Ick
 

First let me say that I am new to this Hobby, and I am also new to this forum. I would lie to say hello to all, and to thank you in advance for the information that iI will receive.

Mhy question is pertaining to Ick. I am just curious about how long can a fish live with Ick being untreated?

first off, we where all new to the hobby at sometime, many years ago.
Now to address your question on ich. Ich is a paraiste that need a host fish to live on. If your fish are healthy and stress free, they can usually fight off ich, when they become stressed, wheater it is from water quality, temperature, or even the shock of the new tank they can not. Ich has about a 3 week life cycle, to speed up the cycle raise the temperature and treat with medication. If this a saltwater tank also lower the salinity to about 1.017 slowly. If it is only 1 fish the best thing is to treat hm in a hospital tank. Keep your water quality good with water changes, and keep your tank heated. A drop in temperature will ussually bring out the ich. When treating raise the temp. to about 82. do not forget to remove the carbon, or it will remove the medication.

Thanks for the Info SteveM. You have been very helpful!!!!!!

thats what we are hear for
1 thing to add raise the temp to 85 not 82 at 85 degrees the ich starts to die off

Thanks SteveM for keeping me in mind. This is my problem.......(again keep in mind that I am new to this) I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank, that I started up about one month ago. Unfortunately, I dont have a "hospital" tank. Just yesterday I noticed some spots on this clown loach. ( I have three of them) He was the only fish that I spotted with this.I have a total of about 24 other fish in the tank. (Different types) I have been reading up on all this, and I agree with you ( with the little that I seem to have read) to raise temperature gradually. But I am concerned about all my other fish, if I raise this temperature. I did put in the tank yesterday Kordons Ick Attack. Today, I didn't see any more spots on the Clown Loach. So, I am going to continue adding this Ick Attack for another 6 days, and I am leaving my temp at around 78 degrees. Does this sound good to you, Steve??? Thanks again Steve for you advice!!!!!I appreciate your advice and knowledge!!!!

if the medication is working continue with that, on another note you said you have 24 fish in a 55 gal tank i hope they are small fish. Is the tank benn up for awile ?

Hi SteveM, thanks for getting back to me. The fish that I have in this 55 gal. tank on average is about 2 to maybe 3 inches. I know I am about reaching my limit. The tank has been up for a little over 3 weeks. I know I am flirting with disaster on that also. But I am constantly checking my PH and amonia levels, and the numbers are good. Matter of fact, a few days back I bought a seachem PH monitor, and ammonia monitor that I attached inside the tank, and its giving me back those great readings. I also do my water changes once a week of about 20%. When I first started this tank, I bought that python syphon. Boy, that is a big help, rather then schlepping buckets of water. Just yesterday, I bought 9 cardinal tetras. Today when I woke up and checked my tank, my 9 cardinal tetras turned into 5 cardinal tetras. Somebody in that tank had a good breakfast. I learned an unfortunate lesson, which is not to buy small fish. I know I am reaching my limit for the amount of fish to have, so I am going to cool it, and not buy any more fish. Take care SteveM, and thanks for your advice, and help.

I know it is hard to resist that one more fish, but is it worth a disaster?
A 3 week old tank does not have enough live bacteria to support that amount of live stock, feed sparingly!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK Steve...I will definately take your advice on this, and feed sparingly!!!! Thanks for that tip!!!!!