Reply from Makers of Rid Ich RE: Hyposalinity + Rid Ich
I wrote to the company about using Rid Ich and hyposalinity and this is what they wrote back.............
Subject:
Question Rid Ich+ effect on pH and hyposalinity
Date:
4/10/2006 3:16:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Robert Rofen <
[email protected]>
Fawn. Rid-Ich+ does not affect pH. Hyposalinity does not affect Ich while they are in the white spot cyst stage. Hyposalinity cannot be depended upon to get rid of Ich.
Here are the basics of -- What You Need to Know About ich
Ich infections of fishes under the best circumstances are not easy to eradicate and you need to understand the nature of this disease..
Now the truth about Ich and its medications. We at Kordon/Novalek are a scientific company with only professional grade medications. We do our very best to provide the latest and most beneficial medications for aquarium and pond fishes, but miracles cannot be performed. Whether the medications are for man or fish, they have their limitations. One of the most important limitations is that in fishes many infections start out of sight in the mouth, gills, and nostrils, where they are difficult to diagnose until it is late in the infection period.
This is particularly true for protozoan parasites such as Ich, that often are not seen on the fish until it is very serious in the mouth and gills, and may be too late for treatment. The first thing to keep in mind is not to introduce new fishes with other fishes before keeping them under close observation in a quarantine tank for 4 weeks or more, During quarantine preferably use a preventative treatment such as Kordon's herbal Prevent Ich , or Kordon's herbal Ich Attack, neither of which requires water changes during use, and are safe to use with fishes and aquatic invertebrates (snails, shrimp, anemones, etc.). the only invertebrates for which there may be a problem because of their fragility are bubble and xenia corals in marine aquariums. If you use the very effective and potent chemical medication Kordon's Rid-Ich+, be sure you make partial water changes each day to get rid of the toxins building up in the water
Also, you need to know that new species of Ich have been discovered that have a much longer life cycle in the dormant stage of up to several weeks or more. When Ich is in the dormant "white spot" stage, there is no known treatment to eradicate them. Ich can only be eliminated when the mature adult hatches out of the white spot cysts and reproduces. If you skip any days in treatment when the adults are hatching out, there can be reinfection by Ich that starts the cycle over.again. All medications are for the free-swimming stage which is very short in duration -- at most usually18 hours. This means that when the Ich is in the white spot cyst stage, there is no known treatment. Since the individual Ich cysts are usually formed over a number of days, no one can know when they will hatch out, so daily treatments are essential.
Getting rid of Ich can easily be missed if the treatments are not every day to kill the free-swimming stage, which is so tiny that it cannot be seen by regular eyesight. To have more numerous spots reappearing on the fish means, in all cases that we know about, that there was a lapse in treatment. Treatments should continue for at least 3 days (and preferably 4 days) after the last of the white spots are gone from the fish, and this means gone from inside the mouth, gills, and nostrils of the fish as well, where Ich prefers to form the white spot cysts. When the tomonts hatch out from the white spots, they take only a few hours to start reproducing, each producing hundreds of ciliated theronts that reinfect the fish, once again forming the white spot cysts in which they hibernate until they are ready to hatch out again.
One way to deal with Ich is to raise the temperature of the water several degrees to about 80-83 degrees, thereby speeding up the life cycle and providing the opportunity for the medication to work faster in eliminating Ich. When you do this, in severe cases you may need to make two treatments per day -- one in the morning and the other in the afternoon or evening, because of the speeded up life cycle.
Be sure that there is plenty of aeration for oxygen in the water. for the fishes. You may need to increase aeration with air stones or water pump at this time. Otherwise, maintain the water temperature to its normal level of 72-75 degrees for the fish to have sufficient oxygen.
Also be aware that since the Ich infection often starts internally in the mouth, gills, and nostrils of the fish. Ich may be difficult to identify until the infection spreads outside on the body and fins of the fish, days after the original internal infection. By the time you see the white spots on the body of the fish, the infection is far advanced. In some cases it is too late to save the fishes with medication. Sometimes the infection remains internal in this way and the reason for fish deaths are not discovered by the aquarist or pond keeper.
Since there are different species of Ich (all hard to separtately identify) that have different lengths of time in their life cycles, there is not a set number of days for treatment. It can be up to 32 days before the white spots hatch out. Or for the shortest time in the cyst stage it can be three days to a week. Each white spot when it hatches can produce hundreds of infecting young which reattach to the fish.
You need to treat each day until every white spot is gone. Skipping a day can cause hundreds or thousands of new infections. Once again, keep in mind that Ich can be in the mouth, gills, and nostrils of the fish as well as on the outside of the fish, and cannot be seen externally when its entire infection is internal. Always treat for 3-4 days after the last white spot is gone to be sure none are missed.
For treatments with Kordon's Rid-Ich+ you need to make partial water changes each day before each subsequent dose to get rid of toxins building up in the water. For these needed water changes we recommend your using Kordon NovAqua+ to help the immune system of the fish resist infection, together with Kordon AmQuel+ to detoxify all forms of toxic nitrogen compounds (Ammonia/ammonium, Nitrites, Nitrates, Pheromones, etc.). Both water conditioners eliminate the chlorines and chloramines containing ammonia/ammonium that are added by municipal water suppliers. For further information go to our web site
www.novalek.com and type Ich in the search box. You will receive a list of pages with information that should be of help to you. /.R3
At 08:33 AM 4/10/2006, you wrote:
