Re: [APD] Re: Controlling Ich

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Raising the temprerature has been recommended by some and
recommended against by other for decades.

Pros or raising temp: It speeds up the life cycle of the
litle buggers so that any medication that works on only one
life stage of the organism (usually the foree-floating
stage) can have faster impact;

Most but not all strains of ich cannot live at temps in mid
90s F, so raised temps can often avoid the use of
medications.

Cons: It lowers oxygen when the fish might be the most hard
pressed to get get oxygen formthe water;

It speeds up the fish metabolism just when they fish might
be "off their feed" and otherwise systemically weak -- in
fact, the systemic weakness and the accompanying depression
in the fish's immune system might be the reason ich is
getting a boite onthe fish.

Increase the discomfort of the fish, except for the few
that don't mind such high temps.

Doesn't work on all strains of ich.

Adding salt to the water, in amounts sufficient to kill off
ich can be hard on fish as well, especially when the temps
are well beyond the "normal" range.

I certainly would not use meds like formalin and high temps
together -- not that it can't work but it's rather an
intense therapy. By all reports, all the methods have
reasonably good chances of success and I've yet to see any
good tests comparing the general efficacy of one over the
other, "efficacy" meaning saving the fish *and* eliminating
the ich.

Although I haven't seen ich for many years except in lfss
when new stock arrives, I have seen the sudden appearance
of ich clear up jsut as suddenly with no treatment at all
in an established tank with generally healthy fish -- so
that's one more technique to put on the list.


Scott H.
--- Bill D <billinet at comcast_net> wrote:

> << The recommendation to raise the temperature does
> little good. I put it in
> the class of aquarium myth because, though it does speed
> the life cycle of
> the ich parasite, it also decreases oxygen levels in the
> tank. If the fish's
> gills are loaded with ich parasites, decreasing oxygen
> may kill them when a
> longer cycle of infection won't.>>
> 
> I respectfully disagree.  On the two occasions in the
> last 10 or 15 years in
> which a tank of mine has been infected with the little
> white buggers,
> raising the temperature to 93 to 95 for a few days has
> eliminated the
> problem, without using chemicals, and with no animal or
> plant losses.
> 
> The fish and plants were in good shape to begin with and
> the tanks were not
> overstocked.  Perhaps in a more stressed environment
> another approach would
> be better.
> 
> Raising the temperature to control ich has been
> recommended in aquarium
> literature for at least 70 years.
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
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