# pleco with ich, now my cherry barbs are infected -__- - help



## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

like the title says, he was the only one infected at first, noticed after maybe a week, raised temp and it disapeared almost overnight, now its back with a vengeance, and my cherry barbs (females especially) are heavily infected, i also lost my favorite betta last night, not sure if it was from the ich though. What can i do to treat this asap???


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

as I understand, ick is present on most fish and in most tanks but usually dormant. There are several things that can cause is to become active. stress being one reason. Rarely does it disappear over night. IME treatment should continue for a few days to a couple weeks after you think it's gone, so all the ich parasites can blast thru their life cycle. Higher temps speed it up is why that is recommended. If it were me I would do a big water change, then raise the temp to atleast 86F and add some salt to start. If you have a gravel substrate you will want to vacuum it daily and do 50% wc every 1-2 days

a few useful links to better help you understand Ich:

Ichthyophthirius multifiliis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to Treat Tropical Fish With White Spot Disease (ich): 9 Steps though you might get by without the use of meds, this link has some good info...especially under tips and warnings)
Treating Ich

http://www.thepetadvantage.com/assets/files/caresheets/Ich.pdf

Understanding and Treating Ich or White Spot (this link has an interesting theory about Ich and stating there is no long term dormant stages and why it's a misconception)

Cause, Treatment, and Prevention of Ich in Freshwater Fish


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## TigerOscar (Sep 10, 2012)

A UV light also helps prevent another flare up as well.


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

i was gonna use salt but i heard plants don't like it, temp is currently at 82 , cause im not sure if some of my fish can handle a really high temp, other inhabitants are harlequin rasboras, platys, and neon tetras


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

You can always remove the plants while treating the tank....plants definitely dont like salt, but it's the temp that will make the difference. You don't have to add alot of salt but you definitely need to get the temp to 86F if you want to get rid of it faster. The longer it's active in the tank the better the odds of fish dying. You'd be surprised at the tolerance most fish have with higher than normal temps for a few days.


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

okay i bumped it up to 30, and might be a stupid question, but does it have to be 'aquatic salt', or can i use normal rock/table salt??


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

not a stupid question lol better safe that sorry I always say ...Last time I had it I used aquarium salt. Regular iodized table salt is a no-no I believe ...though I believe Aquarium salt is sea salt. I have read standard basic Epsom salt works well. I had used it with a sick Discus I had and it worked well so I know it's safe to use


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## smccleme (Aug 20, 2012)

I've had success with quick cure in the past.

Aquarium Products Quick-Cure Parasite Treatment (3/4oz.)


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

I've used Quick Cure for a 10-14 day treatment numerous times in a well planted tank with excellent results.

Best regards,

Stuart

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

not sure who / why you changed the title, Mr pets sold me the fish. I should have known something was up because all of their fish were 50% off, and they had 2 tanks "quarantined" with ich, but im fairly sure they don't individually filter their tanks, so i guess it got into the nearby ones.


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

illogic said:


> not sure who / why you changed the title, Mr pets sold me the fish. I should have known something was up because all of their fish were 50% off, and they had 2 tanks "quarantined" with ich, but im fairly sure they don't individually filter their tanks, so i guess it got into the nearby ones.


It was me who changed your title and I did it for a few different reasons. The first reason I changed it is because I assumed your thread was about you wanting to help your sick fish, not about trying to bad mouth one of our sponsors.

Another reason why I changed it is because you said you noticed your pleco was sick about a week after you bought it which tells me that maybe the pleco was healthy when you bought it and he'd had an ich outbreak from the conditions that you've kept him in.

Did you contact Mr.Pets before posting on here? If you feel that they wronged you, you should have discussed it with them in private before posting on a forum.

Your comment above, "I should have known something was up because all of their fish were 50% off, and they had 2 tanks quarantined with ich", reads to me that you're implying that they're selling fish at a reduced price because they're infected with ich ...that's a harsh accusation to make of a business, so I hope that you didn't mean it like that.

I am forwarding a link of this thread to Mr.Pets so that they have a chance to respond.


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

yeah im pretty mad tbh, this aquarium has been fine for months before i introduced the pleco, his tank was right next to the quarantined one, so i can only asssume thats how my cherry barbs got it. Just found 2 bodies 1 male, 1 female :\. And i mentioned them in the title more to warn people than to badmouth them. 



