# Baby Oscar has ich, CopperSafe? HELP!



## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

I purchased a few CA Cichlids from Petco to come to find after I added them all to my tank with a brand new baby oscar (healthy as can be) they all have ich. I returned them to Petco but now I have an Oscar covered in ich.

I use CopperSafe, which I have used before on my african Cichlids and it worked but took about 2-3 weeks to completely clear up.
My oscar only looks like he is getting worse.

Anyone ever use CopperSafe? Any ideas to help him get rid of this and faster? Sad

He's now on day 4 with the ich.


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

Babydelux3 said:


> I purchased a few CA Cichlids from Petco to come to find after I added them all to my tank with a brand new baby oscar (healthy as can be) they all have ich. I returned them to Petco but now I have an Oscar covered in ich.
> I use CopperSafe, which I have used before on my african Cichlids and it worked but took about 2-3 weeks to completely clear up.
> My oscar only looks like he is getting worse.
> Anyone ever use CopperSafe? Any ideas to help him get rid of this and faster? Sad
> He's now on day 4 with the ich.


Coppersafe works during the free swimming stage of the ich's lifecycle. The cysts will first have to fall off your oscar then the parasites will be killed. You can speed up the process by turning your tank heater up a few degrees (do so slowly, a degree an hour or so, to 84 F) I have used Coppersafe in past with success (always carefully follow directions) though I haven't had ich in my tank in many years. Stressed fish can be susceptable to ich, are your water parameters good?


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

JimW/Oscar said:


> Coppersafe works during the free swimming stage of the ich's lifecycle. The cysts will first have to fall off your oscar then the parasites will be killed. You can speed up the process by turning your tank heater up a few degrees (do so slowly, a degree an hour or so, to 84 F) I have used Coppersafe in past with success (always carefully follow directions) though I haven't had ich in my tank in many years. Stressed fish can beto ich, are your water parameters good?


Yeah, water is good. So just turn up the degrees a bit and wait? It's at 80 right now, due to the hot weather.

Do you remember how long for it to clear up your ich with CopperSafe?


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

Babydelux3 said:


> Yeah, water is good. So just turn up the degrees a bit and wait? It's at 80 right now, due to the hot weather.
> Do you remember how long for it to clear up your ich with CopperSafe?


If memory serves I don't think it took more than a week.


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

JimW/Oscar said:


> If memory serves I don't think it took more than a week.


Was talking to another person about this, and they told me to:

Step 1: Increase the temp to above 86 degrees. 

Step 2: Done at the same time as step 1.... dose with Aquarium salt at 3 tablespoons of salt per 5 gallons (THIS PART IS IMPORTANT, READ CAREFULLY >), adding 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons each 12 hours until the full dosage is achieved. This means you dose 1 tablespoon (per 5 gallons) now, wait 12 hours, dose with another tablespoon (per 5 gallons), wait 12 hours, and dose with the final tablespoon (per 5 gallons). 

Step 3: Water changes 

In addition to the coppersafe, do you think this is needed? Or should I just let the CopperSafe do it's thing?


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

Babydelux3 said:


> Was talking to another person about this, and they told me to:
> Step 1: Increase the temp to above 86 degrees.
> Step 2: Done at the same time as step 1.... dose with Aquarium salt at 3 tablespoons of salt per 5 gallons (THIS PART IS IMPORTANT, READ CAREFULLY >), adding 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons each 12 hours until the full dosage is achieved. This means you dose 1 tablespoon (per 5 gallons) now, wait 12 hours, dose with another tablespoon (per 5 gallons), wait 12 hours, and dose with the final tablespoon (per 5 gallons).
> Step 3: Water changes
> In addition to the coppersafe, do you think this is needed? Or should I just let the CopperSafe do it's thing?


There are fish keepers, including apparently some on this forum, that swear by the use of salt for treatment of freshwater fish; I am not one of them. IF this tank you want to treat is the one with the pleco in it know that plecos are sensitive to salt.


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

JimW/Oscar said:


> There are fish keepers, including apparently some on this forum, that swear by the use of salt for treatment of freshwater fish; I am not one of them. IF this tank you want to treat is the one with the pleco in it know that plecos are sensitive to salt.



Well, I personally would like to use just the CopperSafe it will work without all those extra steps.

There is nothing in the tank besides the Oscar.


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

Babydelux3 said:


> There is nothing in the tank besides the Oscar.


Oh sorry I think I was confusing you with someone else who had a pleco with an oscar.


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

When I woke up to feed him this morning, he was dead.


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

Babydelux3 said:


> When I woke up to feed him this morning, he was dead.


I'm sorry but I'd guess your water isn't "fine". If the cichlids showed up with ich cysts AFTER being introduced into your tank then your oscar the water must have stressful parameters.

While ich cysts can be carried into a tank by infected fish ich actually exists dormantly pretty much everywhere, stress makes fish vulnerable. I assume you didn't see any ich when you bought the CA cichlids and put them in your tank.


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

JimW/Oscar said:


> I'm sorry but I'd guess your water isn't "fine". If the cichlids showed up with ich cysts AFTER being introduced into your tank then your oscar the water must have stressful parameters.
> 
> While ich cysts can be carried into a tank by infected fish ich actually exists dormantly pretty much everywhere, stress makes fish vulnerable. I assume you didn't see any ich when you bought the CA cichlids and put them in your tank.



Nope, the ich infested fish that I put in my tank with my Oscar, came from a bad batch at petco, who didn't show signs of ich at first but then in a few days time ALL of the fish that came from that batch had ich. It wiped out their ENTIRE stock. My water IS "fine".  Which is why I got a refund because it was their bad. They had something very nasty. 

In this situation, it was nothing I could help obviously.


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