+1...they've seen crypto tomonts (or whatever the cyst stage is on fish) cling tight to dead fish in freshwater for a day after a fish died...pretty indestructable and untreatable at that stage (regarding temp etc)...JMO but think the Ich disease gets worse if big temp fluctuations due to the stress it would cause the fish...
ich :(
- Thread starter Jeremiah
- Start date
Even with FW ich...the thing about raising temps is that at 84-86 degrees you are speeding up the life cycle, but not killing the ich. You do make the cysts fall off the fish faster and push the parasite into the "free swimming" stage a bit faster, but you still need to kill the ich. By increasing the temps to 84-86, you may be giving the fish a chance to heal and hopefully fight off infection, but typically the fish is just reinfested with the parasite. The ich does have a harder time reattaching to the fish at about 84-86 degrees...and you may be successful in starving the parasite that way, but it is no guarantee. If you can get the tank's temp to 84-86 with FW ich AND treat with an effective medication, then you have a better chance of killing the parasite as you force it "off the fish" and can kill it in the free swimming stage with treatment...which is when medication and tank treatments are most effective.
They did a study with FW ich showing that the parasite didn't actually die until temps creeped towards 89 degrees...I've tried treating FW ich in the past by only raising temps to 86, and the fish were reinfested within a week. They do stipulate that there could be a temperature resistant strain...but really that's just a guess and most people do have mixed results just raising temps without adding some form of treatment (metronizadole, malachite/formaline, etc).
Anyway...kinda off tangent since you're treating SW crypt anyway...but just wanted to throw that out there for anybody curious about increasing temps for FW ich. To the OP, I would keep a close eye on the fish and get the microbubbles under control. If you end up seeing spots on the fish again, I would definitely pull them and try to get a formal diagnosis. IMHO tho I'd pull them now and put them in QT...if they are eating and aren't too stressed then a move now shouldn't be too hard on them. Comparatively, if you wait until they are possibly reinfected with a parasite...by the time that happens they might start showing signs of stress and you'll be hard pressed to save them. Just my .02...I've lost a few fish by going with the "watchful waiting" approach in the past and just pull suspected sick fish immediately now.
They did a study with FW ich showing that the parasite didn't actually die until temps creeped towards 89 degrees...I've tried treating FW ich in the past by only raising temps to 86, and the fish were reinfested within a week. They do stipulate that there could be a temperature resistant strain...but really that's just a guess and most people do have mixed results just raising temps without adding some form of treatment (metronizadole, malachite/formaline, etc).
Anyway...kinda off tangent since you're treating SW crypt anyway...but just wanted to throw that out there for anybody curious about increasing temps for FW ich. To the OP, I would keep a close eye on the fish and get the microbubbles under control. If you end up seeing spots on the fish again, I would definitely pull them and try to get a formal diagnosis. IMHO tho I'd pull them now and put them in QT...if they are eating and aren't too stressed then a move now shouldn't be too hard on them. Comparatively, if you wait until they are possibly reinfected with a parasite...by the time that happens they might start showing signs of stress and you'll be hard pressed to save them. Just my .02...I've lost a few fish by going with the "watchful waiting" approach in the past and just pull suspected sick fish immediately now.