White spot / ich

just noticed my head & tail light tetras have ich. can't see it on any of my other fish. I don't have a quarantine tank. the temp is already at 80F as I was told that would speed up cycling and i've kept it at 80 to prevent the fish getting ich when they joined the tank : . what do I do? will test water after I bathed the kids and got them in bed, but on saturday they were perfect (zero ammonia, nitrite and 10 for nitrate). I have some "king british white spot control" med I have left over from when my guppies had it a while ago. however, bit more complicated now I think, as I have shrimps and a pleco I love to bits. it doesn't say anything about these on the instructions. it just says "use half the dose for sharks loaches and other sensitive or light scaled fish". can you please have a look in my signiture at the 28 gal which has the head & tail light tetras in and advise whether I use full dose, half dose or not at all. if I can catch the shrimp I can put them in the another 28 gal tank....its just catching them may not be as easy as it sounds!!! and are my other fish all tough enough to handle it? the ingredients for those who may not be familiar with this particular brand are malachite green, acriflavine and quinine sulphate.

is it rose or butterfly that use 80F and water changes rather than meds? if so, what's the routine I need to erradicate ich? can it be stickied somewhere as its very useful treatment for ich if only I could remember it!!!

any advice is welcome as always!!

many thanks

Tan

 

ok, tested water, and its the same as saturday: zero ammonia and nitrite and 10 for nitrate, so the water quality is ok. what do I do now? medicate? change water..if so how much and how often?

Tan :'(

 

well...its getting late and i'm off to bed! didnt want to leave the fish with ich though and concerned it'll spread to the other fish when it leaves the host, so I took the plunge and used the med. it said 3 capfuls, so I used 2, so not a complete blast. hope shrimps etc are alive in morn :-\. the med didnt say it would harm them.......but didnt say it wouldnt either :-\

really really hope meds don't affect plecs.

fingers crossed

tan ???

 

HI tan.b

my head and tail light tetras have just got over having whitespot and I used king brittish whitespot remover I used the full dose as it said and I have a red tail black shark and pleco in the tank aswell got rid of whitespot and shark and pleco are well. goodluck hope it works with yours as good as it worked with mine. sue

 

Tan nudge the temps up to about 82 or 83 and leave it for 14 days. do frequent water changes (about every other day) because warmer water has less oxygen.
Carol

 

HI tan.b

my head and tail light tetras have just got over having whitespot and I used king brittish whitespot remover I used the full dose as it said and I have a red tail black shark and pleco in the tank aswell got rid of whitespot and shark and pleco are well. goodluck hope it works with yours as good as it worked with mine. sue

that's just what I wanted to hear!!! thank goodness for that!!! having fish is like having kids....you have to make health decisions and never know if you made the right one!!!! - we have something called nhs direct in the UK and its a phone line for health queries when you just don't know what to do or who to call set up by the government....fishlore is like a fish version!!!

well, I managed to catch the shrimps this morn (still alive and as flighty as ever!) and moved them into the other 28 gal with the scissor tails (was gonna get some shrimps for there anyway! so that's one sensitive creature I worried about out of there and have been frantically looking for mrs (def think he is now a she - not a bristle in sight and shes 4cm long now!!) bristlenose this morn as couldnt find her last night. anyway, I found her busy cleaning the gravel under the filter, so she's at work as usual! and was just deciding whether to move her into the other 28 gal too, but thought i'd log on here first!! the time diff is so annoying sometimes!!! I thought i'd get a reply while I was asleep!!! well if your pleco survived the exact same treatment, mine should be fine. don't want to stress her out by moving her backwards and forwards as that tank is her home with the log etc. the shrimps i'm not attached to and they can stay in the other tank anyway.
thanks so much for your help!
Tan ;D (happy again now!!)

