General Care Discussion :: ich (ick) treatment in turtle tank

[mreyeball]

i have 2 turts, false map and cumberland slider.
i have 4 fish in the tank, 3 molly's and a male guppy, they are showing a sympton of ich (ick) rubbing themselves on the substrate.
there are no other signs like white spots etc
is my ich (ick) treatment safe to use in the tank
main ingredients are:
malachite green solution 4%
acriflavine 0.005%
quinine sulphate 0.004%

thanks

[Love of Animals]

I would treat the tank for ick and remove the turtles during treatment. Maybe you can get a bid rubber maid tub for the turtles in the mean time. You need to leave the filter on the fish tank during treatment. I don't have experience with the turtles and ick but I due with a seperate fish tank. It can be a couple of weeks to fully eradicate ick from your tank. Put an air stone in with your fish during treatment. The medicine depletes the water of oxygen.

[happycamper]

I would treat the tank for ick and remove the turtles during treatment. Maybe you can get a bid rubber maid tub for the turtles in the mean time. You need to leave the filter on the fish tank during treatment. I don't have experience with the turtles and ick but I due with a seperate fish tank. It can be a couple of weeks to fully eradicate ick from your tank. Put an air stone in with your fish during treatment. The medicine depletes the water of oxygen.

Can't the carbon in the filter remove the chemicals? I was under the impression that you took at least the carbon out of the filter, but it's been a while since my tank was "icky" lol

[mreyeball]

I would treat the tank for ick and remove the turtles during treatment. Maybe you can get a bid rubber maid tub for the turtles in the mean time. You need to leave the filter on the fish tank during treatment. I don't have experience with the turtles and ick but I due with a seperate fish tank. It can be a couple of weeks to fully eradicate ick from your tank. Put an air stone in with your fish during treatment. The medicine depletes the water of oxygen.

Can't the carbon in the filter remove the chemicals? I was under the impression that you took at least the carbon out of the filter, but it's been a while since my tank was "icky" lol

yes you need to remove the carbon or it stops the treatment working

[Love of Animals]

Yes forgot that part. You want the filter running to get rid of the ones free floating. I hate ick.

[VeipaCray]

Why not just dry-dock the turtle for a few days? Ich needs water and a host to survive. If the ich cannot find a host in a few days, it dies. Take the turtle out of the main tank and within a few days any free-floating ich would die. Because your turtle is dry-docked, the ich parasites on the turtle would also die. Ich cannot survive being dried out.

I didn't know turtles could get ich, but why not just dry dock... no need to deal with medicine then.

[mreyeball]

Why not just dry-dock the turtle for a few days? Ich needs water and a host to survive. If the ich cannot find a host in a few days, it dies. Take the turtle out of the main tank and within a few days any free-floating ich would die. Because your turtle is dry-docked, the ich parasites on the turtle would also die. Ich cannot survive being dried out.

I didn't know turtles could get ich, but why not just dry dock... no need to deal with medicine then.

turtles havn't got ick, the fish in the turtle tank have ick, 99% sure turtles don't get ick but may carry the disease on them???

[VeipaCray]

Ah that makes more sense. That's a good question.... where are the smart people on this forum? Steve / Marissa? Can a turtle host the ich parasite and not be affected by it?

I would do this:
1. Dry dock the turtle. Get him / her out of that water.
2. treat your fish in a separate tank... either a rubbermaid container or a el cheapo small aquarium. Keep the medicine out of your main tank
3. Drain your main tank. Let it sit dry for a day or two. (you've probably been wanting to clean it anyway and now have an excuse)
4. Clean your filter + rinse the media. Keeping the media wet will keep the bio filter alive, but any free floating ich would die in a few days with no host.
5. Fill your tank back up, get the filter running again (add some fresh carbon to the media to remove chloramine)
6.Re-introduce your turtle to the tank.
7. Once the tank has finished it's mini cycle and your fish are healthy... you can add the fish back.

[Love of Animals]

Ah that makes more sense. That's a good question.... where are the smart people on this forum? Steve / Marissa? Can a turtle host the ich parasite and not be affected by it?

I would do this:
1. Dry dock the turtle. Get him / her out of that water.
2. treat your fish in a separate tank... either a rubbermaid container or a el cheapo small aquarium. Keep the medicine out of your main tank
3. Drain your main tank. Let it sit dry for a day or two. (you've probably been wanting to clean it anyway and now have an excuse)
4. Clean your filter + rinse the media. Keeping the media wet will keep the bio filter alive, but any free floating ich would die in a few days with no host.
5. Fill your tank back up, get the filter running again (add some fresh carbon to the media to remove chloramine)
6.Re-introduce your turtle to the tank.
7. Once the tank has finished it's mini cycle and your fish are healthy... you can add the fish back.

That would be best if you have another tank. Unfortunately the fish need to be treated for ick anyway. That's why I suggested getting the turtle out of the tank and just treating the whole tank. You're going to have to recycle your tank either way. I don't think the ick medicine is good for your colonized bacteria.

[VeipaCray]

It's best to keep the medicine out of the main tank. It will get into your filter and your substrate. It'd probably be cheaper to get a rubbermaid tub and use that as a "quarantine" tank for the fish instead of treating the main tank and replacing the substrate and the media. Also, treating the fish for ich can take up to a month... I wouldn't want to have the turtle away from the main tank for that period of time. The sooner he can empty the main tank and refill it, the sooner he can get the turtle back in there and just deal with the fish on the side.

[Love of Animals]

It would be best to empty the tank and let it fully dry. In my past reading of ick, the tank would need to be totally dried out. Can't just drain and refill. They go through some kind of free floating stage which they are hard to kill at this point. I don't think turtles can carry ick, but I'd make sure the turtles where dry before putting them back in as well. When I first set up Rocky's old 20 gallon for platies I brought home sick platies with ick. They all died. I let the tank totally dry out and started again. Success. Now I have a tank full of platies (they breed like crazy, gonna have to put some in the turtle tank). Have you ever used medicine with ick VeipaCray? I think my platies died from the medicine. I was thinking oxygen levels when the medicine was added.

[VeipaCray]

I've used medicine for stupid freshwater cichlids in a Qt tank. For my real fish that I actually care about, I just treat ich with hyposalinity and kill the free floating with a UV sterilizer.

If the ich parasite does not have a host (fish) and is freefloating... it cannot survive in water more than a few days. If there are no fish in the water because they are all in a QT tank being treated then the free floaters will die off in a few days.

Yeah when I said empty and refill, I assumed that he would let it dry out as I mentioned in #3 from my 11:11AM post that you quoted.

[Love of Animals]

I hope to afford a uv sterilizer one day. With the platies I tried hyposalinity and increased water temps first before the medicine. Wasn't working so, I did a water change waited a day did another then tried the medicine. That didn't work either. I was asking in case I have to treat for it ever again. I hope not, it's nasty stuff.

[VeipaCray]

Hypo salinity works best with treating marine fish.

[Love of Animals]

Well then I guess that explains it. I didn't put enough salt in to make it a salt water tank or even brackish. Enough to make it almost brackish I guess. I'll just hope I never have to deal with it again.