How long does it take for Ick to kill my fish?
This is my first fish tank (so I’m still learning). It is a 20 gallon freshwater tank. I have had for about a week and a half now. I started with 5 neon tetras(one of which died the next day) and a beta (all not added until after waiting 48 hours of the tank being set up and running). A couple days ago I added 3 platys and 3 mollies. The day after the new fish were in the tank I noticed my beta not eating and hiding under ornaments. This is when I first noticed the whitespots (that I was unaware to even have to look for). The petstore said it was Ick and told me to do a gravel vac and 50% water change, add aquarium salt and turn the heat up slowly to 85 degrees. I did that and today my beta and another tetra were dead. Those 2 had the most spots and seemed the most infected of tank. I noticed that one of my mollies is now developing these whitespots. I went to the petstore again and got jungle ick clear tank buddies (this was about 4 hours ago). My question is…is it too late? Are they all going die? Or do you think I caught it early enough in the other fish, that they will live?
One other question…what causes Ick? Because, I was thinking that one or more of my fish had it when I bought them.
Thanks!
You need to take the fish with Ick out and put them into an small fishbowl to treat them with the medicine or they will definitely die. My mom used to battle this all the time when she bought her fish from a certain store. You need to know that if they do sell you a fish and you notice it has Ick they will refund your money or trade out the fish. It spreads quickly, so watch for it when you buy fish, and clean out your tank well while the fish are being treated in the other tank!!
Las question first. Ich is a parasite, full name is Ichthyophthirius multifillis. It can easily be introduced with new fish and plants from an infected tank, including pet store tanks. Stress increases the potential for an infection. Stress includes transporting, shock if not allowed to adjust to water conditions slowly, and for Bettas bright lights.
The water change could have done more harm than good if it was not dechlorinated water with nearly the same temp as the water in the tank. Or you may have added too much salt too quickly. Or raised the temp to quickly. Any of these 3 things could easily have killed the fish.
It depends on how bad the fish are on whether they can be saved or not. Keep in mind it’s the secondary infections that kill the fish, not the ich itself.
The following sites contain some excellent info on ich.
First off, your huge problem is you’ve gone and added WAY too many fish into a new fish tank way to quickly.
Waiting 48 hours isn’t as important as slowly adding fish to a tank, then waiting until the tank finally cycles to add more.
It’s hard to medicate the fish in the tank because your water quality is probably poor from the tank not having cycled properly.
What you have to do, is really just take out some of your dirty water. It would be BEST to get a small tank (even a 5gal will do) set it up with a heater and filter and put the infected fish in that tank.
Ich will not die ON the fish, you have to heat the tank to over 80*F – best at 84, so the Ich parasite goes through its life cycle faster and falls off the fish. Then adding medication like Quick Cure will help to kill it. However, giving medication to sick fish can also be harmful.
That’s probably what ended up finishing off your other fish. What your petstore told you was absolutely correct – however your tank isn’t cycled and the ammonia and nitrite are probably through the roof. 50% is a MASSIVE water change and shouldn’t be done in a new tank. Smaller changes of 25-30% would be best.
To your other question – you can clearly see it if they have it on the fish you want to buy. If this is the case, don’t buy any fish in that tank, or hooked up to that system. Unless of course you have a hospital tank you can quarantine them.
oh my god…i’m having the same prob, set up my new tank about a week ago and my fish are dieing one at a time and they have the white spots…so i just done the water change,salt and temp…so lets see if it works…
I’ve had an ongoing battle with ich. I’m a good natured guy and once i walked into walmart and saw all the fish that they no absolutely nothing about I bought some. STUPID MISTAKE. The thing about the ick parasite is that it can mutate during its life cycle. People who say take the fish out and treat them have no idea what they are talking about. If you just treat the one fish the parasites will just move on to another host, It also lives in the tank as a free floating organism. The parasites life cycle is dependant upon the temperature of the water the higher the temperature the shorter the life cycle. The treatments for ich range from raised temperature and aquarium salt to malachite green solution available at almost every pet store.I have some scale less fish in my tanks so salt was not an option. but the ick treatment worked well, remember to remove carbon from your filters as the carbons purpose is to remove the toxins and or medications in your tank. The parasite is present in most aquariums but stressed fish from water quality issues are easy host’s. Hope this helps, good luck and happy fish keeping.