My pleco has ich, how do i treat it?

Question

I'm very new at having fish. The only fish I ever wanted was a pleco. So the people at my local pet store told me what i needed to have to take care of one. I thought that would be it. So i set up tank the next day bought one and then the next day after that i got 3 little mollies.

I made sure i was being smart, i read up on how to take care of my pleco and fish... i read everything i could find on the web. Until one of my mollies died a week later. I was looking at my pleco and noticed white spots on his fins and that he wasn't eatting much. I looked it up and realized it was Ich. I learned that all what i did was wrong. But nobody told me at the pet store.

I've been tring to find anything that can help me. Right now i'm treating the water with Ridich every 24 hours. I'm not doing water changes because i was told not to. I increased the temp to 85 F. And thats it. My pleco isn't looking so good. I only have one molly and a pleco. What should i do?!?! I'm soo stressed.

Oh, i did a test for the PH and Ammonia levels. Amminia is fine but the PH is high. around 9?

Answer 1

9 is pretty high for pH . But that happens when treating. Treat your fish with aquarium salt use 1/2 pound per 20 gallons. It's the cheapest and most effective way of treat fish fungal and bacterial diseases. Plus its safe

Answer 2

Malachite green is used to treat ich in freshwater aquariums.  If you have something in the tank now, I would get both fish into fresh water sick tank, to try and get whatever you put in out of their systems. Treat them with malachite in the sick tank.  You will have to go to a pet store to get it.  Follow the directions on the package.  Read the package thouroughly before you treat them.   To make a sick tank, get a 10 gallon aquarium and fill with purified bottled water.  No decorations or rocks.

Invest in Aquariums for dummies.  I have found it much more useful then any dork in the pet stores.  Unless you find yourself a store that specializes in fish--which I don't think you did, or they would be selling you malachite green right now.  Hope it helps.

Answer 3

Good grief.  Rid Ich IS malachite green (and formalin), so you're treating VERY well.  However, Plecos are very sensitive to medications, so a half dose should be used.  The high pH is not a problem, as this allows the malachite green to pose less threat to the fish (it becomes more toxic at a low pH).  I would drop the temperature to 80*ish, as the raised temperature and medication will force oxygen out of the water, leading to breathing difficulties for the fish.

All you can do at this point is water changes and cut the full dosage in half.  Salt (especially half a pound) is far less exact than medications, so I would recommend it, especially with scaleless fish like Plecos, as it will make life difficult for them in the standard dosage.  While treating with malachite green based medications, keep the tank dark (malachite green degrades with exposure to light) and remove any activated carbon from the filter.

Answer 4

That's a rather.. high pH level. It might be due to the infrequent water changes, but as the person above me posted, get a seperate "sick tank" for the sick fish, and treat the fish with malachite green inside the sick tank. Also, perform a large scale water change.

Answer 5

i agree with adam easyest way to treat ich isby raising the salinity of the water by a little not too much and try to gradualty ioncrease it to not stress the fish since the mollie is a brackish water fish it can endure salt water with ease  once the ich is cures gradualy drop the salinity and change the tank water  good luck