Recurring White Spot (ICH)

Okay so this I kind of a long and maybe confusing story. So buckle up!

I have a 20 gallon tank. 6 mollies, 3 neon Tetras and 4 Cory Catfish.

They are all happy and healthy little fish. EXCEPT THIS ONE MOLLY! I have a black molly that developed white spots. I treated with Herbtana that treats white spot (ich).

The treatment lasts 10 days. Cool. No big deal. He had 4 days left on the treatment and I was leaving to go out of state. The tank was in bad shape so I made the decision to clean it before I left. I would have felt horrible leaving them like that. And I keep it clean, the only reason it was nasty was because I didn't want to clean it during treatment. Well even though he had 4 days left he had cleared up, it's easy to tell because black haha. I left and my mom continued his treatment. When I came back. The spots were back. I didn't understand.

I went to petco to ask questions(which I hate doing) she said stress causes ICH and I probably stressed him out because I did like a 50% water change and took most of the decorations out and put them back.

Well I started treatment again. Tomorrow is the last dose but he still has spots! The tanks water has evaporated and the glass is getting green and I want to clean it so bad. So I guess like would it be okay? He's practically done with treatment.

And if he still has spots after treatment what do I do? And please tell me how to get rid of this ICH plague.

And also out of all the fish, he is the only one with it.

 

Quarantine your Molly, and continue the treatment for another week. If that doesn't work, maybe your Molly doesn't have ich but has something that looks similar.

 

Ok..here we go.
DO NOT QUARATINE. May as well treat the whole tank instead of taking him out and infecting a quarantine tank. Your other fish have been exposed to it. Stop using the medicine and use the heat treatment.
Do a 70% water change, and make sure that you vacuum the substrate just in case there are any cysts leftover from the previous outbreak. Next is you will very slowly race the temperature up to 86° and keep it there for a FULL TWO WEEKS. During this time, you will vacuum the substrate everyday, or every other day to pick up any cysts that fall off. Even if you see jo more Ich before the two WEEKS DO NOT STOP, keep it for the two weeks, maybe give it an extra day or two. Once the Ich is gone, do anthother water change and vacuum the substrate.

One other thing..do not use salt. It is not needed.

 

In agreement with BliuMan. Don't quarantine your molly. The tank is already infected so treatment should be for the whole tank. Heat treatment is one of the least stressful ways to get rid of ich in my experience. I've tried meds and it just made things worse; I often ended up losing the fish within 48 hours of starting medication. I have never lost a fish using the heat treatment.

Two weeks at 86 degrees F with daily gravel vac and you should be good to go. Meds oftentimes cause more stress and problems.

 

Welcome to the forum

Can you post a photo of the molly? Ich will look like salt is sprinkled all over the body. If you're sure it's ich, I recommend the above mentioned heat method as well.

What are your water parameters - pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? 6 mollies in a 20 gallon tank is an awful lot and the stress could be due to overcrowding/aggression and/or poor water quality, and NOT because of large water changes.

 

I would recommend either the heat treatment [there's a sticky on it in this forum] or try another brand of ich treatment. Is it possible your mom never completed the treatment after you left?

 

BluMan1914's throwing you some sound advice there, and the lady at the pet store was just blowing smoke up your... Well... And the treatment didn't have any effect this time because of the failed time before, same treatment I bet, so your ICH outbreak has a strong tolerance now against that particular treatment.


Regardless of all that, I'm just curious as to how and why your water seems to be turning bad so quickly? Under normal circumstances in a healthy environment ICH outbreak happens, fish are infected, treatment results, treatment and reduced stress stop ICH life cycle, immune systems results in no more ICH. However a continuing outbreak suggests conditions of water aren't the best.