 , they obviously don't individually filter the tanks, so any of the tanks surrounding the quarantine could have been infected.


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## mdwflyer (Jan 11, 2011)

As stated previously, conditions in/out of your tank are more likely to cause and ich outbreak. There are many, many threads on this forum about what causes ich, and how to get rid of it.

Leave your filter alone, 50% water change and good gravel vacuum every 2-3 days, leave the lights off, up the temp if possible. Meds or salt depending on plants/inhabitants (I like coppersafe) . Keep that up until everything in the tank is clean and healthy. Good luck!


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

yeah not the infected pleco i was sold right? just because mr pets are a sponsor doesn't mean they didn't sell me an infected pleco, intentionally, or unintentionally.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

I would argue that any stressed out fish (which pretty much includes any newly purchased fish from a pet shop or from someone's tank) is prone to developing ick. Stress reduces a fish's immune system's ability to fight off diseases, including ick. However, at normal aquarium temperatures (78 F), the ick cycle is typically 4-5 days. Your experience underscores the importance of quarantining newly purchased fish. Most aquarists, including myself, though often skip the QT phase and add newly purchased fish straight into their display tanks. Without QTing, an ick outbreak is always a potential result from adding new fish to an existing tank. Its playing Russian roulette. I know if I had the space, I would love to set up a 50g QT tank for my sw tanks, but only occasionally do I actually do this. That is my bad.


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## Mr. Pet's (Jul 17, 2011)

Mr. Pet's Store Owner.
If we notice fish with Ich that we sometimes get from the wholesaler we do not sell those fish. I always recommend you quarantine your fish for 5 days prior to adding them to your aquarium. Ich is one of the most common fish illnesses and it is easy to get, however, quarantining the fish makes it easy to treat if there are signs of ich. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with a fish purchase I will remind the store managers to make sure to keep an eye out for ich. Please note we do warranty our fish for five days providing the purchaser brings back a water sample, the receipt and the fish.


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

SeaHorse_Fanatic said:


> I would argue that any stressed out fish (which pretty much includes any newly purchased fish from a pet shop or from someone's tank) is prone to developing ick. Stress reduces a fish's immune system's ability to fight off diseases, including ick. However, at normal aquarium temperatures (78 F), the ick cycle is typically 4-5 days. Your experience underscores the importance of quarantining newly purchased fish. Most aquarists, including myself, though often skip the QT phase and add newly purchased fish straight into their display tanks. Without QTing, an ick outbreak is always a potential result from adding new fish to an existing tank. Its playing Russian roulette. I know if I had the space, I would love to set up a 50g QT tank for my sw tanks, but only occasionally do I actually do this. That is my bad.


i had nowhere to quarantine them at the time, i fear the ich was made worse by 2 days of 8+ hour powercuts also (even though i did frequent water changes) as in the video mentioned above, mr pets probably don't individually filter their tanks, ive also had 2 people message me saying that they've had similar issues with the maple ridge mr pets, as none of you are posting from maple ridge i have to assume none of you have been to the location, so you can't tell me that it was solely down to my conditions, especially when i have had 0 issues prior to this. Yes i should of quarantined them somehow, but i didn't and i thank the guys that helped me earlier on in the thread for helping me heal my fish (3 are dead, the rest are getting better). I wasn't attacking mr pets either, im warning anyone that buys fish from big companies to make sure the surrounding tanks aren't quarantined tanks , or have any visible diseases, because like i said i highly doubt theyre individually filtered tanks. Feel free to close the thread.


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## mdwflyer (Jan 11, 2011)

Try and take this in a constructive manner, and I will try very hard from letting it get condescending.

You seem more interesting in blaming Mr Pets than solving the issues you have in your tank.

17 posts into your help topic before letting anyone know you had no power to your aquarium for 2 extended periods, stress is a leading factor in ich outbreak.
How about water parameters? Ph, kh, gh, nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia? Water change schedule? Light schedule? Plants? Inhabitants?

Ich happens, when it does you deal with it.

A couple years ago I added a half dozen 3" clown loaches into my tank. I got the fish from a site sponsor, that moved a lot of exotic fish. Brought them home, they hid for a few days, when they came out major ich outbreak... Ugh, it happens. I didn't go on a blaming spree. I really did not want to lose any of the loaches, so I used every bit of help I could find on this forum and busted my butt keeping the tank spotless for about 2 weeks. I still have all the clown loaches, and have not had a recurrence of ich.

