ich in planted aquarium with nerite snails and amano shrimp

jemanser

jemanser

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Nov 22, 2005
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I must have introduced ich in my planted aquarium with neons, guppies, pleco, cories, hatchets amanos and nerites snails. The culprit were fish I only qt for 8 days.....why?...impulsivity I guess and a little stupidity. And my plants were growing great! I removed the new entries which already had spots and some of the established fish are scraping on objects but no spots. I have amazon vals, microswords, java ferns, and red wendttis. Will these plants and inverts tolerate raised temps to low 80's and salt treatments? Would you use 1 tbsp per 5 or 10 gallons (tank is 55 gallons) as your concentration? Any suggestions would help. I want to spare trauma to the plants and I believe these inverts can live in brackish waters...correct? thanks for the help...jemanser
 
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I really don't think that concentration of salt will do anything to help the ich. More than likely it will only irritate your inverts. Low 80's for temps won't do much either. What I would do is increase the temp gradually to about 86 or 87 with no salt. Heat alone should help considerably. Planted aquariums with inverts are especially hard to treat, but sometimes the tried and true method of high heat works the best.

The one thing you'll want to do with high heat is increase O2. If you're using HOB filters just lower the water level so it splashes more, or use an air stone.
 
Can these inverts (amanos and nerites) tolerate salt therapy and 86 degree temp. What salt concentration do people use? I have seen a large range on the AC site, from one tablespoon per 5-10 gallons to 1 tablespoon per gallon. I guess if the plants would tolerate these salt conc. as well as the inverts then why not...please advise further, and thanks hage0245
 
I had a similar issue not long ago after introducing some Neons to one of my planted tanks. I did a 50% water cahang and as thero a vacuming of the sand substrate as possibile, I also increased the temp to 87 and dosed aquarium salt at 1 tablespoon per gallon. After 48 hours I did another 50% water change and vacuming left the temp at 87 for an additional 3 days and it was gone. I have Val, Crytps, Caboma, Anubus and Water Sprite in this tank along with Amano and Goast shrimp everybody was fine.
 
Can we get the two threads started on this combined?

I would try just adding salt for now. That may be all that is needed. Salt alone can definitely be all that is needed to treat ich. And yes, these inverts can handle it for the reasons stated.

I personally don't worry about quarantining. Fish get stressed when things change and changing from the QT to the DT is stressful. There are ALWAYS pathogens present, it is just a matter of stressing the fish to allow these pathogens an opportunity to create illness. In my experience fish do much better going straight into a properly maintained display tank and having a proper setup, high water quality, natural aquascaping, etc. Unless your QT is AT LEAST as good as your DT they do better going in to the DT. I have added sick fish to display tanks who got better on their own because the conditions were better suited for them and there were no longer any stressors. Healthy, unstressed fish in a DT that has infected fish in it should not get sick. They will get sick if they are stressed in some way though.
 
Thanks.. I also posted in the invert forum as well in order to get their input regarding the snails and amanos tolerance to salt therapy. Sorry for the redundancy.
 
I would just remove all the fish and put in your qt tank and treat just the fish i would bring salt up to 2 tbs per 5 gallons turn the temp up to 85-90 slowly and leave this for close to 10 days (or 7 days after no more signs of ich). I believe Ich can't infect inverts so they should be fine in your planted tank and since the ich in your planted tank can't infect anyone it will die because it won't be able to find a host. I would also increase the temp a bit in your planted tank to speed up the ich life cycle.
 
reptileguy2727 said:
Can we get the two threads started on this combined?

I would try just adding salt for now. That may be all that is needed. Salt alone can definitely be all that is needed to treat ich. And yes, these inverts can handle it for the reasons stated.

I personally don't worry about quarantining. Fish get stressed when things change and changing from the QT to the DT is stressful. There are ALWAYS pathogens present, it is just a matter of stressing the fish to allow these pathogens an opportunity to create illness. In my experience fish do much better going straight into a properly maintained display tank and having a proper setup, high water quality, natural aquascaping, etc. Unless your QT is AT LEAST as good as your DT they do better going in to the DT. I have added sick fish to display tanks who got better on their own because the conditions were better suited for them and there were no longer any stressors. Healthy, unstressed fish in a DT that has infected fish in it should not get sick. They will get sick if they are stressed in some way though.
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I agree. Ich could have been introduced by plants, fish, any outside water you introduced in your tank. I have had it introduced by plants I moved from one tank to another even though neither tank showed symptoms. More often than not I see people using less than ideal tanks as QT tanks and think "Well if you didn't have problems before you will now." Nothing like a small, bare tank to stress the fish and bring on illness. I recently went through an ich outbreak in one of my fry tanks. Overcrowding and heater failure brought it on. When I noticed the ich the temp was 70 degrees and the fish were not feeding. I replaced the heater, cranked it up to 85 and added 3 handfulls of aquarium salt. 3-4 days later the ich was gone however I kept up treatment (adding salt at water changes and high temp for 2 weeks.) Either treatment (temps or salt) will kill ich. Together they are doubly effective.
Your nerites and shrimp will be fine at those temps. The nerites actually come from saltwater and the shrimp can tolerate it as well. I would be more worried about the plants but at that dosage the salt will not hurt them.
 
nonamesleft47 said:
I agree. Ich could have been introduced by plants, fish, any outside water you introduced in your tank. I have had it introduced by plants I moved from one tank to another even though neither tank showed symptoms. More often than not I see people using less than ideal tanks as QT tanks and think "Well if you didn't have problems before you will now." Nothing like a small, bare tank to stress the fish and bring on illness. I recently went through an ich outbreak in one of my fry tanks. Overcrowding and heater failure brought it on. When I noticed the ich the temp was 70 degrees and the fish were not feeding. I replaced the heater, cranked it up to 85 and added 3 handfulls of aquarium salt. 3-4 days later the ich was gone however I kept up treatment (adding salt at water changes and high temp for 2 weeks.) Either treatment (temps or salt) will kill ich. Together they are doubly effective.
Your nerites and shrimp will be fine at those temps. The nerites actually come from saltwater and the shrimp can tolerate it as well. I would be more worried about the plants but at that dosage the salt will not hurt them.
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This is what I am doing, thanks all for great advice...Temp 85-86 and 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt/5gallons. I like your remedy..but what does a handful equate to...Am I in the ballpark ?
 
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