# Please help, my Koi fish has both reddening of the fins and ich! :(?



## mariabell (Oct 25, 2009)

I feel so bad for him I've had him quite awhile. The lady at petsmart told me use both melafix and pimafix, I have read countless people say it will not work. Anyways I heard copper safe and quick cure are great for treating ich? right? but what medicine is safe to mix with the Ich medicine to treat the reddening of the fin?? Also I have melafix and pimafix already in their water since I thought this would work so is it okay to start treatment tomorrow with something else?


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## ~DnA~ (Oct 19, 2009)

Im also dealing with a fish thats recovering from a few things. Mine had Ich, some fin rot, and an anchor worm.. Sad thing is hes stiff suffering from red gils. However I DID cure the Ich. I dont know why others say Quick cure doesnt work... because my goldfish had it for almost a week before I used something that started working, and quick cure did wonders. It came down to me putting him in a sick tank with fresh water (this can be risky if you dont pay attention to the water temperature and the water change is too stressful so be careful) I raised the water to between 75 and 80 degrees. Then added some aquarium salt and stress coat for the water. It took a day and a half and I woke up one morning and saw my fish went from slouching on the bottom of the tank to swimming like normal. All his spots were gone as well. Now I dont know much about the other stuff. I also bought pimafix... but havent used it. ive been told you CAN mix it with quick cure though. If you do what I said here about the Ich, and maintain give the right dosage of meds everyday. It should recover.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Quick-cure would be safer to use if the fish are infected, since the badguy bacteria tend to actually LIKE copper and it makes them get worse.
However, Quick-cure is no cure. It is a band-aid at best. It takes a lot longer than three days to get rid of ick completely, and all quick-cure can do is get rid of the worst of it causing the most immediate trouble. Still, it's handy for emergencies and in situations like this one where infection forbids the use of copper.


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## ~DnA~ (Oct 19, 2009)

TheOldSalt said:


> Quick-cure would be safer to use if the fish are infected, since the badguy bacteria tend to actually LIKE copper and it makes them get worse.
> However, Quick-cure is no cure. It is a band-aid at best. It takes a lot longer than three days to get rid of ick completely, and all quick-cure can do is get rid of the worst of it causing the most immediate trouble. Still, it's handy for emergencies and in situations like this one where infection forbids the use of copper.



He is right. After you see improvement from you fish. You should still keep treating for at least a week. Be sure the carbon is out of your filter.


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## mariabell (Oct 25, 2009)

Thanks alot you guys. Great info. I know, it is really sad when they get sick and tricky to figure out the right combination of things. I ended up getting Tetra lifeguard all in one treatment because I could not find any solid evidence of two seperate ones to fix it. I'm still a little sceptical because I haven't heard anyone recommend it yet but we will see I guess. I never heard of switching them to fresh water to treat them, but now I can see how that would probably be helpful although they're pretty stressed out right now so I think I'll have to keep them in there. They have been hiding under the cave decoration now for the past two days. I'm gonna let the carbon run a little to get rid of some of the other medicines and then "maybe" do a little water change with the gravel suction to just kind of release anything thats down in the bottom (heard this is good to do in case the Ich is embedded down in there?, lol I'm still learning) and then start their treatment, kind of expensive though but as long as my fish gets better. Hope yours does well too!  Good luck I hope he gets better . . I'll let you know how it works. ..oh yeah the medicated food too, they said that should help too, never used it before.


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## ~DnA~ (Oct 19, 2009)

Tetra lifeguard was the first thing I tried... it didnt work too well for me.. but it may do so for you... As far as the Ick is concerned check out this website. This is exactly what led me to healing mine of Ick. I think if you understand the cycle of Ick itll help out a little more.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=16+2160&aid=2421

And thanks for the best wishes


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