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4 Snail Safe Ich Treatments To Treat Ich Quickly!

Ich really is the bane of the fish keeping hobby and it has caused serious problems for countless people within the hobby.

Not only does ich pose a direct threat to your fish but the more common ich treatments can also put shrimp and snails at risk in your aquarium.

We have already published an article going over the best shrimp safe ich treatments so for today’s article, we are going to be going over the best snail safe ich treatments to try and help as many of our readers as possible.

Now, before we go any further, we know that there are a large number of people who say that dosing a tank with garlic can treat ich while also but safe for snails but this is not correct as we covered in our article on treating ich with garlic.

The Water Temperature Method!

One of the most snail safe methods to treat ich is by raising the water temperature in your aquarium.

This will cause the ich life cycle to speed up and eventually, the ich parasites will die off before they are able to infect any more fish.

For this method to be effective, you will need to raise the water temperature to around 86-88 degrees Fahrenheit and maintain it at that temperature for 2-3 weeks.

We do not recommend going any higher than 88 degrees as this can cause serious issues for your fish, shrimp, and snails.

If you have sensitive species such as bettas, gouramis, or angels then we recommend only raising the water temperature to 84-86 degrees.

The drawback of this method is that it can be stressful for your fish, shrimp, and snails so we only recommend using this as a last resort.

If you do want to use this method to treat the ich in your aquarium with snails in it then you have to factor in the maximum water temperature tolerances for everything in your tank, including the plants to make sure that everything can safely take the higher temperatures.

Kordon’s Ick Attach!

If you are looking for a more traditional ich treatment that is also safe for snails then Kordon’s Ick-Attach is a great option.

This product uses formalin to treat the ich in your aquarium and it has been proven to be very effective at treating the parasite.

The big advantage of using Kordon’s Ick-Attach over other copper based treatments is that it is much less toxic to your fish, shrimp, and snails.

This makes it a great option for treating ich in aquariums with sensitive species or in nano tanks where the levels of toxicity need to be kept as low as possible or in tanks with snails.

To use Kordon’s Ick-Attach, you simply add the recommended dosage to your aquarium and then let it do its job.

The treatment will last for around 10 days and during that time, you should not make any water changes as this will dilute the treatment and make it less effective.

After 10 days, you can do a 25% water change to remove any residual chemicals from your aquarium.

Use A Quarantine Tank!

If your main display tank has snails in and you are not able to use either of the two methods above then you can try a quarantine tank.

This is not available for everyone though as you require a second tank that is ready to house the ich infested fish for their treatments.

If you do have an old tank that you are able to use as a quarantine tank then this really opens up the ich treatment options that you are able to use to deal with the ich in your fish.

This means that you are able to go with something like super ich cure or one of the other ich treatments that are not snail safe as you are treating your fish in a spare tank without your snails in it.

Simply follow the treatment instructions on the label of your ich treatment until the ich has been treat and then return your fish to your main display tank with your snails still in it.

You may want to apply a general ich treatment to your main tank while the fish are being treat in the quarantine tank though as ich may be able to live on the substrate or plants.

Copper Based Treatments!

If you are able to treat your fish in a separate tank from your snails then you have a lot more options when it comes to ich treatments.

One of the most effective ich treatments is a copper based treatment but these are very toxic to snails so you need to remove them before you start the treatment.

If you want to treat your fish with a copper based treatment then we recommend using something like Cupramine as it is very effective at treating ich but is also easy to dose correctly.

To use a copper based treatment, you simply add the recommended dosage of copper to your aquarium and then let it do its job.

Just remember that copper based treatments are not suitable for use when your fish are in the same tank as your snails, they have to be separated or the copper based treatments will cause problems with your snails!