Pike cichlid with ich

[Kaenon]

I've had two pikes for the last 3 weeks (1 belly crawler and 1 unidentified), and I just noticed the belly crawler has ich. The ich didn't appear until 2 days ago. Its behavior since I got it for the most part has been normal. It ate a feeder initially and then I got the pikes onto some pellet varieties. However, it seemed as though the belly crawler has had lamented breathing ever since I got him and that's never changed.

So far, I've isolated the belly crawler into a bucket with an airstone and I'm keeping my apartment around 77 degrees. For my tank, I've added aquarium salt and raised the temperature to 83 degrees.
No other fish had visible signs of ich, nor did they have odd behavior.

What else can I do?

 

[festaedan]

You should also add copper, about a drop per gallon. Ich is generally easy to cure, all you need to do is raise the temperateure, add copper, and if it is really bad (completely covered) also add salt. Do you have pictures of the belly crawler?

 

[Kaenon]

You should also add copper, about a drop per gallon. Ich is generally easy to cure, all you need to do is raise the temperateure, add copper, and if it is really bad (completely covered) also add salt. Do you have pictures of the belly crawler?

Not a picture with the ich.

I could try to grab one when I go home. Trouble is I'm leaving for the holiday weekend and idk if it will survive.

 

[festaedan]

It might not, but pikes are hardy fish, If I had an extra tank I could "fish-sit" him for you.

 

[jonclark96]

Search the forum for ich treatments. There was a thread earlier this year that had extensive discussion, but the general consensus was that heat, salt, and aeration can and will eliminate the problem.

 

[Avatar]

Get it hot - better living without chemcals

Ich dies at 89.5° F. All of it. Gently raising the water temperature to 90° and leaving it there for 48 hours is all that is required. No salt, copper, meds, etc. are necessary. Period.

If fish can't handle 90° F (not a problem for pike), lower high temps will eventually produce the same result by accelerating the ich life cycle and preventing infestation/reproduction per citations below. Malachite green is dirt cheap and extremely effective as well - contains copper that can be hard on bottom feeders and invertebrates, shouldn't be a problem for Crenichla species. Can be hard to find in LFS because it's so cheap and potent that one bottle is generally enough for a lifetime of fishkeeping and as such doesn't provide much in the way of repeat business/revenues for retailers and manufacturers, hence the preponderance of pricey 16. oz. ich treatments that are maybe enough to treat one outbreak in largish tank. Just raise the temperature and save your money.

Ich does not infect new fish at 29.4°C/85°F (Johnson, 1976), stops reproducing at 30°C/86°F (Dr. Nick St. Erne, DVM, pers. comm.), and dies at 32°C/89.5°F (Meyer, 1984).]

 

[Kaenon]

I got back from my trip back home and found that the pike was in good condition. I didn't have the time to fully examine the fish for ich this morning, but I plan to do so when I get home from work, along with looking over all other fish in the main tank.