Ok. I recently got in a new plakat betta as a sort of hospice mission; he was at the pet shop for four weeks, and developed fin rot severely from the poor water conditions. I have gotten that under control, but yesterday I noticed a few spots of Ick, and started treatment.
He is eating well today, and active, but has a few more spots of the stuff on his body. But just now, something kindof disturbing happened. One of the white dots on his head looked to be getting bigger/longer, and it just... popped out. Is this normal in treating Ick, or does he have some kind of weird parasite mimicking Ick? He is on an anti-parasitic food, maybe its annoying the little Ick buggies?
He is currently in a heated, UNfiltered 2.5 gallon tank. I have added salt and blackwater extract to his tank in addition to the meds (and of course dechlorinator). I've moved his tank (which does not have its own light) to a better lit area so that I might moniter him closely. Anything else that I should be doing?

can't think of anything off hand but it doesn't sound like ick. any pictures

Unfortunately, no. My dig. is out of battery. Aside from the thing that just popped out (no hole or anything in its wake, but it must have come from somewhere if it got longer), it really does look like ick; little white granules throughout the body and fins, kindof looking like bits of salt. He's slightly pale, no stress stripes, and is active, but his fins are partially clamped. So he's feeling under the weather, but still eating and active. He is also flicking, which suggests external or protozoal parasites.

ick is a parasite.

Not a fungal or bacterial infection.

The treatment just breaks the lifecycle. It takes time to work and it is best to finsh a full course.

Edit - here try this... http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/whitespot.htm

This post has been edited by Betta*b*Happy!: Oct 10 2005, 03:29 PM

I am aware that it is a parasite; perhaps I was unclear. I differentiated between it and other parasites like flukes or "fish lice" because it is protozoal in nature; sorry about that.

He is on Rid-Ich+, and an antiparasital food. I will probably keep him on the treatment for a while after reading that article; the medicine seems to think it should only take 3 days. I will be doing full water changes every day, adding a full dose of meds, and salts, with each cleaning. I will keep the temp up, since it sounds like that accelerates the life cycle, and therefore the speed at which this darn adults come out to be killed.

So, can I expect that the thing that swam out of his head was a mature parasite? Is so, that's pretty cool! Not for him, but it was very interesting to have seen.

Glad you found it interesting...

JK.

Ermmm. Without seeing it happen i wouldn't know. I have always caught ick at the very beginning so wouldn't know. I know it must be hard with him coming ill from the lfs though.

Definitely a mature parasite

For your reading enjoyment, a description of the full life cycle can be found here.