RE: Treating Ick in a planted tank.

["Eric Wahlig" <ewahlig at earthlink_net>]

NightFlight asks about treating for Ich in a planted tank:

"What is the best course of action? I've read a bit on it, but it seems 
the medications cannot be used in a planted tank. I've one fish, a newly 
acquired clown loach which is currently infected. At this stage, no other 
fish is infected yet."

Well, since the mail was delayed a bit, this response may be too late to
help but anyway, here's what I do:
    (1)Remove all fish from the infected aquarium and quarantine them in
some other container where you can medicate them. Removing all the fish is
the hard part and may take awhile. This is also the reason for guaranteeing
new fish from questionable sources *before* you add them to an established
aquarium; especially a planted aquarium.
    (2)With all fish removed from the aquarium, raise the temperature to
the low 80's F. and let the tank run as normal for about a week, maybe
longer if the temperature is lower. (I can't remember the exact time
periods of the life cycle of the Ich parasite. So, some research on this
may help you here.) Without any fish in the tank, the parasite will die
off. Again, no medications needed in the planted tank, just time with no
fish.      


--- Eric