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I goofed on quarantine recently (quarantine
tank had a breakdown, gambled on putting healthy-looking new fish in
community tank after just 3 days, paying price now)... and I had a small
problem of ich with 3 or 4 of the fish after not having seen the disease
in many years. I know it is ideal to take all the fish out and treat
them in a separate hospital tank, but this was just not practical in
my case. The main problem was, my tank is heavily planted and has 40+
fast fish (cannot treat fish separately without tearing tank down),
and most meds will hurt plants. So, since no I met seemed to know, and
there is little info on the web (there is a TON of info on treating
ich in tanks w/o live plants, including my previous article here), I
did some research, and a little experimenting... so here are my results,
for people with plants in their aquaria hoping to treat:
A picture of the authors planted tank.
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1) Malachite green:
(in popular brands like QuickCure and
Super Ick Cure): big no-no for live plants (good Tx but hard on fish
as well). I knew this before this recent problem, so I didn't even try
it in this tank. Note: turns water bright blue, very strong meds that
will kill some weakened fish if used at dosage prescribed.
2) Coppersafe:
Contains copper, so I had my doubts, I
know it is not great for plants and bad for inverts (my Malaysian snails
aerate their roots). However, I've read mixed reviews about it on the
web--some planted people use it in very low concentrations with few
problems. It supposedly also irradicates algae problems in ponds when
very dilute, but I try not to add stuff to my water unless really necessary.
It does not seem to have any adverse effects on sick fish and does control
the disease, though not quite as fast as malachite green.
3) Formalin:
This is a part formaldehyde mix, which
is pretty safe on fish and plants. I used a low conc. of it for about
4 days, and saw no ill effects to the plants, but it's early still (they
will lag in their response). It is not known as a fast cure, and is
an older treatment with a longer history in the pet trade. You need
patience if you use this instead of some of the newer meds, but I think
it's worthwhile if you have plants and don't want to risk them. I did
20% water changes every other day and kept the temp at a steady 86 F.
4) Maracide (by Mardel):
One of the few other treatments besides
formalin I've heard was safe with plants, so I am now discontinuing
the formalin and trying this, no results yet on safety with plants (at
this point, fish show no visible signs or spots, and are all healthy
looking, just treating tank for parasitic cysts to prevent recurrences).
Note: turns water green. Anyway, this is just FYI stuff.
This ordeal was a huge pain, to say the
least. I definitely say, learn from my mistakes, prevention and quarantine
are the best way of avoiding ich. I hadn't had a problem with it for
years until I got sloppy. I caught this in time, and with almost daily
water changes and some low level dosages of the last 2 meds, was able
to stop the epidemic, with not one fish or plant fatality. But treating
in a planted tank definitely requires more patience than without, and
you should always treat for at least 10 days, even after the fish show
no more spots, because of this disease's complex life cycle.
Update:
It's been >4 weeks now, and the fish are
fully recovered, with no relapses and no deaths. One or two of the leaves
on my Red Rubin swordplant have curled, but otherwise, the plants have
shown no problems at all. This is partly because I have kept up with
20% water changes every 3 days. I have returned carbon to the filter
now, and the biological filtration should be working fine (seeded it
with media from another healthy running tank), and I have no new tank
cycling problems. I think water changes, though a more conservative
action to take, are key in controlling this disease, because the cysts
(stage unaffected by meds) lay dormant in the substrate.
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