Ich, Tenth Day

Goddamnit.

This morning I saw three elevated white cysts on one of the cardinals. I was hoping to knock off the treatment after tomorrow night, but it looks like I'm in line for another three days of this shit.

Cranked the temp all the way to 89, which means the temp. should stay at about 85-86. Added eight drops this morning. At noon I'll add 8 more, this afternoon 8 more, and tonight, ten, for the tenth day of this crap. I'm going to turn the water so blue it will look like an airplane toilet at 36,000 feet.

To venture on lighter ground, I've decided to unload my kribs and the green spotted puffer. They're garbage fish. One is knocking on the door of 2.5 inches, and it still shows no color. Good news is I may be able to make about two dollars profit for fish. I will miss the puffer, though, but it's time to free up the bottom tank for a Q-tank and then eventually a nano reef.

http://joshday.com

Day 9

Ich Alert:

Guarded

Casualties

Nothing to speak of

All the visible cysts are gone. I dosed this morning with 5 drops, and it's about time for the second treatment. I'll try to do three more treatments today, each at 5 drops. Tomorrow the same, and the next day, and then it should be eliminated.

Went to the best LFS today. Most expensive store, but they have the healthiest fish. I talked to the guy about setting up a nano reef system for my ten gallon. I'd need about 15 pounds of live rock, and I could actually do some corals and anemones. This would be cool as hell.

Going to do a water change on the 55 gallon and maybe 3 gallon later.

Josh out.

http://joshday.com

Terror Alert Lowered

Status:

Guarded

I can finally safely lower the terror alert to guarded. I could find several ich scars on flippers and dorsal fins, but I could find no cysts.

I did a full dosage at noon today. Then at 4 I changed out 10% of the water and put in seven more drops. Tonight I'll probably do 10 drops again just to be sure the ich stays dead.

Then for the next couple days I'll continue with the treatment, probably 6 drops per time three times a day.

- JD

http://joshday.com

More of the Same

Status:

Elevated

Casualties:

1-2 ghost shrimp

Same old same old. Fish are doing fine, so are plants, but I can still count a few tiny cysts. This is starting to baffle me.

I wrote a long article about my 55 gallon tank yesterday. Check it out here.

6 drops yesterday morning, 8 in the afternoon, and 8 at night. Guess I'll repeat that again today.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Day 7

Ich Terror Alert:

Elevated

Casualties:

A few ghost shrimp?

A shrimp presumed dead has appeared, alive and well. It's been 48 hours since I turned out the lights; today they come back on for the plants as well as for better inspections of the fish. Every fish is alive and well, amazingly. Unfortunately, the ich is also alive, but as per being well... I think it's on its way out.

When I first inspected the fish, I saw no cysts whatsoever. However, a little later when I looked much closer, I discovered a few very minute white spots on one of the neons, two of the cardinals, and one on the hatchetfish's fin. The medication is certainly working: the fish no longer glance against the plants and gravel, they don't shimmy, and they're schooling once again and their color is better. However, the cysts remain.

I have a couple explanations.

1. The temperature is too low. It's been at 80-82 for the past 72 hours. I want to boost that to 85-86 today and speed up the lifecycle. I could possibly be seeing cysts that were in the fish 4 or 5 days ago that are now surfacing. Their lack of flashing leads me to believe they are not being attacked by new parasites.

2. I've been doing too much water changes out, and/or too weak a dose per frequency. At 1 p.m. I'm going to nuke the tank with a full dose and monitor the fish carefully for an hour or so. If I see adverse affects, I'll immediately changes out 20 percent of the water.

Of course, there are a dozen other reasons, but the two above are the most likely. Worst case scenario, the ich strain has developed an immunity to formalin and malachite green, which would mean I am screwed.

The tank looks beautiful. Plants are looking good, no blue stainage as far as I can tell, and the fish, other than the very few spots, look vibrant and healthy. This certainly sounds like the meds are working, don't you think?

More later.

- J
http://joshday.com

Kuhlis Still Hanging in

It's 10:15 and as of right now all three loaches are alive. I treated three times today with doses of six drops, and the last dosage was only five because I did just a ten percent water change. This is the most concentration of medicine used yet. Hopefully it will wipe out any free-swimming ich.

