A woman after my old school ich treatment heart! It always seems to work...although I haven't had to treat for ich in many years (knock wood!). Well, I haven't had new fish for several years now (sniffle). I "think" immune fish can still be carriers, hidden in the gills or water. Glad you fish are all better now!
I wondered if those were blackworms or my dreaded tubifex (never again!). I didn't like to guess in case they were...I fed my fish "loose" FD blackworms back in my discus growing days. I think I'm not a huge fan of freeze dried foods but in some cases I might be ok with them again with soaking or hand feeding; some are so crumbly & take forever to sink, meh. I don't have fish that surface feed these days, so FD brine shrimp are out.
I got a new food sample with my Repashy gel foods order, rice worms! They really are the size of long grained rice. Not FD but looks like vacuum packed formerly live. I don't know where the name comes from but I bet my corys go nuts for them! Have you heard of or tried them? From some Malaysian place...sorry, tangent thought, but you usually don't mind...since we're talking food, lol.
Never mind tangents haha
I think I've heard of rice worms for other creatures but not for fish. Will be on the lookout for those!
I've tried black soldier fly larvae, but the casings were thick so only the bigger fish could enjoy them chopped.
I do freezedried as a once a month treat. It's not the best because it can cause digestive problems due to the trapped air, but as a small occasional treat its fine. Mine love the freeze dried worm cubes. Even my badis likes them. He gets them daily though because they're the only dried foods I can convince him to take.
As for ich treatments, I know there's several, but ive had good results using the m green and acriflavine combo and have never had bad reactions with the fish with it. But careful handling of the stuff still because it's not the gentlest of chemicals.
Salt isn't good because hoplos and pleco, and I know some ich strains are beginning to become resistant to salt now as well.
And heat treatment, some ich is resistant to heat now as well, but also goldfish are Coldwater fish so I'd like to avoid heat. Can barely avoid it in the summer, but still.
The m green has always worked best for me and quickest. Usually clears within days for me with that. That said, ich at least is probably one of the better diseases to deal with. Better ich than worms or flukes. Easier to treat ich here with Canada's fish med ban lol
