Korean Job Discussion Forums

[oatmeal]

I have neon tetra fish and they have come under attack by
ICH disease. I won't bother to go and explain it or the non-medication
treatments (which I have done for a week and not much improvements).

So now I am looking to try the medicated route. Does anyone know where
I can get ICH treatment medicine for neon tetras? I'm pretty sure they would be available at some specialty pet stores but korea doesn't seem to
have many and they don't have any of this stuff in emarts, lotte mart, or my
local animal shelter.

Thanks

[Hokie21]

I think the normal treatment for sick/dying Neon Tetras is to flush them down the toilet and purchase new Neon Tetras.

[oatmeal]

[Hokie21]

http://www.namgoog.co.kr/

That shop is in Seoul.

[Janny]

Hi, I had fish for many, many years. Both freshwater and marine aquariums. In my experience, Ich is notoriously hard to both treat and prevent from returning after some initial treatment success.

Can you call or visit a large aquarium shop in Seoul? Besides looking for shipments online from aquarium supply sites, that's what I would do. Ich is a common fish disease. However, I predict it will be harder to find the medication there in Korea, because of lack of the compassion you were speaking of. I'm sure diseased fish get flushed much faster there.

Anyway, I'm sorry to say that my advice is to give it up and kill them more quickly than ich would. (How? I don't know...a knife? I've often wondered since I have 3 goldfish who are hanging on but have the beginnings of a parasitic invasion. I believe in a quick, humane death over slow, diseased death.) Every time I've treated ich, it's eventually come back and killed them, even after medication. Sorry.

[Mix1]

ICH can be beaten but it's not easy, and yes it sometimes comes back. Get the medicine for them and give it some time.

[oatmeal]

Right now I've been using the heated water method. I've raised the temp up to 30 degrees and have heard that a combination of 30+ temp and frequent water changes (to help pick up and remove the spores) has worked with relatively good success rate.

The fish that are still alive now look to be the strongest ones of the batch I had so they are doing fine still. The white spots are less and I'll keep this up until it goes away. Tetras can develop an immunity after contracting ich disease once, so i'm hoping the ones that make it (if they do) will have developed an immunity.

It's really not expensive or hassle for me to at least try and help them get better. If it was something that would cost me hundreds of dollars, sure, it'd just put them down too. But so long as I can give them a chance, I'll keep trying.

I have other lifeforms in the aquarium and they are not affected and all doing well.

[Mix1]

[Janny]

yeah, Ive wondered how to kill fish humanely. It's not an easy answer. I also imagine that the knife would be difficult, especially with tetras Anyway, good to hear that they develop immunity, I didn't know that...Good luck OP

[Norn Iron]

I've never had to deal with an ICH outbreak but if I did I would go for a good brand name medication. Should be in any specialist aquarium shop.

I've read that dropping the fish in icy water is a humane method of euthanasia.

[oatmeal]

thanks all for suggestions. I'll try my best and hopefully they can pull through this.

[iamntbatman]

Salt + high temps should get the job done. The ich protozoans are much more sensitive to small amounts of salt than your fish are. 1 tablespoon per five gallons should help.

If it looks like it's way too late to do anything for the fish, the best way to humanely euthanize small fish like neons is to fill a small container with water from the aquarium, catch the fish and put them in there, then stick it in your freezer. As the water slowly cools it will basically slow down metabolism until they essentially go into a coma before kicking the bucket.

[Mix1]

[Hokie21]

[Lucas]