 

Tan nudge the temps up to about 82 or 83 and leave it for 14 days. do frequent water changes (about every other day) because warmer water has less oxygen.
Carol

am I glad to see you butterfly!!! you're always there in my hour of need with the answers I need!!!
will increase temp. wasn't sure how high I could go and didnt want to frazzle them!!! it'll be very tropical in there!!
how much water do I need to change? 10% 20% 50%??
I will write this down in my fish info folder so I don't keep asking you the same questions!!!!
and do I keep the bubbles (airstone and filter bubbles) going or not? the bubbles are good for the fish, but are they also encouraging the ich?

thank you lots!!!!!!!!!!!1

much appreciated
Tan

 

I would do at least 20% and yes the bubbler is good for them. The heat will make the ICH go through its life cycle faster and die. It can't live at that temp. The fish will be fine with the raised temp, water changes and the bubbler is a good extra. sorry I wasn't here when you needed me I had to work today and now I'm unwinding with FishLore I love it!
Carol

 

I would do at least 20% and yes the bubbler is good for them. The heat will make the ICH go through its life cycle faster and die. It can't live at that temp. The fish will be fine with the raised temp, water changes and the bubbler is a good extra. sorry I wasn't here when you needed me I had to work today and now I'm unwinding with FishLore I love it!
Carol

you were there when I needed you!! I don't expect an instant reply!! the time dif usually means I get replies the next day!! and you had the very answers I needed!! much appreciated!! ;D will get on with the water changes. i'd left the bubbles on, so that's good. they're not bothered by the high temp. as active as usual! none of my other fish have caught it either....horay! wonder why just the H&tail light tetras got it? they've been in there a while now :-\.
thanks very much for your help! you've saved an entire tank ful of fish!!
tan

 

Who know why one certain fish gets ICH and the others don't I've often wondered that but your good friends heat and water changes will take care of it just about every time
Carol

 

fish are full of mysteries!

 

OK Tan, your problem with Ich sounds terribly similar to mine (posted here a few days ago also).

Any idea how your fishes got the Ich ?

My guess for the Ich on my clown loaches was the fact that they were new 48 hrs new, and I turned the heater off one night ... and then .. next morning .. Ich infestation on the loaches !!

 

ICH is in the tank all the time. Anything that stress the fish can lower their immune system and voila' now they have ICH. sometimes we don't even know the sressful events have happened.
Clown loaches are notorious for getting ICH. That is the number one thing they get and they get it very eaily.
Carol

 

ICH is in the tank all the time. Anything that stress the fish can lower their immune system and voila' now they have ICH. sometimes we don't even know the sressful events have happened.
Clown loaches are notorious for getting ICH. That is the number one thing they get and they get it very eaily.
Carol

Wouldn't the meds if run for the full duration kill off all the Ich in the tank that are in the free swimming stage ?

 

It will kill most of them, the meds are only effective at a certain stage of growth.
Ich is just one of many things that live in an aquarium. When in proportion they don't hurt anything. Like cold germs for you, as long as your are healthy(rested, eating well etc) you don't catch the cold even though the germs are always there. BUT if you get over-tired, not eating right , etc. now your system is wide open for the germs to invade your body and make you sick. Am I being confusing?
Carol

 

Actually, you made yourself quite clear, thanks Doc !

 

Glad I could help Les
Tan how are the fish today?
Carol

 

hI everyone!! good news....the ich has gone completely..horay!! will keep temp up for a while longer though just to be sure.
bad news....two of the H&T light tetras has fin rot! so put some melafix in today. I have no labyrinth fish so should be ok. noticed the analfin has gone completely and is black at the base one one of them, and on another the top fin is some what deteriated and split in 2. got the fish off my sister a while ago. will ask her how old they are....maybe they're just old and that's why they're falling apart suddenly? all the other fish are fine (thank goodness)!
Tan

 

Seems like when they get one thing they get it all huh? Sorry to hear their down with something else. Can you do water changes with Melafix? If not keep a close watch on the water readings(ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates). It's kind of like the cold Les and I were discussing They've been weakened a little so all the little germs and bacteria are going to come around to see what trouble they can cause keep us posted please.
Carol

 

I feel like taking the day off tomorrow so I can stay home with my babies ! hahaha

 

It's ok Les I frequently feel that way They don't wear me out like my job does
Carol

