Treating for ich.

[Mettle]

When dosing with QuICK Cure do I keep the full dose as per instructions or half it? I'm new to discus and the ones I picked up have come down with ich. :?

(Note though... I'm not new to fish and had over 10 tanks running at one time without disease for over two years. I do test my params and all are inline. The water temp is at 84F. The only thing that's a bit off in terms of keeping discus is the ph is 7.0-7.1. Which will soon be corrected.)

Thanks for any help.

[Mettle]

Just to add...

The other meds I have on hand are Maracyn, Triple Sulfa and MelaFix. So if any of those would be more appropriate to try and treat with let me know.

I also have PraziPro. I'd like to do a treatment of that but don't know if it's best to treat the ich first or what?

Thanks again.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Mettle, treat the ich first, before it gets out of hand. Raise your temper to 31 degrees (90 degrees F) and treat with full dose of medication following the instructions on the bottle.

I'ts important to gravel vac the bottom of the tank every day during treatment, as the mature cyst falls off the fish, to the bottom of the tank, where it butsts open and releases hundreds of free swimming parasites looking for a host fish.

The more you remove from the bottom the tank, the quicker you will be free of the problem.

Discus can quite happily tolerate high temperatures, but other breeds of fish may not. I'ts best to treat them in a bare bottom hospital tank. That way you can control the amount of medication and keep a close eye on their progress.

BTW a pH of around 7 is fine for raising your discus. If that's the way it comes out of your tap, then leave it alone. I only ever bother to drop the pH to 6.5 when I'm breeding them. All the non breeding pairs, and juveniles are in a pH of 7.

[Mettle]

Thanks for the fantastic info!

I was going to treat with QuICK Cure which is basically formalin and malachite green. And I was doing some reading that said one is not supposed to raise tank temps when treating with formalin, I think it was. As high tank temps reduces oxygen in the water and so does the formalin. Not sure how true this is and I'm going to try and do some research.

[Merrilyn]

Putting extra airstones in the tank will help with the oxygen deficiency. The reason for the higher temps is to speed up the life cycle of the parasite, and so rid the tank of it sooner. Also some types of whitespot don't survive higher temperatures.

If you're concerned, then keep the temperature at your normal setting, and add the extra airstones during treatment with Quick Cure. It will still work.