Ram fish

Question
I love my rams! Unfortunately they came down with Ich. I treated them for a few days then quit as they seemed to be feeling poorly and not eating as well. They have perked up but are still spotty...do you have any recommendations for an Ich treatment that will not make the fish sickly? There are 2 rams in a 55 gallon tank with 2 snakeskin gouramis, 1 plecostomus, 1 rainbow shark, & 3 silver dollars. The ghost knife, 2 other rainbow sharks, 3 clown loaches & a ropefish all died from the Ich or the medication. The filter is a Penn-Plax Cascade 300. It is supposed to be good for tanks up to 100 gallons. Thanks, Julia

Answer
Hi Julia,
  I use a product called Rid-Ich to treat ick.  The trouble with ick is that what you see is only one stage of the infection, namely the cyst stage.  The cysts (the little white blobs) are virtually bomb-proof.  The medicines, which are usually some combination of formalin and copper, attack the free-swimming parasites before or after they encyst.  You need to keep treating (for about 7 days) to get most of them. Unfortunately, during this time your fish will get weaker and weaker and it is really a race between getting rid of the parasites and your fish succumbing to them.  Only if you start right away at the first sign of ick are you likely to win.  Some people recommend turning up the temperature to about 83 or 85oF.  What this does is speed up the life cycle of the parasite, making them vulnerable to the medicine sooner.  It is worth a try.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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