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Betta has ich

2K views 37 replies 5 participants last post by  ShadyLex 
#1 ·
I posted a thread in the Betta Fish Care section but I think it's more appropriate to open up my problem here.

Yesterday I noticed my betta darting around his tank a lot, moving erratically whenever he bumped into a plant or the heater. I thought this was him being stressed but that was not it. He has a case of ich and he is currently being acclimated for his hospital tank.

I've read around and some people are saying to raise the temp to 85F gradually. I'm doing this right now slowly. Others say to use AQ salt and I would like to know if that would help out.

Here is the form to help out.

Hospital tank

Housing
What size is your tank? Hospital tank/ 1 gal
What temperature is your tank? 81F at the moment, going to slowly move it up to 85F
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Omega One pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2 pellets in the morning and evening

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once a day
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Prime

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.8
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? White spots all over his body and fins
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Yesterday he darted all around the tank rubbing himself against the plant and heater, now he's pretty normal.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? This morning
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Clean water and bumping up the temp
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Not sure
How old is your fish (approximately)? Maybe about a year? Less?
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Go buy aquarium salt at the pet store. Salt will dehydrate the parasites. It one of the natural method to treat ich, with aq salt and temp raised. The temperature 85* is perfect it will help to speed up parasites cycle and fall them faster so you can remove them manually with full water changes.
Pre mix salt in the separated jug and shake it well make sure the crystals dissolved. Do daily water changes (100%). Do salt for 14 days. Pre mix 1 tsp/gall Aquarium salt 3 times, 12 horus apart so that you end up with 3 times the normal concentration.
Make sure you acclimate him slowly.
A lot of times you can get rid of them with salt and temp raised. Some times people still need to use medication. So give us update on his progress.
 
#7 ·
Sorry i am just running like crazy being very late to my work, as usually :) I figured out it the hospital tank right a minute after i wrote it, and i did see you wrote that you acclimated him. Sorry just really late. But yes you doing right thing. Do not afraid to use aquarium salt, it not going to harm him, you need to make sure you will get rid of them completely so do not stop treating him even if you think he got better, you need to insure you get rid the once that can hid in the gills area.
Keep us updated:)
And for one gallon i like to do full water changes every about 4 days. I have a few tank at work (one gall) and when i changed them once a week it so much debries there, even though the doctor who feed them give them once or sometimes two pellets a day. So i figure out every 4-5 days is better:) They have a feast though when i feed them 2 times a week that i am there.
 
#5 ·
If you don't want to use salt, then you can just bump the temperature up to at least 86, which will disrupt the life cycle of the parasite. Adding salt when the water is at least 86 is not going to make the parasites any deader.


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#9 ·
No, 86 won't kill the fish - thats actually within the fishs preferred temp range. I treat all new fish for ich while in quarantine at 88 degrees - about 50 species of fish have been through the treatment. Haven't found a fish that couldn't handle it.

There is a threshold for heat treatment. While 85 may work, it is awful close to not working. You will know if its working after a few days. After 3 days you should see improvement, and after 5-6 days it should be gone. If you don't see improvement after 3 days, I would bump up the temp a couple more degrees.


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#10 ·
Alright, got the temp up to 85F and going to bump it up to 86F. I got the bucket full of water and one dose of AQ salt on the side in case I feel like I should add it. So far he is still active and ate one pellet when I offered it. Good news for me.
 
#13 ·
No, it won't matter - the temperature of the water alone will kill the parasites.


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#14 ·
Morning update:

The ich have spread more over his body but I have made the temp 86F. He ate 2 pellets happily and had made a bubble nest while I was asleep. Must be the extra humidity. His poop was present but it was more in chunks and not one piece. Should I be worried about that?
 
#15 ·
It can get worse before it gets better. If the temp is not high enough, then it will just cause the infestation to worsen, which is why I prefer to not carry out the treatment near the threshold. If you've got the temp up to at least 86, you should see improvement in 2-3 days.

I would not be concerned about the poop.

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#17 ·
They will soon start to fall off more quickly. Depending on the severity of the infestation, it can leave the fins a little ragged looking. They will heal.
 
#19 ·
Yeah, scales grow back.

So here are a couple of videos I took. I normally begin the heat treatment while new fish are in quarantine the next day, so I don't even actually see infestations anymore. But, I started waiting because I wanted to get it on film. In the first video you can see the fish is infested - spots covering it's entire body. Had I not begun treatment when I did, my guess is that the fish would have been dead in 2-3 days. Like with every other fish, all I do is raise the temp to 88 degrees for 2 weeks. Thats the extent of my involvement curing the fish. The first video is of the next day, once the tank was up to temp. The second video was 2-3 days later. 2 days after that the fish was spot free, and the fish is currently in the 125.



 
#20 ·
Wow! That's a pretty fast cure. I think I'll bump the temp up to 88F because I'm not confident in myself with the AQ salt. He's doing rather well in 86F and you said he can take 88F yeah? Once the ich start falling off his body how long should I keep at the treatment? I don't want to put him back in the 10 gal only to have it come back.
 
#21 ·
The betta will be fine at 88. It's not necessary for you to go to 88 though, not if you see improvement at 86. The reason I go to 88 is because I am preemptively treating fish, and I want to know without a shadow of a doubt that the fish is ich free before it goes in the show tank. Also, I've had a heat resistant strain of ich that did not respond to 86. 88 took care of it, so ever since then I have done 88.

The treatment is for 2 weeks from the time the tank gets to temp. I don't know if it's absolutely necessary to finish the full 2 weeks, but it's easy enough to finish so I've never experimented to see.
 
#22 ·
He's chilling at 86F and I just check up on him. It may be me but it looks like a lot of the ich from his face has fallen off and there is less white spots on him. Should I change the water right now to get rid of all the ich or wait until tomorrow morning?
 
#23 ·
I don't change the water for the entire 2 week treatment. However, most people would say to do daily changes. I haven't found it to make any difference.


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#26 ·
More of the ich have disappeared and happily ate 3 pellets this morning. I decided to see if he would flare out for me and held a mirror out for him. He flared up after a few moments and I noticed a pin hole in his anal fin. Is this the result from the ich falling off? How do I heal him up after all of it has gone away?
 
#27 ·
#28 · (Edited)
you need to change the water daily, ich has life stages, one where it is in the fish, the next it leaves the fish and is in a spore of sorts, the next is the free swimming stage. while it is in the fish and in the spore it is basically safe from temp and salt, the only thing raising the temp does is speed it it's life cycle if you do not change the water daily you are taking a chance of one of the spore hatching releasing 1000's of tomites which is what ich is in it's free swimming stage is called, re-infecting the fish, in your main tank you should vaccum it out or at the very least not introduce the fish for at least 14 days just to be sure ,the tomite can live for only 4 days without a fish and it only stays in the spore for 4-5 days and as always it is best to error on the side of caution and using AQ salt is not a bad idea, I usually use malichite green but salt will work
 
#29 ·
As someone who exclusively uses heat and does not do water changes during the treatment, I have never had a reinfection - reason being because the parasites are dead. The heat does more than speed up the life cycle - getting it to 86 and above kills the parasite in its swimming stage thereby interrupting the life cycle. That's how the heat treatment works. Adding salt doesn't make them any deader. All it takes is getting the temp up to at least 86 - it really is that easy.


Since the treatment is working exactly as it should, I would not change courses or do anything different.


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