STI

hello all.. i got 3 black ghost fishes for like 4 or 5 days. today i found one of them on the ground with blue spots on its head and back. removed it to another tank but looking on the other one it seems to start having the same spots on its fins. what is happening to them? thank you in advance.

chickadee

Are you sure the spots are blue? Could they be white? What size are they? How long have you had the tank and is it heated, filtered and cycled? How long have you been keeping fish?

What are the readings of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates in your water?

If they spots are white, then you need to start to slowly raise the temperature of your tank to 85 degrees F (a degree every other hour or so) and leave it there for a solid 14 days. Treating for ICH. If you do this put the other fish back into the tank so they are all treated as if one of them has it in the tank they will probably all end up with it. There is no medication needed if it is ICH just the raise in temperature.

If possible please respond with the answers to the questions.

Welcome to Fishlore.com.

Rose

STI

hi.. i dont have a water test kit yet. but i managed to take a sample to the pet shop and he told me that the ammonia level is very high and this is what i should care about before treating the white spots if it exist. gave me some stones in a bag and told me to place it under the filter media and change 50% of the water. thats what i did. 2 black ghost fish passed away and 1 siamese fighter as well. i will go tonight and get a water test kit to keep a close eye on it. sorry for the disturbing but i am totally new to hobby...

thank you for your reply.

best regards

chickadee

No you did not bother at all, that is what we are here for. It sounds like your tank is not cycled. Do you know about the Nitrogen Cycle? Here is an article that you need to read to tell you how to cycle your tank and what to expect.

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Please do not hesitate to ask questions, that is how all of us had to learn and that is why we are here (to help each other).

We will get through the cycle process together, and while we usually do it without fish in the tank (Fishless cycling) it can be done with fish in the tank, it is just slower.

You are very welcome here and we want you to feel free to question or comment or browse the site to your hearts content. There are many ages represented here and many levels of experience and many countries. We want to get to know you and help you and someday you will be in the position to pass the help along to others here as well. This is the way we all started. Welcome, I am so glad to meet you.

Rose

STI

thank you.. i will do a water change today as well but now i can see more spots on other fishes. is there is any thing i can do beside chnaging the water daily?

thank you and best regards

chickadee

I would raise the temperature of the tank to 85 degrees slowly and if it is a parasite the temperature needs to stay there for 14 days. When you do water changes just make sure that the water temperature that you put into the tank to replace what you took out is not cooler than that you removed. If it is one of the coolwater parasites, the raise in the tank temperature should make the parasite leave the fish's bodies and go into the water and after 2 weeks they will have gone through their life cycle with no fish as a host and will die. If you turn down the temperature before the 2 weeks are over however they will just settle back on the fish and you will have to start all over or they will kill your fish.

To raise the temperature, only raise it one degree every 2 hours or so. Any faster will shock the fish. You should not need to use medication with this method so it will not interfere with a cycle in progress. Just keep testing the water so you can change some of the water out whenever the ammonia is over .25 and the nitrites are over 1.0 and nitrates over 20 (any of those conditions or all of them)

Rose