Tomorrow I expect to see the end of the visible cysts. And that means... three more days of treatment. I think I'll drop down the dosage to three treatments daily at four droplets per time.

On another note, I bought a bunch of mayaca for my second betta vase. Pulled out the plastic plant and put the real one in. Looks great, especially with that sole surviving ghost shrimp I saved last night from the ich tank.

- J
http://joshday.com

White Spot: The Sixth Day

Ok, this blog service is shit. It ate my whole post.

I don't want to write it over again so I'll make it nice, short, and sweet. Status is still Elevated, and I believe my remaining ghost shrimp to be the first casualties of the medication. The other fish and the plants all look fine. They still have a few cysts, but not as many as yesterday. Right now I believe I am starting to see improvement, but again I'll hold off judgment on Quick Cure until we lower the terror alert to Guarded.

This morning I boosted the dosage to six drops per treatment. Today's schedule will be the same as yesterday, four treatments with a larger (25%) water change just before the final evening dose. The fish took the five drops ok, so no reason they should be affected by a little higher dose.

That's it for now.

- Josh
http://joshday.com

Update: 9 pm

Ich Terror Status:

Elevated

Casualties:

0

I moved out the largest and healthiest ghost shrimp. It's now in my secondary betta vase, the small one. Tomorrow if I go out I'll get a bunch of mayaca for the vase to help with the waste and dissolved organics.

All four treatments, each dosage 5 drops, are completed for today. I gave the last dose a little under an hour ago. I turned on the light briefly and I didn't see any dead bodies, though the oto was under the cave. It didn't seem to be breathing as rapidly as it had done last night. Once again, I'll be surprised and happy to see if it makes out the night.

I'd love to downgrade the terror alert tomorrow, but I won't until I dose two whole treatments without seeing a visible cyst on anything.

Tonight I realized another potential disaster I may have unleashed on myself: I moved that blue gourami to the 55 gallon, when he could have been infested. Good news is we've been having a warm front lately, and that tank has gone from the usual 82 degrees to 86-87. This will speed up the lifecycle if it is present in that tank and I should see some signs tomorrow or the next day.

Goddamned ich. This is just never-ending. And the worst part is this doesn't usually happen to well-cycled tanks.

http://joshday.com

The next report

Current Status:

Elevated

Casualties:

0

At 4:30 I'll do the third treatment. There are less cysts now, but they are still clearly visible. I've turned off the tank light since I just read somewhere that malachite green gets neutralized with light. Weird, huh?

I've seen one or two kuhlis under the rocks. I see a ghost shrimp every now and then. The oto is doing okay... no worse, no better.

A stalk on an onion plant is yellowing super fast. That's not a good sign. Rest of the plants look ok, though. When I'm treating I'll trim down the shoot.

I think next morning will tell if this Quick Cure crap is working. So as of right now, I'll hold off judgment on the product.

- J
http://joshday.com

P.S. To be morbid, here's a list of the current living occupants in the tank. I'm going to give the loaches the benefit of the doubt, and let's just be liberal and say three ghost shrimp are still strolling about.

4 neons
4 cardinals
3 loaches
2 glowlights
1 hatchetfish
1 black neon
1 oto
3 ghost shrimp

That gives us a grand total of 19 crew members.

When this "incident" passes, I'll be amazed if half of them are still flipping.

Here's a guesstimate as to what will make it:

2 cardinals
3 neons
2 glowlights
1 loach

Dead: the black neon, the hatchetfish, all the shrimp, the oto, a neon, and half the cardinals.

If my blog were more popular, I'd take bets. The winner would get their name emblazoned on an ichy white spotted plaque and 5 1/2 gallons of respect from aquatic bloggers everywhere.

Ich: Day 5

Well, I just dosed with today's first treatment. I've upped the dosage to five drops, three, maybe four times today. The water is not blue, nor is the silicone appearing to stain. This is due to my frequent 20% water changes.

Amazingly, casualties are zero as far as I can tell. There may be some dead kuhlis under rocks, but usually the bodies are kicked out by the live ones and lie at the bottom of the tank or in plants. I only see three ghost shrimp, but I have a feeling they're dying off since I haven't seen the full five in over a week.

Last night I had a scare before going to bed. The surving shrimp were swimming frantically, and the oto looks really bad, gasping at the bottom of the tank. I immediately did a ten percent water change and kept the water level a little lower for better aeration. That got them through the night.

