Ick alert! We have Ich!

It's a sad day for the AquaPals... On 11/12, we realized that our fish have ich, commonly known as the white spot disease, because we had suffered one fatality to our 30 tilapia. Ich is an infection that has a 100% chance of mortality and is very hard to treat in an aquaponics system. Ich is an ectoparasite, meaning that it lives on the outside of its host and relies on its host for survival, and it kills its host by infecting its gills. Its gills become swollen and makes the fish unable to circulate oxygen throughout its body. So, our plan of action is to increase the salinity of the tank to 3ppt. Tilapia are freshwater fish and increasing the salt concentration in our quarantined tank will allow us to get rid of the ich by making their host inhospitable. We also increased the temperature in the tank to 81 degrees Fahrenheit, again, to make the tilapia unappealing to the parasite. This is so difficult to manage, since we want to hurt the Ich, but not our fish. This has been heartbreaking and we have already lost two fish to this infestation. We hope that in isolating and treating these fish that they will survive and be safe for consumption in the future. Ich cannot hurt humans, but the typical pet store cures for Ich do not allow for us to eat the fish. Wish us luck through this road block. We've come so far with our aquaponics research and this will not be the end! We'll keep you all updated.