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Can You Use Paraguard For Ich?

With a huge number of people recently getting into the fish keeping hobby and ich being a common problem for so many fish keepers of all levels of experience, it is easy to see why so many people are reaching out and asking for advice on how to treat ich in their fish.

We constantly see people reaching out and asking for various treatment recommendations or methods to deal with ich in their fish and over the last three to four months, there has been a number of people asking about using Paraguard for ich.

Although Paraguard is an excellent treatment option for a range of different parasitic infections that are common in fish, it is actually controversial for use in treating ich.

This is partly due to it working out to be an expensive treatment when compared to something like Super Ich Treatment that we consider to be a better product anyway but there are reports from fish keepers who have tried Paraguard to treat ich in their fish and the treatment has done little to nothing.

Paraguard is marketed as a treatment for ich and there are also plenty of reports out there from fish keepers saying that it worked fine for them when using Paraguard to rid their fish of ich.

The issue is that many fish keepers purchase products and then leave them in storage until they have expired and they are essentially useless but still expect the treatment to work fine.

Can You Use Paraguard For Ich?

You are able to use Paraguard to treat most types of ich and the treatment is able to offer you some solid results.

Most of the reports that we see about Paraguard not being able to treat ich seem to be due to the fish keeping having let the ich develop to a stage in their fish where any treatment would struggle or from people who have left their Paraguard in storage until after it has expired.

This is very common within fish keeping as most people purchase products as required to treat common problems in their fish and then leave them in their fish keeping accessories.

With any luck, it will be years before your fish end up having these problems again so it is common for products such as Paraguard to reach the date clearly marked on the product and expire.

If you are planning to use any type of ich treatment on your fish, always check that it is still within its expiry data as time is a valuable commodity when it comes to treating ich in fish and you don’t have time to waste with common mistakes like this.

Another issue that we see is that people on social media will recommend treatment for ich that were never designed for use as an ich treatment.

This is so common that we actually published an article on using Pimafix for ich to try and increase awareness for this.

By the time the fish keeper realizes that products such as Pimafix were never designed to treat ich, the ich may be at a stage where Paraguard or Super Ich Treatment are no longer able to treat it.

Should You Use Paraguard For Ich?

Plenty of people within the fish keeping community has successfully used Paraguard for ich with the treatment being able to quickly help their fish get back to full health.

The main problem with the treatment is that you have to re-apply the treatment daily and with its already high price tag, this can pump your costs up.

There are plenty of other treatments for ich that work just as well if not better than Paraguard that are cheaper and don’t have to be applied each day with Super Ich Treatment being our primary recommendation.

The problem with Paraguard is that its price tag has to be expensive due to it being designed to treat a range of common parasite issues in fish rather than just ich. If you are only needing something to treat ich in your fish, one of the alternative treatments will probably be better.

If for whatever reason your fish common get parasites then Paraguard is worth every cent.

A number of our readers have large outdoor ponds that have common issues with parasites due to birds bathing in the pond water and Paraguard is without a doubt the best treatment for setups like this.

What Are The Best Alternatives To Paraguard For Ich?

Paraguard can be a great treatment for ich in fish that will work well in a wide range of situations.

The problem for most people is its high price tag due to being designed to treat a number of parasitic infections in fish rather than just ich.

This makes it expensive when there are much cheaper ich treatments on the market.

This is why we usually just recommend that our readers go with something like Super Ich Treatment as it works out to be cheaper than Paraguard because as the name suggests, Super Ich Treatment only treats ich.

This helps to keep the cost down while also helping to get your fish back to full health quicker due to being a specialist treatment designed to treat ich as quickly as possible.

We also have an article going over the best ich treatments for planted tanks too.

This may be helpful for any of our readers who are working with planted tanks that have sensitive corals or anemones in them as the traditional chemical-based treatments are often unsuitable for use in them as they can be way too harsh for the sensitive plants and end up causing them some serious issues.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over using Paraguard for ich to an end. Although Paraguard can be used to treat ich in your fish, there are usually better options out there depending on your specific situation. If you are working with a large outdoor pond where birds use the water for bathing then Paraguard may be the best option though due to it being an effective treatment for a wide range of parasites that can cause problems with your fish.