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
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
posted by Josh Day at 9:42 AM
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