ick from no where

[Tracy]

Hi all... I am finally moved to connecticut- and I started a 55 gallon... fun... it has been up for about a month... I have slowly started to up the pH from 6.8 to 7.0 within the last 2 days... but this morning I awoke to the fish having ICK. No water change has taken place since the beginning of the week and they were fine the past couple days... the water was room temp as the tank (about 70)... any ideas? also.. any advice for the treatment that works the best?
Tracy

[AngelMom]

Glad to hear you got moved OK. The fish were probably stressed from the move and that's why the ick appeared.

Unfortunately, the best cure for ick is to raise the tank temperature, but the required temp would be too high for your goldfish.

Try adding some garlic juice to their food to boost their immune system. If you feel it's bad enough to medicate, I prefer Aquarisol if you can find it as it doesn't mess with the biological or chemical filtration. Most any remedy on the market should do the trick if you follow the directions.

Good luck!

[Tracy]

okay.. so i put in some Jungle ICK treatment and soaked food in garlic juice...but my big gold fish has tail shredding... what do I do? Should I separate him?.. all the fish have ick.. but he is the worst- almost completely covered now... i'm really worried
tracy

[AngelMom]

If the other fish are picking on him then you will need to isolate him. If the others are leaving him alone, I'd just wait and see if he gets any better as moving him might overstress him and make things worse.

[Tracy]

he is really bad- his tail is really stripped toward the ends- with only whisps hanging out- it's like his tail has the fan part receding back..... when do I do a water change? the bottle says 24 hours then another treatment- .. but if he is this sick- do I do that? also.. should i add any salt to help?... when i soak the pellet food- do i dump out the extra garlic juice? and do I do this until they get better? also... the others aren't as bad as the big guy- he must have been the carrier cuz he is new- so if the others get better before him.. will the extra ick treatment hurt them>
tracy

[oscarbartoni]

Ich is in the water at all times and just waits for a fish to become less resistant to it. I would raise the temp (slowly) to about 75 or 76. Do water changes with vacing the gravel (where the baby ich are) The Aquarisol is my choise for ick cure also. Yes you can put about one tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water into the tank (make sure to disolve it in water first). When you do a water change make sure that the water that you put back in is atr least as warm or slightly warmer thatn the tank water is so as to not lower their resitance any more. Keep up feeding the garlic food to the fishes. Let us know how they are doing. Also remember that the water is not the same ass the water that they wetre living in so that also stressed them.

[Tracy]

update:

okay.. its been close to 36 hours since the first dose.. i did a 25% water change and another dose. I up'd the temp to 76 degrees over 24 hours and added some salt. I've been soaking the food in garlic too..The smaller fish look somewhat better... still a little redness on the fins. The big one is now really really bad.. he is almost completely covered and he is swimming towards the top- very lethargic. He hardly has any of his fan tail left.... it looks like his tail will become hairs.. if that makes sense. He has white ends for what is left of the fan part.. then it become just white hair like parts.

anything more i can do? i'm afraid he may be gone by tomorrow or the next.

tracy

[AngelMom]

I'd love to be able to give you some miracle cure, but I think you are doing everything possible.

We'll cross our fingers for you.....

[oscarbartoni]

On the garlic foods .... keep giving them the food soaked in garlic for at least 2 weeks or more. This way if they have any other parasites the garlic will have more time to get rid of them. It will also help the;m to get an appitite. This is good for other fishes too.

[Tracy]

:( well.. my big telescope goldfish died tonight. I'm really sad- he was my big boy and the worst... he looked like he was getting better- but i guess too much stress. The 4 other gold fish are better- they look pretty clear. So how much longer do I continue with the ick medicine just to be sure.

Also, thanks for everyones help. I'm comforted by the fact that I know that I did all that I could because of your help!
Tracy

[AngelMom]

I'd go another couple of days with the medication and leave the temp as high as you can for at least another week, just to be sure. As oscarbartoni said, keep up the garlic juice in the food for another couple of weeks to help boost their immune system.

[Buddha_Red]

are you using garlic [pills then breaking them and soaking the food or some other way?

sorry I should be Buddha Question =P

[AngelMom]

Don't be sorry......we all get to learn new stuff here!

Actually, you can buy garlic juice that is made for fish. Seachem makes one called "Garllic Guard" and I know Kent also makes some, though it is very concentrated and much more expensive.

You just add a few drops to their food to soak it and place the food in the tank. It does make dry food sink faster, but if you use something like Hikari Food Sticks, they will float a little longer. It can also be used to mix medication into the food (Seachem makes a few meds that you can feed as well as put into the water) which helps to make the medication more palatable.

Garlic Juice is also sometimes used to entice the fish to eat as they are attracted to the strong smell......and it has those immune boosting properties.

Hope this helps.

[Valkyrie66]

Tracy,
I realize that this thread is a few days old, but I am really sorry for your loss... It is amazing how attached we get to these little guys. My husband (who was not really much of an animal person - before he met me... he he) says all the time that he feels that we can't do enough to show them our affection, he'd like to cuddle them LOL... but in any case I wanted to pass on this info for future use.

When my black moor and calico telescope got ich from a stressful event, I first treated with the stuff you put in the water like you did, but after the ich cleared up the moor showed signs of cloudy eye and his poop was clear in really long strands... one thing after the other... so I figured medicated food was the solution, to fix him from the inside out so to speak. I found this company who has developed a number of medications and foods especially geared towards goldfish, and after just a few days on their MediGold medicated pellets my moor was back to normal and has been strong as a bull ever since.

If you run into problems with your remaining goldies you might want to take a look at this site and see if any of their products could help. I know I have mentioned this place before on this board, but I just had such a good experience with them that I want to pass along the word.

http://www.goldfishconnection.com

Good luck!
:FS