Frankly, I was astounded to see the oto still alive and apparently no worse for the wear this morning. Shows the power of water changes.

Unfortunately, there are still cysts, about the same as yesterday but in different places. I see that 3 or 4 drops was too little now. I'm going to do five all day today, and if the fish seem ok, I'll do a fourth round.

On a separate note, I put down a neon tetra that showed signs of the dreaded neon tetra disease. This is when their red stripe pales out. The fish was swimming no different than the others, but the pale spot didn't seem to be going away. There is no known cure for this disease. So I iced the poor little fella.

Sorry again for all the doom and gloom... it blows to begin the blog that way... haha, alliteration, anyway? I'll try to make this whole ich debacle fun, and maybe today or tomorrow I'll post some entries totally disease-free and positive.

How about a chart to liven things up?

Josh's Fishland Security Advisory System:

Severe -- the aquatic version of the smallpox outbreak of 1918
High -- ich is running rampant
Elevated -- ich cysts present in the tank
Guarded -- maybe there's ich in the tank, like maybe your neighbor is a terrorist...
Low -- no ich in the tank, but new fish can always bring in the disease

Current Status:

Elevated

Casualties:

Nil.

http://joshday.com

Time for some liquid V-X

To hell with the metro... I want to kill this ich.

I damned the torpedos and added a very low dose of Quick Cure, which has two ingredients, both VERY active... formalin and malachite green. Malachite is a deadly substance but when combined with formalin, it's like penicillin against ich.

I'm dosing three times a day with 60% reduced normal dose. 20-30 percent water changes after every dose. I'll dose approximately three times today, and tomorrow I'll see where I'm at, and I may reduce the dose and/or the frequency.

Turns the water blue and stains the silicone.

This will be fun.

- J
http://joshday.com

Ich infestation

Cysts have appeared. No use worrying about it now. I'll double dose the metro tonight, then keep on with the bottle's prescribed directions.

Also, no Q-tank. I thought of maybe moving the frogs to the krib tank with a divider, but that would be so ghetto and would not give the frogs any room to swim.

Josh Day
http://joshday.com

Evening update

Still no visible cysts.

I got the package from Big Al's in Canada with my two vials of metronidazole. Last week I ordered them in case the discus's HITH takes a drastic turn downhill. Right now I'm treating with garlic and frequent water changes, keeping the nitrate ideally below 15, and it seems to keep the holes at bay. Not getting any bigger, but not receding either. I'll be forced to try the metro again if it doesn't start to heal in a few weeks.

A couple posts ago I said I believed the metro may have caused the HITH, but that's not really the case... it was just some bad circumstancial evidence. The discus was never eating much and most likely had severe defiencies in several areas... he's eating now, so that's a good sign. Both discus eat with the other fish and there is no trace at all of white stringy feces, the tell-tale sign of IP.

Anyway, I read metro can be used to treat ich too. Largely, it's used in marine tanks, but I've read a couple articles where there was some success in freshwater too. I added the first dose tonight and we'll see how things look tomorrow and the next day. Hopefully, the metro will preempt the outbreak that may be coming...

On another note, I've been thinking a lot today about finally getting a Q-tank. Reason I never did before was because I have multiple tanks and it just seemed redundant to have yet another used as temp. housing. After all, Q-tanks are far from failproof... some people keep their new arrivals on Ellis Island for up to a month yet still see disease strike their clean tank. Also, I'm pretty impatient when it comes to fish so I'll only be Q'ing two weeks max. You can guess I'm no fan of fishless cycling for that matter, but that's another post :)

I'll either swap out the 5 gallon heater in the frog tank, which is rich in nitrobacters, a nice slime coating along the plastic covering. Maybe I'll swap out the sponge filter too and instantly cycle the little tank. Guppies would be great to keep in the tank as permanent residents to keep the tank cycled.

Now all I have to do is get Leah's green light on yet another tank in our tiny, cramped appartment...

- J
http://joshday.com

Day 3, still no visible signs

No cysts have broken out on any fish yet. But again, this doesn't really mean anything.

However, I've witnessed some ich-like behavior in a few of the cardinals and neons. They glance against java moos and other leaves. Glancing, or flashing, is when a fish rams its body along a hard surface to scratch. This is a sign of ich.

