Ich Be Gone

We are finally breaking ground with our ich treatment. Hope to move the tilapia back soon. We lost three fish, which was upsetting. BUT, we are so glad that we were able to treat the rest of our fish without using harmful chemicals! Through increased temperature, increased salinity, increased aeration, and frequent water changes, we were able to beat this parasite! Here is a detailed view into our treatment process:

* Isolate all infected fish from your aquaponics system. If one fish has it, there's a really good chance that every fish is infected. You should clean out your entire system to be sure that there is no Ich remaining. We dried out our system, a sure way to kill all remaining ich.

1. Increase temperature to around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and fluctuate regularly, but carefully. Too fast and the fish can go into shock, but you definitely want the Ich to be shocked by rapid temperature changes.

2. Increase aeration by putting in new air stones. With Ich, the fish are already stressed and lacking sufficient oxygen as the parasite attacks their gills.

3. Increase salinity by adding salt and using a refractometer to maintain a concentration of about 4-8ppt. This will place some stress on your fish, but even more stress on the Ich, which is exactly what you want! By increasing and decreasing the salinity in constant fluctuations, you can be sure to beat this infestation!

4. Do water changes as frequently as possible! Ich eggs are present in the water during different stages of the parasite's life (definitely do some research into the life cycle of Ich... But be warned. It's terrifying.) Water changes will help to eliminate some of your problem.

5. Be patient. We had our fish out of our system for over a month. Why? Precaution. If you put your fish back into your system too soon, the same exact problem might reoccur.

Emme took the lead on this experiment and brought our fish to safety! The AquaPals are super excited to start working again and get everything back to normal. We will be keeping the fishies in their hospital tank for two more weeks, to make sure that we've gotten rid of every trace of the infection. Thank you to everyone for the support and if anyone needs help with treating ich, we can provide guidance!!