Its also important to note that if your fish do have ich increasing the temperature will speed up the life cycle. A difference of 10 degrees can make almost a months difference in terms of the life cycle.
Here is probably the best article I've found on ich. It's designed around puffers though so only the basics like temperature and life cycle will apply to you.
http://dwarfpuffers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3
Pimafix and Melafix are great natural remedies for treating the actual fish after infection but I think aquarium salt is the widely accepted natural preventative and eliminator of the tomites when they're in the free swimming stage..I'm not big on chemicals myself, and I'm not sure how salt would impact your system. Miami is (obviously) the cichlid buff..
Of course all this really only matters if your fish actually have ich...which should appear as an obvious skin irritation and not just flashing alone. Good info for future reference nonetheless...
I found this article once when my puffer had developed ich after adding some ghost shrimp which probably weren't carrying the parasite (inverts can't get it) but it was probably free floating in the water that came form the fish store. He didn't have any appearance of it on his body but instead had an infestation in his gills and suffered for 3 days nearly dying because he was unable to breathe properly. I treated with aquarium salt and twice-a-day water changes of 50% while the tank was at 82F.
General Newbie Questions?
176 posts • Page 9 of 18
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bigwillcast - Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm
that is a good article. but I'm still missing something, if the fish do have ich and it's a gill infestation.. how do I know? and exactly what does the free floating ich look like?!
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Tmercier834747 - Posts: 887
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm
Like the article says, most fish will resort to swimming near the surface 'gasping' for air, but again I'm not the resident expert on cichlids, in fact I'm a general noobie..when my puffer developed the gill infestation I -literally- thought he was dead...in fact there's a thread about it in this very section, you'd have to go back a few months though, but I literally thought he was dead. It's a miracle he's still kicking today really.
The free floating stuff is microscopic so unless you've got some superhuman eyes you aren't gonna see it. The key is recognizing whether or not the fish is effected at any given time, and if you're absolutely sure your fish do have ich and you need to treat for it, cranking up the heat any increments above 80, and following through with treatment twice a day for 2-3 days is guaranteed to eliminate a problem no matter where it is in the life cycle stage, as long as you're treating correctly, because the chances of it being eliminated with the life cycle moving so fast are incredibly high.
The free floating stuff is microscopic so unless you've got some superhuman eyes you aren't gonna see it. The key is recognizing whether or not the fish is effected at any given time, and if you're absolutely sure your fish do have ich and you need to treat for it, cranking up the heat any increments above 80, and following through with treatment twice a day for 2-3 days is guaranteed to eliminate a problem no matter where it is in the life cycle stage, as long as you're treating correctly, because the chances of it being eliminated with the life cycle moving so fast are incredibly high.
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bigwillcast - Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm
doing daily water changes, the nitrite level is falling slowly. They've been fed like half a normal meal in the past three days. That's all there is to really say.
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miami754 - Posts: 373
- Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am
Nice work. Has the flashing reduced?
I do have a question though - did you mean your nitrites were at zero? I looked back and you started the tank two weeks ago so I would very surprised if that was the case. Have you switched away from the test strips yet?
I do have a question though - did you mean your nitrites were at zero? I looked back and you started the tank two weeks ago so I would very surprised if that was the case. Have you switched away from the test strips yet?
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bigwillcast - Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm
no, I haven't switched away from the test strips but that's correct, my nitrites are now fluctuating between zero and 1ppm. I'm continuing to do water changes on a daily basis. In addition, I added two fish today and I'm done stocking the tank. The fish were a medium size electric blue ahli (girlfriend picked him out. He's an asshole but he's probably the prettiest fish in there now) and a TINYYYYYYY synodontis petricola.
The fish stopped acting so friendly to one another and started picking territories today also. So, I guess that's a good thing.
I also added a penguin 650 powerhead in there attached to the biofilter also. I have both filters running currently and I plan to take the original out within a couple weeks.
Two questions:
Question 1. - within the next couple weeks, I'm going to be redoing the tank, just sand as a substrate and lava rocks. How do I make this work with keeping the fish in there? is there a way? I assume when I first put the sand in there it's going to be a GIANT cloud storm in the tank.
Question 2. - This penguin powerhead is blowing a MAD amount of water all around the tank, causing a ton of little bubbles to be moving around in the tank, is there anyway to stop that? it's kinda making the tank look cloudy (even though it's just a bunch of tiny little bubbles.. it still looks like shit)
Thanks guys.
The fish stopped acting so friendly to one another and started picking territories today also. So, I guess that's a good thing.
I also added a penguin 650 powerhead in there attached to the biofilter also. I have both filters running currently and I plan to take the original out within a couple weeks.
Two questions:
Question 1. - within the next couple weeks, I'm going to be redoing the tank, just sand as a substrate and lava rocks. How do I make this work with keeping the fish in there? is there a way? I assume when I first put the sand in there it's going to be a GIANT cloud storm in the tank.
Question 2. - This penguin powerhead is blowing a MAD amount of water all around the tank, causing a ton of little bubbles to be moving around in the tank, is there anyway to stop that? it's kinda making the tank look cloudy (even though it's just a bunch of tiny little bubbles.. it still looks like shit)
Thanks guys.
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Snowboss4492 - Posts: 2098
- Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm
try lowering the power head - - -if it's blowing bubbles it's getting air somewhere - - do it have a venturi attachment on it? if so try removeing it or plugging it - - -just be careful, a lot of bubbles is a pain in the ass but no bubbles might mean no oxygenation - - - good return flow from your filter can take of most of that though
sand replacement isn't to bad, when Serial32 lived with us he added platground sand to his tank and just took the sand rinsed it till clear water was coming out of the bucket {small amounts at a time} then just take like a tupperware container and a bigger lid of some sort, fill the container flip it over on the lid, take it to the bottom and slowly slide the lid out and let the sand come out - -do this about 3000 times and you'll have it all in there ....lol ...........seriously, it's time consuming but it worked ..............oh yeah turn off the filter and power head until your done and everything is settled down
Boss
sand replacement isn't to bad, when Serial32 lived with us he added platground sand to his tank and just took the sand rinsed it till clear water was coming out of the bucket {small amounts at a time} then just take like a tupperware container and a bigger lid of some sort, fill the container flip it over on the lid, take it to the bottom and slowly slide the lid out and let the sand come out - -do this about 3000 times and you'll have it all in there ....lol ...........seriously, it's time consuming but it worked ..............oh yeah turn off the filter and power head until your done and everything is settled down
Boss
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bigwillcast - Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:41 pm
I had an airline hooked up to it, but I turned it off. It's still filtering right? I have a 24" bubble bar in the back of the tank that supplies a LOT of air. So I'm sure that's not a problem.
In the process of looking into a 90 gallon tank. Possibly a 70 gallon bow front. Anyone want a 29 gallon with stand? I'll take 150 bucks probably.
In the process of looking into a 90 gallon tank. Possibly a 70 gallon bow front. Anyone want a 29 gallon with stand? I'll take 150 bucks probably.