I expect to see an outbreak tomorrow.

My next step will be tracking down a bottle of Stop Parasites by Chem-Marin. It's a natural substance designed to be used in reef tanks to combat protozoan, but people have reported success with freshwater ich too. I called one store already and they don't carry it, and the other store that will most likely have it is closed today.

I'll call around tomorrow and if I can't locate it in Asheville, I'll have to order it online and get it sent next-day... could be a thirty dollar hassle.

I hate to begin this blog with so much doom and gloom but that's just part of the hobby. It can be very frustrating at times, especially when you have so many problems time after time. On a positive, note, though my fancy guppy fry is doing well and growing rapidly. They are starting to show some of their fancy colors too. And my planted vase still looks great. Plants are flourishing and the fish and shrimp look great. The white clouds are showing the best color I've ever seen in a white cloud minnow.

Here are some more pics of my troubled planted tank. I took these the night before I had to remove the gourami. Everything still looks pretty much as it is in the pics (56 k warning) and I hope it'll stay that way.

That's the powder blue gourami in the upperlefthand corner.




Josh Day
http://joshday.com

Ich day 2

Well, no more signs of ich in my planted tank, but that means all of nothing. It may take two more days before the next cysts develop, if they're going to develop... I cranked the temp higher, but my heater doesn't seem to want to get above 82.

On another note, the new gourami has proven to be a gourmet of aquatic plants. Today I find him tearing apart the root structure of one of my mayaca bunches, and later he scattered the strands and uprooted them. I quickly moved him to the 55 gallon tank, which is always kept at 83 degrees for the discus. Only plastic plants to munch on there...

Once I'm in the clear, I'd like to get another gourami-type fish, maybe a paradise or rainbow fish, just something colorful and more of a "centerpiece" fish than tetras. Something that doesn't eat the plants.

The color of the gourami perfectly matched the tank so it's highly annoying to have yet another thing not work out lately... this cascade of failures, death, and disease actually began in my 55 gallon when I was treating the discus for intestinal parasites with Seachem's metronidazole. The stuff cleared up the IP, but ironically, the large discus developed a slight case of hole in the head. This is funny because metro is supposed to treat HITH, and yet the discus develops it during the med treatment.

While I had success with the metro, I would first recommend fresh crushed or minced garlic for fish with IP. Mince the garlic and then rub it over a plate or bowl's bottom. Then sprinkle some food on the plate and make sure it gets soaked with garlic juices... this is believed to kill IP, and it's worked for me. Only reason I used metro was because it's supposedly very safe and is again, supposedly, the best treatment for IP.

Anyway, while treating the discus, I turned my attention to the planted tank and made the cardinal tetra decision. Since then, it's been one mess-up after another. I only hope ich doesn't spread like wildfire... I learned my lesson already.

Josh Day
http://joshday.com

Ich outbreak

I woke up this morning and discovered my newest black neon tetra covered in ich. This was the most recent blow in a long series of disasters befalling my heavily planted ten gallon. I can trace the mess back to 8 cardinal tetras, which are wild caught fish. Half died, taking with them a kuhli loach and a prized golden male betta. With frequent water changes, I seemingly stabilized the tank, but then I foolishly bought more fish. My most recent purchase, the black neon, looked fine at the store, ate and swam perfectly for three days, and this morning it was covered in ich.

Ich is a microscopic parasite with a difficult and hellacious life cycle. It is only visible as white tiny cysts on the fish, which look like grains of salt, and each cyst explodes and gives life to hundreds or thousands of new ich. They settle to the gravel and enter their dormant phase, which can last anywhere from 2-7 days. They then become free-swimming and embed themselves in other fish... they become visible when they're ready to burst with thousands more.

As you can see, you can have a tank that may look sparkling clear but could be infested with thousands and thousands of ichers.

No other fish appeared infected, save for one cyst on the fin of the hatchetfish. Ich in a planted tank is a delicate situation because most meds kill plants too. I don't like using meds and believe they cause more harm than good, often killing more fish than the disease in a shorter period of time. Also, some meds like malachite green are believed to be carcinogenic.

