# Profile: Ich



## MR.FREEZ

*WHAT IS ICH???*

*Scientific name :* ichthyophthirius multifiliis

*Common names :* white spots disease, ich, or ick








$MirF's fish with ich

*Symptoms :* the easiest symptom to notice is the white spots one the fish that look like it was sprinkled with salt. Excessive itching against the substrate. Hanging out around the power filter outlet tryin to get oxygen into its gills. Lots of times an infected fish will not eat and have decreased activity.

















*Ich life cycle :* ich is caused by a protozoan pararsite (ichthyophthirius multifiliis) an adult "ich" known as a trophont, will burrow under the skin, these are the white dots you see, then they will fall off into the gravel and become encysted and called a tomont, when in this stage it is not vulnerable to medication. Then depending on water temperature (this is why it is recommended to slowly raise the temperature, so the life cycle speeds up and gets to were it can be treated faster) the tomont will hatch into 200 to 800 tomites, (this is when "ich" is vulnerable to meds) and if they don't find a host pretty fast they die. All three stages of ich will usually be present in the tank but can only be killed in the tomites stage.










*Treatment : *there are many treatments on the market out there, but keep in mind that they are strong treatments and could kill your plants, and if you have fish sensitive to the meds use a half dose (but make sure that the medication isn't already at half dose like ridich+), and treat long enough to prevent a reoccurrence, as you can see from the life cycle It could take some time, go twice as long if you have to (at least a week) . Make sure to take out the carbon in your filters, cause it will take out the medication. Turn off the lights malachite green and many other dyes used in the meds will degrade with exposure to light. When you do a water change, use a gravel vacc and lightly vacuum the surface of the gravel, and redose to replace what was taken out. Also raising the temperature speeds up the life cycle, most tropical fish can stand 84*F to 86*F, but you awt to use an airpump to help maintain enough oxygen in the water. 
Because some fish (piranhas) are very sensitive to medications you can also try using salt 1 tablespoon per five gallons along with the raise in temperature. In lots of cases this method is enough to get rid of ich and is a more biological way of treating it, but make sure to see if fish in you tank are sensitive to salt like some scaleless fish or catfish. This is the method most will try first and use the meds as a last resort cause of the sensitivity level piranhas have to medications.

quote from DonH



> Temp treatment serves 2 purposes...
> 
> 1) Speeds up the life cycle of ich so meds can eradicate them in a shorter time span.
> 
> 2) Above about 86F, it also disrupts its life cycle.
> 
> Salt (at proper levels) kills ich through osmosis. Adding salt increases the solute concentration of the water, therefore the parasites will lose water and "dehydrate" in a sense.
> 
> This action is opposite of what many people think happens... They do not "pop" because water is not draw INTO the parasite. That's what happens when freshwater dips are used on marine fish with ich.


Just cause you don't see anymore white spots on the fish doesn't exactly mean that the ich is gone.

*Other ich infomation : *ich can live in the tank with your fish and your fish wont be infected long as the water conditions are maintained in a good condition and the fish have a nice healthy slime coat but a drastic change could stress the fish and lower its natural immunity enough that the ich can infect the fish.
Ich can be transferred from one tank to another through you net or arm or anything else that was in an infected tank that is put into a healthy one.
Feeder fish from the fish shop or any other fish you want to add to you tank may also carry ich, so for the predatory keeper a quarantine tank is a must and you could even treat the feeders in the isolation tank even if you don't see any signs of ich.
Ich can be fatal, heavy infestations can spread to the gills and cause sever respiratory problems and suffocate your fish.
Ich needs live fish to survive.

*References:*
Pictures of fish from JesseD
more info
more info
more info

corrections or added info welcomed


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## Pilsnah

Thankx for the profile Freez, has proven very usefull for me in the last week.


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## rchan11

Thanks for the info Mr. Freeze


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## Joga Bonito

good profile Freeze.


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## bc_buddah

ya man this should b in the saved or sumthin, cuz it's so gay common, i'm just drillin through all these topics here, lookin for ICH and PALARIA , which now all of my gay tanks have, cuz i gay spread it around using the same gay equipment, even i have it now, i'm like sooper itchy and twitchin out it's sick i'ma go shower . . . gay


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## oscared15

good profile.


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## piranha_guy_dan

bout time someone did one of these







now we need a planaria one


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## bc_buddah

piranha_guy_dan said:


> bout time someone did one of these
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> now we need a planaria one


ya for sure man, i'd do one, but i know nothing, about everything, but these are sum sooper common things, i think i'm in the final stages of palaria . . i sure hope so, i still see em around but . . wutever lol . . sumone make one! cuz peeps b postin bout these things all the time


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## bmpower007

Very Nice Profile Freez this will help out alot of people


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