Safest Way to Get Rid of Ich on Fish

Ich is a common parasite that can be devastating to fish. There is a freshwater and saltwater parasite referred to as ich. While there are a number of different medications available to treat it, the safest way for most fish is by adjusting the salinity and heat in your aquarium.

  1. Freshwater Ich

    • Freshwater ich is a protozoan called Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, shortened to ich. The parasite̵7;s life cycle has three stages. A free-swimming ich parasite moves around the aquarium in search of a host. When it finds one of your hapless fish, it can attach itself and start feeding off of the fish̵7;s body fluids. At this point, the parasite forms a white cyst around itself; this is why ich is sometimes called white spot disease. A fish can have several of these white spots on its body if it's attracted more than one ich parasite. When the parasite has grown large enough, it falls from the fish and attaches to any surface in the tank where it reproduces hundreds of the swimming parasites, starting the cycle again. Ich can only be killed when they are in the free-swimming stage.

    Treating Freshwater Ich

    • The safest treatment for most fish is to increase the heat in the tank and make the water too salty for freshwater ich to survive. Before starting treatment, add an additional bubble stone for extra aeration. This will make it easier for your fish to breath if parasites are attached to their gills. Raise the temperature in the tank to between 85 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit. For each gallon of water in your aquarium, add one teaspoon of salt. Thoroughly clean the gravel and change half of the water in the tank daily for one week, adding salt to keep the salinity levels too high for the ich to survive.

    Marine Ich

    • Marine ich is very similar to freshwater ich, but it affects saltwater aquariums. The parasite responsible for marine ich is called cyptocaryon irritans. It, too, attaches to a fish for food, but it doesn̵7;t form a cyst until it falls to a surface at the bottom of the aquarium. At this point, it reproduces, flooding the tank with hundreds of parasites. It can go dormant for several weeks while in the cyst stage, appearing as though you've killed it. The safest way to treat marine ich is by changing half of the water in the tank daily for two weeks while keeping the infected fish in a quarantine tank. To treat an entire tank, you can decrease the salt in the water to a specific gravity of 1.009 to 1.010 for two to three weeks. Gradually increase the salinity levels back to normal after treatment to avoid harming fish.

    Cautions

    • If you have invertebrates in your tank, like shrimp, or scaleless fish, like plecostomus, changing the salt or heat in the tank could be lethal. Before beginning any treatment, make sure the species in your tank can handle higher temperatures or salinity changes safely. There are ich medications available that can be used to treat the special situations, but directions should be followed exactly. Improper dosing of medications like copper or malachite green could be harmful for fish or lead to resistant strains of ich.