I found this on another forum:
Ich
IT just sounds bad doesn?t it?
This parasite is one of the most common enemies of aquarium hobbyists. Therefore It is also one of the subjects that seems to be most prevalent for myths and confusion. Ich is not difficult, nor is it a true long-term problem, if understood and treated properly. First I will discuss the life cycle of ich, How to treat it, why and how these methods will work for sure, and then the more common myths that are constantly thrown around the hobby. As you read through the treatment section, if something seems to be missed or contradictory from what you have heard, check the common myth section. By all means feel free to PM me with information questions, or debate. As always I try to continually learn, and do not consider myself an all knowing authority. Any additional information I received will be researched and posted.
Diagnosis:
Ich appears on the fish as white spots. They tend to appear raised and are fairly uniform. The fish gains the appearance of having salt grains all over it. You will seldom see ich larger than a grain of salt. Remember this is a single celled organism. This is the outward visible sign of ich once it is established. There are many other more subtle signs that can help you catch it early.
Know your fish, know their behavior. Stress is always indicated by your fish. Clamped fins, abnormal swimming habits etc. these signs are common to many ailments, but the sooner you recognize that there is a problem, the more time you have to find out what you are dealing with.
Gill flashing or scraping. This is the fish reaction to gill irritation. Although there are several possible causes, Ich is the first thing I look for when I see a fish flash against the d?cor or substrate. Only in tanks that I know are ich free do I rule it out, and look for other causes first.
Understanding Ich:
If you fully understand how ich lives, then it is easy to understand how to kill it. Ich is a parasite, which requires a host to live. Fish are the host.
Ich has three life stages. The first stage is the trophont stage, this is the feeding and growth stage of ich. It embeds on your fish, and essentially breaks down the cells around it and absorbs them. The fish?s natural immune defenses will protect the trophont by encasing it with thickened skin and slime coat. It will grow until it reaches roughly the size and appearance of a grain of salt. At which time it sheds it?s cilia, drops off of the fish, finds a home in the substrate and develops an outer ?shell? this shell is virtually impenetrable, and therefore ich is still protected through the second stage of life.
The second stage is the Tomont stage in which it lays in the substrate and begins multiplying. It will divide as much as 2000 times inside it?s protective shell, but does not feed during this stage. After it has divided the hundreds of new ich parasites essentially ?hatch ? and sprout cilia. The free swimmers are called theronts. They swim around trying to find a host (fish). If they find one they attach and begin the trophont stage all over again. During this free swimming stage, ich is vulnerable to medication and other treatments. Furthermore it will die quickly if it does not find a host.
Time frames for each stage are extremely dependant on temperature. Higher temperatures speed up the life cycle dramatically. It may take ich several weeks to go through all three stages in a cool pond, while at 80*f + it will go through all stages in a matter of a few days to a week.
Treatment of ICH.
One of the reasons so many myths, surround this parasite is that treatment is mis-understood by many people.
Treatment must be maintained, for whatever time it takes to catch all parasites in the free swimming stage. It is vitally important to understand how ich lives in order to treat it properly and completely irradicate it.
Many recommended treatments are either not maintained for long enough time, or not a surefire treatment. There are many methods that ?might? kill it, but can?t be guaranteed. A method that isn?t completely sure may be a big helper in the battle, but should not be used as a complete treatment IMO. Treatment must be maintained long enough to ensure that all ich is dead, it only takes one free swimmer to find a host and completely infect a tank again. Above 82* F, 3 days is actually enough time after the last trophont falls off of your fish. I always recommend, as do many people, extending treatment a minimum of one week after all signs of ich are gone. That way if you happened to miss seeing one on the fish, you still get the job done. 2 weeks would be extreme overkill, but then some people are happier with extreme overkill.
At the first sign of ich in a tank, you should begin treatment. Mark your calendar, if you don?t want to go through treatment repeatedly. ICH is fully protected while on your fish, and while in the substrate. It is vulnerable to treatment only during the few hours of it?s free swimming stage while it locates a host. With this in mind, when the ich spots are gone from your fish, it needs to be understood that you have not yet begun to eliminate ich. Treatment should begin immediately to prevent further infestation on the fish, But It will do nothing to the parasites already on your fish. Furthermore if you stop treatment after the fish look better, you are shooting yourself in the foot, and inevitably will need to treat again at some future point. Do it right the first time and put this little bug behind you.
Tank Temperature:
Since we have already established that at higher temps the life cycle of ICH runs faster, one of the best things that can be done to help treatment is to elevate temperatures. Any temperature elevation will help speed things up. Temperatures at or above 86*F are generally considered to be fatal to ich. I have read a couple of articles that cite strains of ich surviving temperatures as high as 90*, but this is very rare. So if you are comfortable with 86* go to that point, if you aren?t at least go to 82-84*. Remember what type of fish you have when considering how high to go. Warmer water does not carry oxygen as well as cool water. Fish that prefer high O2 levels, will be more affected by higher temperature. Take precautions such as lowering the tank water level to increase splash, or raising the spray bars above the water line. If you have good circulation, high O2 levels are not difficult to achieve. Speeding up the life cycle does many things to help us and our fish. First and foremost it gets the parasites off of the fish quicker. Once attached they will be on the fish until they have grown and are ready to multiply. They will cause irritation and stress for as long as they are there so the faster we make them grow the more we help our fish.