Ball is in your court.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

In my experience ...last time I actually brought a fish home with Ich from Petsmart....didn't notice it at the store, but it was super noticeable the next morning. It's odd that it took a week to shows it's ugliness in your tank. One thing I learned is to take reading/magnifying glasses so I could examine things thoroughly before buying anything. Have never had to deal with it again thank God! IM not sure how their tanks are set up there. There are likely multiple tanks sharing the same water. But I have also seen inistances where different sections of tanks on the same wall, might be divided off into sections. Ex. a wall has 36 tanks on it but are set up with 12 tanks share their own filter, the next 12 share their own, ect....so if theirs are that way, it's possible maybe an infected fish jumped from the infected system and the fish you got, unfortunately brought it to your tank. Not necessarily saying thats the case, but it is possible. In any event ... I guess the only safe way to avoid it is quarantining the fish...which I never do either lol But if you don't it's the chance you take...Russian Roulette as Anthony said. Glad to hear yours are recovering.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

I think you can also use " salt bath" or "dipping method" if you don't have a Q tank.. I'm learning it hard way.. next time I buy fishes I'm going to use dipping ( use paraguard or something similar) method on newly purchased fishes.


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

ive never had a young pleco before/seen ich before, i thought it was a part of the fish, it was only when it got worse that i realized. Im taking it as a learning experiance, and at first i wasn't too bothered with blaming them, but then 3 fish died and my lizard brain took over, which i will apologize for. I also didn't like that my title was changed just because they're a sponsor (the title wasn't even bad imo).


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

I don't think they did that because this LFS is a sponsor  I have seen someone posting similar thread with non-sponsor and they also removed the store name.. I think they did that because of the BCA rules  I'm also fighting with ich for a week now. not fun but I take it as a learning lesson.. Boxing day deals come back and bite my you know where big time lol good luck on your tank. BTW I'm treating my tank with paraguard and high temp(86F) for 5 days.. gravel vaccumm every 24 hours with 50% W/C sure sucks lol


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

While I understand your frustrations, whether it's in the title or not, I think it clear enough in the thread itself. We don't change titles to protect sponsors and she was pretty clear about why she did it. There are many complaint treads about sponsors and you can see for yourself, the sponsors names are in the titles. I started a doozie myself one time. Though they weren't a sponsor, they had a decent amount of members that liked them and you will find that while a heads up is appreciated most of the time...if it's a complaint, people would appreciate it more knowing you atleast tried to resolve it with the owners before complaining or accusing them of such issues...on a forum. Weirdly I would have thought the pleco to die before any others if it was the original one infected. It's really tough sometimes to figure why it happened and who started it. But it happens to even the most experienced fishkeeper and we just have to deal with it when it does.


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

Hes been hiding alot too so it was kinda hard to see if he was getting better, things do seem to be clearing up now, ill leave the high temp on for a week or 2 and keep doin water changes daily, thanks again for the help.


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## nigerian prince (Mar 8, 2013)

first off i hope that some that you can medicate the ich successfully, and that the input from the posters here has helped you do so

My thoughts on business/sponsors feedback:

1. the forum is a great place for feedback on business's (positive or negative, whether a sponsor or not) its good for the forum members, as well as the sponsors

2. if a post is critical that's fine, its a good way to alert other members/sponsors to possible issues and allows the business's to get an idea where to improve and where they're doing well.

3. (this is the most important and in my opinion why many critical feedback is modded) when critical feedback is given; every single piece of information one can give must be given to the smallest detail so that forum members and business affected can make a conclusion for themselves on the topic. far too often critical posts are missing way too much information, often huge factors are left out, and too much emotion and speculation are put in.

4. negative feedback without adequate information is slander


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

mdwflyer said:


> Try and take this in a constructive manner, and I will try very hard from letting it get condescending.
> 
> You seem more interesting in blaming Mr Pets than solving the issues you have in your tank.
> 
> ...


This has to be the most articulate and constructive post I've read in the past two weeks within the heaps of whining and complaining. This should be stickied!


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

jobber said:


> This has to be the most articulate and constructive post I've read in the past two weeks within the heaps of whining and complaining. This should be stickied!


why are you still talking about this after ive apologized and moved on? i don't appreciate being called a whiner, id love to see you lose healthy fish due to buying bad stock and not get upset


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## nigerian prince (Mar 8, 2013)

we're moving on, best of luck to your fish..


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