"Robert Cadieux" wrote in message
...

"Philip & Kylene Blanchard" wrote in message
news:HLAhd.353204$D%.143249@attbi_s51...
I have a dogface puffer who has ick, I have been doing fw dips for about
3min. What else can I do for it, or treat it with?

Thanks in advance!!
Phil


Ick is often caused by stress. Make sure your parameters are good and
your
temperature stable. If you find anything wrong, correct it first. Then
slowly increase the temperature for a few days. Maybe 3-4 degrees more.
Don't just crank up the heater in one shot. Increase it by 1 degree one
day
, if you can, then another 1 degree, etc, until the temp is higher than
normal by 3-4 degrees. Keep it there for a few days then slowly decrease.
The ick parasite does not do as well at higher temps and you can often
break
the cycle that way.

Another option is a cleaner shrimp. They apparently can be very good at
removing ick. But if you don't fix what caused the ick to start with
(stress) it will return.

Robert

2 errors:

since ich is a parasite, it can't be caused by stress. stress can lower the
fishes natural resistance, but can't be a direct cause.

ich does extremely well in higher temps. that's why it's recommended. it
makes it breed more and faster than normal, which shortens and breaks the
life cycle of the parasite. normal life cycle is somewhere around 8 weeks.