Although 86*F is usually fatal to ICH, I personally do not trust elevated temperatures alone to kill it off. If there is a cold spot in the tank, anywhere, there is a chance of survival for the parasite. I consider heat a very good helper in the fight, with the added bonus of being fatal, but don?t consider it a surefire method.
If you have the capability of guaranteeing that all water in the system stays above 86*F then you might consider this a surefire method (Too many possible variables for me). If you try this and don?t kill the ich, then you have accelerated the life cycle of the parasite without keeping it off your fish. This to me would be a dangerous situation.
Temperature should be raised 1-2 degrees per hour at the most until the desired temperature is reached. Drastic or rapid temp changes can be stressful to your fish.
Surefire treatment Methods:
There are two things that will kill the parasite without fail, and with minimal risk/ stress to your fish and tank.
#1. Salt added to the water. Salt will kill ich. Just as meds will. The dosage needed for this is 1-3 teaspoons per actual gallon of water. One strain of Ich has been reported to withstand as much as 5 parts per thousand of salt* so do not rely on light salt dosage to be 100% effective. Most strains will succumb to low levels of salt though
My personal recommendation is 2 tsp. per gallon as a target. This gives me a good solid level with a 1 tsp. per gallon buffer zone in both directions. In other words I can be 1 tsp. per gallon higher than I think I am and my fish should be OK, or I can be 1 tsp. per gallon lower than I think I am and my ich will still die. Many people do quite well with 1 teaspoon per gallon but I don?t like variables so I go higher. This buffer zone is more necessary with hobbyists who don?t know the actual (vs. estimated) water volume of their tank.
To add salt, mix it in small volumes and add to your tank. It is not recommended to dump salt in directly as a solid. My method is to mix it with a bucket of tank water and siphon it into my filter with a ? airline. This ensures it is mixed, and adds it slowly to a high flow area to be further mixed as it enters the tank. I add ? tsp. per gallon once an hour for four hours. This brings me to a level of 1 tsp. per gallon in four hours. At this level, I am far more relaxed and will generally increase it to 2 tsp. per gallon in ? teaspoon increments every 3-4 hours. I always watch my fish closely for reaction. Once I am above 1 tsp. per gallon, if I see signs of increased stress I will slow things down and allow my fish more time to adjust.
Whatever method you use to add salt is fine, but raise the level slowly and mix it well. It will be easier on your fish to do so. At the end of the planned treatment period, I do not worry about quickly removing the salt, I simply go about my normal weekly maintenance without adding any more salt, and eventually it will all be gone from the tank.
Salt is by far my preferred method of treatment, it is less expensive, far less stressful and every bit as effective as ICH meds. Furthermore it is not affected by organic carbon levels which to me makes it more reliable. Filter carbon will not remove salt from the water so if you are using it you do not need to remove it as you do with meds.
As far as what type of salt, you need NaCl. I use table salt, many folks use pickling or canning salt. Iodized salt has never been harmful to my fish, The levels of iodide and other agents are too minute to be a factor. Freshwater aquarium salt is also NaCl as a rule, but is usually more expensive. The only thing I would caution against would be Marine salt mixes for saltwater tanks as they contain many things unnecessary for the treatment of ich, and stand a good chance of changing water chemistry.
#2. Is a combination of Formalin and malachite green. Most off the shelf ich treatments contain these two agents. Read the ingredients before purchase and see what you are buying. If it is other than these two, Find something with these agents instead
While highly effective, there are a couple of side effects that you should be aware of so if you chose to use these meds, so you can use them as effectively as possible.
The first side effect is quite simply the stress it puts on your fish. If your tank is full of tough easy to keep fish that aren?t highly sensitive to much of anything, then you can easily use these meds without a lot of worry. However, if you have smooth skinned fish, or delicate fish, this becomes a much larger concern. I have found that ich meds even when used at reduced dosage, can be extremely stressful to my catfish. I have used meds on Bala sharks, channel cats, pictus cats, and iridescent sharks, and none of them survived and recovered. This is not to say that meds are always fatal to these fish, but the combination of stresses from ich and meds are very hard on sensitive fish. Furthermore since we have already established that ich needs to be treated for more than the 3-4 days recommended by many meds, your fish will be exposed to these irritants for a long time, or you will not be sure you have killed the ich.
The second side effect is the fact that these meds. React with organic carbons. Therefore if your tank is high in organics, much of the meds are used for something other than killing the parasites. This makes dosages more or less effective in different tanks, and therefore makes it harder to effectively treat with meds. The Easy solution is to vacuum very well and feed very little during treatment. How effective this is depends on the individual and their maintenance practices, IT is definitely something to be aware of.
Malachite green can stain your tank silicone, and for that reason it can also be undesirable. I have not actually had it do this in my tanks, but there are enough reports that I would recommend caution if a green/blue tint is completely undesirable in your tank seams.
As with almost any meds, if you use AC in your filters, remove it during treatment. Activated charcoal will remove the meds from the water.
When the treatment period is complete, water changes and fresh Activated charcoal is the way to get the meds out of the water.
