# Ick wipe out



## ivanstrashenko (Nov 27, 2013)

So, I have a 20 gallon community. Just recently i have started to add driftwood, and other plants. I have a coralife double fixture, t5ho and i add fert every other day. Maybe a week ago a I went to King Ed's and bought some plants. Maybe 30 dollars worth. So about 3 days ago 
I saw my cardinals have ick. it was all five of them at the same time. Gradually over the course of the next few days they all died off, as well as the rest of my 20 [gallon]. except for a 2 killies, 2 cories, and an upside down catfish. Maybe ick doesnt affect cats? so yeah, my 20 is demolished and barren, and I have no idea where the ick could've came from. Maybe the plants. Anyway, thanks for reading thrugh this, if you have any ideas where this could've come from, or what to do next time, please leave a comment.

p.s as soon as i saw the ick, i put the healthy fish in to a hospital tank, treated that, and treated the 20 as well. I used tetra fungus guard, and salt.
thx


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Could easily be the plants...or temperature drop. Sorry to hear.


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## NGosal (Jun 9, 2014)

My 55 gallon has a bad case of ick as well. Hit my cardinals first. One died. Many others have it too. I used API (powder version) for it. Not sure how well it works. How did your med work?


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

NGosal said:


> How did your med work?


I'm guessing not well, given the title of the thread. Using antibiotics (which is what's in Tetra Fungus Guard... most fungal infections are actually bacterial) on parasites probably wasn't the best approach. However, just about any commercial medication labelled for ich will work well. The only big caveat is that the embedded parasites on the fish can't be touched (meds only work on the freeswimming stage of the parasite); you have to medicate early enough to catch it before the parasites become numerous enough to start killing fish.

Salt is moderately effective aganst ich. I forget the dosing, but you can look that up online. However, salt isn't as good as commercial meds and should only be used on minor outbreaks in combination with heat.

Heat works ok too. Ich don't tolerate high temps all that well; beyond thirty degrees it interferes with their reproduction. If your fish can take temps that high (not all can), then that can be a useful treatment option (in theory you can cure infestations just with heat. In practice I'd recommend using a combination of heat + something else... there are supposedly heat resistant versions). If you can't get up to 30 degrees heat is still useful in that it speeds the lifecycle of the parasite; resulting in a shorter medication period.


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## NGosal (Jun 9, 2014)

Thanks Rockman. Almost all of my fish have been cured now. I used API Ick Cure and an elevated temperature. I got the temperature up to 28 Celsius but it wouldn't go higher. I suppose I need another heater. The only 2 fish with ick now are a pair of clown loaches, one of which died a day ago. I'm assuming it's because they don't have scales.


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