some ich in the Amazon

[Cosidius]

my tank in my sig has some ich and yea help...using rid ich?? do i do massive waterchanges or....help

[ron v]

Salt will cure ick, along with raising the temperature. I try to avoid meds. if I can. Recommended dosage varies. Do a web search or wait a while and I'm sure some of our resident physicians will jump in.
BTW, if the 120 gal. tank you mentioned in your other thread is the one with ich, it is not a south american tank. Most of the fish you mentioned are from Central America and there is a major difference in ideal water requirements.

[ron v]

Yeah, I just went back and checked your other thread. The Green terror and the plecos are S.A. The other cichlids are all Central American.

[Cosidius]

o crap lol....really?? well there close :-/....so buy like that livebearers salt like the stuff u keep with mollys and platys? and raise the temp to what?...i work at petco so ill get some of the salt from the store...if u guys live near west covinaish california stop by and ill hook u up

[ron v]

[quote=Cosidius]o crap lol....really?? well there close :-/]

Geographically they are fairly close, but ideal water conditions are miles apart. S.A. habitats are mostly soft/ acid. C.A. is hard/alkaline.

I use regular non-iodized table salt. Its cheaper. As for dosage, I would rather someone else answer that. But until someone else does, I would raise temp. to about 82F. I use 2 tablespoons/ salt per 5 gal. but don't add it all at once. Three equil parts about 4 hours apart to keep from stressing the fish. You need good water movement to keep your oxygen level up at higher temps. Treatment should take about a week. Good luck.

[fishfreaks]

I agree with ronv...but just don't do massive water changes, you should never do more than 50% at a time. Also be sure to treat for ich until all signs of it are gone.

[Cichlid Man]

Originally Posted by ron v

Geographically they are fairly close, but ideal water conditions are miles apart. S.A. habitats are mostly soft/ acid. C.A. is hard/alkaline.

Actually, in the wild green terrors and blue acaras live in neutral/hard waters of SA similar to that of CA cichlid habitats. They don't live in the River Amazon where Angelfish and discus live.

[TheOldSalt]

And a lot of Central american waters are surprisingly neutral-ish.
Generalizations can bite you on the butt sometimes, but in general, they usually work okay.

Anyway, a temp of 86 will make ick easy to kill, and 94 will kill it all by itself. However, yours are central american, not south american fish, so a temp of 94 would be a bad idea. 86 is what you want, added with the salt or with some ick medicine like quick cure or coppersafe.
Rid-ich is crap, in my opinion, ever since they changed the formula, which is sad since it used to be the best.

The big question first though, is do you have live plants in ths tank? If so, then that complicates things quite a bit, because plants and ick treatments don't go together very well.

By the way, there are a few different diseases which all look similar and are called "ick," but they don't all respond to the same treatments. If one treatment doesn't seem to be working after 4 days, switch to a different one.

[Cosidius]

i have 2 little strands of anachris and 4 bamboo sticks(small)...i added salt i like a cup with gravel over it...fish seem to be getting better alot more active...also raised the temp to 86ish anything else just used the livebearers salt stuff that i have on hand at petco

[Cosidius]

ich is all gone except for one small zit on my mangenuese...everything is great...thanks for all the advice u saved me a fortune