I was curious how you deal with ich when keeping natives? I hope to never have to deal with it, but you never know. I have a planted 55 and realized that you just can't turn up the heat like a tropical tank as I'm sure the fish won't handle that well.

What have you guys done when dealing with this parasite?

I've Ich in a tank only once. But because I had hardy species, increasing the temp for 2-3 days into the high 70s was not really a problem. At the time I had only redbreast sunfish and spotfin shiners. I ended up with a 2 spotfin deaths (out of 12 fish infected), but I don't know whether that was the ich or if that was the increase in temperature. So, when I first saw signs of ich, I added some salt, increased the temp for 3 days, then followed it up by a large gravel vac/ water change, then added more salt and let the temp go back to normal temp. This was a long time ago, and I just kind of winged it, but seemed to have worked okay. I'd see what others have experienced.

I don't know if I'm the only one to notice this or not, but I've never seen any of my Elassoma gilberti itch themselves against anything, ever. Other fish species that I've kept like Xiphophorus hellerii and Poecilia reticulata will rub themselves along the substrate or tank decorations when they feel itchy. Now I should say, my tanks don't get ich that often (haven't seen a spot of ich in years), so I don't know if it's just because there isn't any reason to itch or because the fish are ingrained not to make sudden movements for fear of predators. But either way, I keep a guppy in the Elassoma gilberti tank just in case. I figure if he's itching himself then the Elassoma are also itchy, they're just too proud to show it. He's like a 'canary in a coal mine', showing the first sign of distress when danger is present. So far so good though. No ich yet.

I think if the 'canary in the coal mine' guppy itched himself tomorrow my plan would be to do a 70% water change (the tank water pH and DH are the same as the tap water). I wouldn't raise the temperature (I don't own a heater for the 55 gallon tank the Elassoma are in, so I couldn't). Then I'd wait a day, maybe doing a second 70% water change the next day. If the fish was still itchy after that, I would add those anti-external-parasite dark blue medicine drops and follow the directions for dosage and water changes. That's what I did in the past with my other fish species, and it worked out okay.

Edited by EricaWieser, 03 March 2012 - 11:43 AM.

I did a similiar thing that UncleWillie did. I had ich once when I first started keeping natives. I only had some yellowfin shiners in the tank at the time. I put a heater in the tank and increased the temperature for a couple days into the upper 70s and added some salt. Did a water change a couple days later, took the heater out and haven't seen any signs of it's return since.

If your tank has plants and driftwood, I would move all the fish to a bare tank (or cooler or bucket) and treat with Quick-Cure or other protozoan parasite med. Any free-swimming ich in the main tank will die in a week with no fish host. To kill ich with heat I think you need to get it up to mid-80s, although at 75-80 the fishes' own immune system may defeat it, especially with added salt (1-2 teasp/gal).

I've never seen Elassoma scratch or shimmy either, like livebearers do. When they do get sick, they just slow down and dont move much. Watch out for velvet which is harder to see and to cure than ich.

Edited by gerald, 03 March 2012 - 01:09 PM.

It seems like ich (Ichthyophthirius multifilis) is less common that it used to be. Or maybe I am lucky.

Its a parasite, so there are antibiotic treatments available. But if you catch it early, raising the temp, adding some salt and doing water changes has usually made it go away.

I had problems with shimmy and scratching with my mollies, but I don't think it was disease. More like discomfort. Once I got the water (temp, hardness, salinity) where they liked it the problem went away. Mollies seem more sensitive than most of the fish I have kept.

I used store bought ich medicine and saved everything in the two tanks that had it except the golden shiners. It makes me wonder if I had bad luck or if goldens are extra suceptable.