In my experience and in the experience of many others, the hands-down best approach is the heat and salt method. Slowly raise your temperature to 86-88 F and add 1-2 Tbs of aquarium salt to your tank per five gallons. The heat speeds up the life cycle, and most ich strains cannot survive in 86 and above degrees. The salt affects the osmotic process and causes the little bastards to burst... and the salt also induces the slime coating on the fish to protect them against the ich.

Alas, salt is as bad for plants as meds.

I made an executive decision and put the infected fish down. I'll talk more about euthanizing a fish in a later post, but there are several ways to do it which are believed to be painless. I caught the fish in a net and then put it in the freezer in a baggie of aquarium water.

The reason I put the fish down was because no other fish showed signs of infection, other than the hatchetfish. Hopefully, this will cripple the strain before they really multiply and the other fish will fend off the dormant parasites while my raised temp. will speed up their lifecycle and/or kill the ich.

I did a 35% water change too.

Only time will tell. With the raised temp., I should see new cysts either tomorrow or the next day if it's spreading... regardless, I'll have to leave the temperature up that high for about 5 days to be sure the ich is dead, which means goodbye ghost shrimp :(



As you can see above, I've put a lot of time and money into this planted tank, and it would be a disaster to see it go, which can easily happen with ich.

In the end, this was my own fault for buying that black neon when I wasn't 100 percent that the tank was secure and ready for new fish. Of course, if I had a Q-tank, then none of this would have happened... but I'll talk about my philosophy on Q-tanks in a future post.

This sucks...

... but, on the bright side, if the worst case scenario ensues and ich spreads like malaria ripping through a coastal south Pacific village during the rainy season, I'l tear apart the whole tank and turn it into a nano-saltwater. Of course, that means a lot more time, a lot more money, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Josh Day
http://joshday.com

Welcome to The Aquatic Hobbyist

Welcome to my blog, The Aquatic Hobbyist. I started this blog as a fish journal where I can share my experiences and ideas in keeping fish. I currently operate two 10 gallon tanks, a 55 gallon, a 5 gallon circular frog tank I made myself, a 3 gallon brackish guppy tank with a fiddler crab, and 2 betta vases, one of which is densely planted with java moss and elodea.

Sounds like a lot, but with good care and regular maintenance, aquariums beat a messy cat or dog any day for attention and time!

I'll be discussing my fish, my different tanks, problems and diseases, future plans, future fish, wild ideas for new systems, and a whole lot more. What got me into the hobby was the dream of one day keeping a freshwater stingray. These rays require pristine conditions and a vast tract of space--I'm planning on a 125 gallon tank at least! I'll talk more about rays in future posts...

Today I'd like to break down each of my tanks and give a cursory manifest of their occupants.

Ten gallon A:

1 powder blue dwarf gourami
5 neon tetras
4 cardinal tetras
2 black neon tetras
2 glowlight tetras
1 silver hatchetfish
3 kuhli loaches
1 oto
4-5 ghost shrimp

This tank is densely planted with java moss, elodea, mayaca fluviatis, rotala, onion plants, and anubias. Because of the high plant content, the system can support a much higher bioload due to the CO2 and nitrate consuming plants.

Ten gallon B:

4 juvenile kribensis
1 green spotted puffer

I'll talk more about the puffer and the controversy surrounding the species per water and salinity requirements in a future post.

Fifty-five gallon

1 wild blue discus
1 royal blue snakeskin discus
1 angelfish
2 bala sharks
1 ghost knife
1 royal pleco
2 black skirt tetras, one a long-finned
2 clown loaches
2 otos

This tank is filtered with peat moss and is thus a blackwater tank.

Three gallon brackish

1 male guppy
2 female guppies
Approximately 10 fry
1 male fiddler crab

Five gallon frog tank

2 African clawed frogs

This was a fun tank to make. I sawed off the top of a 5 gallon lexan water bottle--you know, the kind at work, the water cooler bottle--and put in a 1/4 inch black sand as substrate. I filter with a sponge filter.

1.2 gallon betta vase

2 white clouds
1 female betta
1 ghost shrimp

This vase is planted with java moss and elodea.

Betta vase B

1 male betta

---

I think that's everything... maybe I'm forgetting a fish or two, or possibly a tank, haha.

Enjoy the blog, and be sure to check out my website below.

Josh Day
http://joshday.com