it much at all today. Its a 75 gallon tank so i figure adding one 5 gallon bucket ever 4 hours would be ok to get the temp up to 86.

Thoughts?


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Get a new heater. maybe keep 2 of them in there for the treatment if you need to. Adding warn water won't help, in time it will just come down again and you want stability. You need to maintain that temperature of 86+ for at least 10 days.


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Should add I came home to the same thing today. 7 new fish all covered in white spots, yet active and happy.. Heater is now cranked up, 2nd heater added to help, and ugh.. need 1.7L of salt for a 180gal tank.. added 1/3 of that for now have to get more salt tomorrow. I had seem some rubbing of both the new and the old fish already in the tank but this is the first white spots I've seen. I keep the tank at 78 and pretty much spotless with ammonia at 0, nitrites at 0 and nitrates less than 10 (50% water changes weekly on a very lightly stocked tank)


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Well for me, it has taken a couple of days but now the tank is up to 86 degrees (had to add a 3rd heater) and I added 3 tblspoons of salt per 5 gal. Most of the white dots have disappeared. I am going to maintain the temp and salinity for another 7 to 10 days


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## SparkleMarkel (Jan 16, 2014)

Today i did a 60% water change, largest yet and added another heater. I also added 25 tbl spoons of salt and my temp is at 88. I just checked on my fish and the majority of them are now near the top of the tank. All but one seem to be progressing.

Would ich have killed my fish by now if I had done nothing???

My Massive pleco's spots are gone as well&#8230;.


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

near the top? do you have a lot of surface agitation or an airstone running? As temp goes up oxygen levels go down so you need to increase surface agitation or add an airstone, or the fish may suffocate.


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## FlyHigh (Nov 15, 2009)

You said you have a 75 gallon tank. IMO adding 8 fish at the same time to a tank that size may have overloaded your filtration. It's possible that while your bio was trying to adapt to the new load placed upon it, the water conditions were not ideal. This may have led to the conditions that allowed the ich to take hold. I think you're doing the right things now (temp, salt, water changes) but I wouldn't be too aggressive with amount of water you change at a single time. That in itself may increase the stress level of your fish. Good luck.


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## SparkleMarkel (Jan 16, 2014)

ICH is gone on every fish except one and even he is looking MUCH better. I'm keeping my temp steady at 88.

I have a two air stones as well as two filters. I also lowered my water level to create a greater drop from the water out of the filters. FIsh are doing great and starting to re-color up some.

I'm going to keep my temps at 88 for 5 more days and do one more water change at the end of the week probably about 30-40 percent.

I plan on adding a few clown loaches,(if i can find them) and two catfish species. There is no aggression at all in the tank, everyone is getting along very well. I want to keep about 30 fish in the tank so i have about 12 more to add.

I will never add 8 at one time again. Thanks for the post, that deff makes sense.


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

you should rethink that 30 fish .. think about how big they all get and plan around full grown. Clown loaches get huge as well.


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## SparkleMarkel (Jan 16, 2014)

I've seen 75 gallon tanks with 75 cichlids in them. I plan on adding a 55 gallon and removing my females eventually. I have a 10 gallon fry tank setup that i am currently using as a juvenile tank as well.


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## FlyHigh (Nov 15, 2009)

For what it's worth, I've had a difficult time mixing clown loaches with africans. I know it can be done and quite a few people do it but it hasn't worked out for me. Loaches are EXTREMELY prone to getting ich under anything but ideal conditions. Do a search regarding that and then make you decision.


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## Austinite (Jul 27, 2013)

just so you know, clown loaches are very susceptible to ich in particular


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Well it looks like I lost a fish.. one of my new fish has completely disappeared.. so I can't be sure it was ich, I haven't seen it in nearly a week.. Rest though have completely shed their white spots, everyone seems happy, eating well, temp is holding at 87.


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