 

will keep you posted! will do water changes anyway. as you add melafix daily I figured it's always getting "topped up" anyway! fish all swimming about so that's always a good sign! to be honest i'm not sure how long their fins have been like that. its possible I just didnt notice earlier. I don't inspect all their fins daily. I just check all fish are present and swimming and eating and if the preg ones are still round or not. fins I only noticed I think cos I was checking them over head to tail for spots!! they don't have much in the way of finnage anyway, so its hard to notice. the guppies however I would notice straight away!
Tan

 

So my fish have white spot and I don't want to use any medicine as they are not worth it, but that doesn't mean I don't want to save them. They have they white spots on them, should I just leave them to survive it? If they do survive could they get reinfected or would they have immunity? What should I do? Thanks

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It defo needs treating. They won't be immune afterwards but keeping the tank clean and the fish healty will defo help to keep Ich away !!!
Depending on the fish you could raise the temp up to 31C for some time. The parasites won't survive that. That's the only natural treatment to me. Be sure it is Ich btw. Some (bacterial) infections show white spots as well, but love the temp raising !!!

 

These are white clouds so how long should I raise it for? I don't think they can survive such high temps for long periods of time

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Mmm that's a species that like cooler water. Why don't you want to use a antI Ich-med?

 

To my believe it's about a week, but I can go wrong there.

 

To my believe it's about a week, but I can go wrong there.

Have a look in the sticky's on the forum !

 

They're just not worth it. I've never had this before.

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Mmm okay. Not meand to be offensive, but don't you think we owe all living animals that keeping them also means treating them when needed? Are antI Ich meds very expensive overthere ? Regards Aad

 

I'll have a look. So I've read that once the spots are on the fish, all you can do is to kill the pre existing parasites in the tank and then wait for the spots to leave. Is this true or does the medicine actually work on the fungal growths on the fish.

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Most meds will kill the parasites in the free swiimming stage of their lifecycle. No new spots occure and the ones on the fish dissapear (going in another stage). Very important to go through the whole treatment though you might not see any spots anymore. Do the spots really look like fungus?

 

Well they look like little white balls/spots.

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My male and female Swordtails recently had ick and I have been treating them with Quick Cure and doing water changes for about a week now. The ick seems to have gone away, they had a bunch of small white grains on them and now they have none. However, my male swordtail has 4 white dots on each of his pectoral fins that don't go away. He didn't have them when I first got him and they seemed to appear after the ick subsided. He's very active and has been eating normally. The spots also don't appear to be fungus since they are not cottony. Any ideas what this could be?

 

One of my goldfish frequently gets these white spots on mostly on the edges of his fins. In my case I think it's saprolengnia, which is a type of fungus. This is treatable with removing organic matter in the tank. Water changes, gravel vacuuming and cleaning out the filters, not simultaneously. The fungus isn't always cottony.

However, are you sure it isn't ick since you already had an outbreak?

 

I managed to get pictures of it



they look almost transparent when they're not in the light. I'm not sure if it isn't ick, but it doesn't look like the ick he had on his body or tail, these spots look much bigger. And all the ick that was on his body and tail have come off. Theres no gravel in my tank, I separated them from the main tank when I first saw the ick (first time dealing with ick, then I found out I had to treat the main tank too ops. And I've been doing water changes every 3 days :-\

 

How much water have you been changing every 3 days?
Cause your tank isn't very big, so you could try doing like 20% pwc daily for a week and see if that helps. I'm sorry this is the extent of my disease treatment knowledge.

 

They're in a 5 gallon so I've been doing 50% I really appreciate your help I've just been wanting to put them back into the main tank and then I see these spots and don't know if I should keep them in here longer or put them back :/

 

One of my new Pearlscales has white spots. It looks almost exactly like what is on your fish. How many gallons is your tank? Swordtails should be in a minimum of 30-gallons and stress will cause fish to get sick.

 

They were living in a 20 gallon long but I had temporarily moved them into a 5 gallon when I saw they had what appeared to be, and indeed was, ick. I moved them because I had fry in the main tank in a net breeder and was concerned that treating the tank (I used Quick Cure to treat the swordtails) would kill the fry. Hmm.. I had read that swordtails needed a minimum of 10 gallons :-\