ICH!?

Question
Hello, I recently purchased 1 endler guppy. I isolated it in its own tank for over a week and then added it to my main 25 gallon, planted tank containing 8 Rasboras, 2 Oto catfish, 4 Cory catfish, 2 Juli catfish, 4 mystery snails, and 7 red cherry shrimp. Well, suddenly I noticed it had ich!!!!! Just 2 spots, of what I could see, but nonetheless still ich. My 25 gallon main tank is VERY established and is a planted tank so it is filled with beautiful plants and happy fish, including the mystery snails and shrimp who are both breeding. Needless to say I CANNOT treat for ich because I have inverts and I do not want to mess up the balanced chemistry of my tank.

I raised the temp from 78 to 82 degrees. I carefully searched the other fish and tried to find ich on ANY other fish but thankfully NO other fish has the ich. My question is, should I be worried???? Even though I do not see the ich now, will it develop soon because the one endler guppy had it (which I immediately removed)? Is there anything I can do to prevent ich from growing and developing further that is safe for all my fish and inverts and plants? If I do discover the ich has attached to the other fish how do I treat (keeping in mind it is a planted tank with inverts)? Please help. I finally got my tank going very well and it is very balanced and seeing the one tank, that I even quarantined, with 2 ich spots has really worried me. I love my tank and it is finally perfect after much work and I want to do everything to prevent an ich outbreak!

Answer
Rachel,    I am always glad to hear your tank is still growing and flourishing. The ick is unfortunate. You removed the fish and removed the problem. The question of what causes ick is still on the table but, what we do know is a drastic change in temp. will almost always cause it. It could be stress. The only thing you can do is quarantine the fish. A treatment I trust is coppersafe. It is cheap and mineral based so stays in the water about thirty days and you do not have to remove your filter carbon. Water changes will remove it from your quarantine tank. Try not to change the water unless necessary and add abit of copper to replace what you have removed. Your tank needs to gradually come down to about 76 to 78 degrees. Your sick tank stay at 78. If any other fish get sick remove them immediately to the sick tank and get back to me but, I think you caught it. You are doing a great job with your planted tank Rachel. Don't let this discourage you. This is a normal problem you may have to deal with and yes with inverts and plants it does make the situation different but , you did the right thing. Good Luck, Tina