# Jungle Ick Guard II



## Daryl (Jun 1, 2010)

So I brought home some nice Black Neons from the LFS on the weekend. Put them into my tank and all was well. The next day I went back to the LFS and noticed that some of the remaining Neons appeared to have Ick.

When I returned home to examine my fish, sure e nought some white spots were present on a few fins etc. I continued to monitor and sure enough more white "cysts" or "granules" started to appear, so I resigned myself to the fact that I now had Ick in my tank.

I increased the temp to 82 degrees and began researching some remedies. I have treated Ick in the past with heat & salt but could not find the "recipe" I used in the past...

So last night I added Jungle Ick Guard II to my tank. Today, a little more than 14 hours later the spots appear to be clearing up. In fact where many of the granules were, there are now simply marks that are slightly discoloured. 

So, while I am happy that the treatment appears to be working as advertised, I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of instruction. The bottle says "add 5ml to 10 US gallons. (Done). Increase airflow (done) and remove carbon from filter (don't use carbon). If Ick persists, treat every 24 hours until it clears".

- It does not indicate if a water change between treatments is required/recommended.
- From what I have read on Ick, there are phases in its life cycle where it may not "appear" to be present. How do I know if the Ick is gone, or merely at a different phase in its cycle?

Have any of you used this product? Did it work for you? We're subsequent doses needed? Did you change water between treatments? If so what %?

Thank you in advance.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

It's hard to tell, so I just kept treating the tank for at least 3 days and did water changes after medicating, and kept an eye on it to see if it "returned". It didn't, but I don't remember what the product was, I think it was a Jungle medication, but that was too long ago for me to remember.

Yes, Ick has a free-form before\"after" the visible scale infection. They probably didn't go into much specifics for medicating because it would depend on how many fish were infected in the first place, and what dosing would depend on the type of tank inhabitants (ie. loaches, possibly invertebrates).

Increasing the temperature speeds up the life cycle of Ick, I believe salt is added to heal the scales\prevent secondary infection.


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## Daryl (Jun 1, 2010)

Thanks Effox,

Yeah I went with the Ick Guard II because its supposedly safe for Pleco's, Loaches etc. (I have 2 pleco's).
The good news is everyone is doing well it seems, and the Ick was limited to the Black Neons (and only a few of them had a lot of spots, most only had 1 or 2). I also woke up to another batch of eggs from my Geo's... They don't appear fussed.

I guess I'll keep an eye on it. 24 hours post treatment will be about 9:30 tonight, so tomorrow morning if there is still evidence of spots I'll do like a 50% water change and treat again. I presume it will be safe to do the recommended dosage again, or do I need to factor in the previous dose & water change?


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## JohnnyAppleSnail (May 30, 2010)

I would treat for at least 7-10 days to be on the safe side (I've gone sometimes 10-14 days) It's up to You if you want to do water changes, Myself I don't until I finish treatment. A 1-3 day treatment won't cut it in My opinion, there may be free swimming parasites (Ich) not visible to the Eye, so the Meds will kill them at that stage, crank the heat to 84-86 to speed up the Life Cycle even more, your Fish will be fine...


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## Daryl (Jun 1, 2010)

Alright, so I got home from work too late yesterday to inspect the fish after a full 24 hours. So today when the lights came on I saw no visible evidence of Ick. The one fish, that had it the worst, was the only fish to show residual marks on the scales/fins where the granules used to be.

Still, I wasn't convinced so I did a 50% water change and another full treatment. I will monitor for a further couple days and if the fish are handling the meds I will probably do another w/c followed by another full treatment.

Temp is at 82and I've just bumped up the heater another couple degrees.

On another note my Tapajos have picked up their eggs (which were wiggling a bit) off the rocks and are currently mouth brooding. They don't seem fussed by anything.


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## Daryl (Jun 1, 2010)

Oh, I've also lowered the water level a bit to increase surface agitation with the bump in temps.

Something else funny/sad happened... One of my Panda Cories was hanging out to close to the spawning Tapajos and the Mom was biting at it to drive it off, but the little Corie didn't get the hint and Mom ended up partially swallowing it. The pectoral spines got lodged in the Tapajos mouth and I had to physically remove the Cory (like removing a fish hook). Needless to say the Cory didn't make it, but the Tapajos is un-fazed. If I didn't know any better I would have sworn she swam into my net as soon as I tried to get her out of the tank too... Easiest fish capture ever.


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