Ich? Bacterial? Help!

[Voxcharm]

Hey guys

Re post from general topics but really need help. Bit of a newbie and not having a good week with my cories after mysteriously loosing one of them. But noticed on one of the albinos a single white spot on the tail. No spots on any other fish or anywhere else on this fish. Sorry the photo isn't great but you should be able to work it out on base of tail.

Is this ich? How do I treat corys. I know salt is really not a good idea for non scale fish.

All behaving normally, feeding greedily, its less active than the other but always has been.

Parameters
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~5
Ph 7.4
Kh softish (not sure exactly)
Fish in 2 months added after full fish less cycle

12 gallon with 3 Molly's and 4 corydoras aeneus and 7 neocardinia shrimp (various)

They did get stressed 2 days ago due to a big water change and moving EVERYTHING around in the tank to try to locate lost cory. I'm under impression stress can compromise immunity making them more susceptible to disease.

Is it ich? Do I treat? How do I treat with corys. Have at home love fish brand anti fungal treatment and an anti ich treatment
Attached Thumbnails

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Ich will look like a 'grain of salt'.  If the spot appears to be a raised 'grain of salt' on the fish, then yes, it is probably ich.
 
 
(I'm not diagnosing this spot as ich, but if it is, here's a course of action):
 
The way to deal with ich for cories is generally to do a 'half-dose' of the meds, and do it for a longer duration.  The key is to eliminate as many 'cysts' that lay on the substrate and divide into hundreds of copies during water changes.  This will allow the medicine to work better on the remaining free swimming form.  The meds are only effective on the free swimming form.
 
 
Raising the temp will increase the life cycle of the parasite.  Salt would be a bad idea, but raising the temp to 80+F (27C) will speed it up and the cories should be fine.  Increasing surface agitation would be a nice touch - higher temps and meds in the water limits the oxygen carrying capacity.  And if the ich gets into the gills it can block the uptake of oxygen from the water - so having as much oxygen as possible in the water will help.
 
 
You should do a large gravel vac to remove as many cysts as possible early on... to give the meds the best chance to work.  Most meds recommend not changing the water while treating.  You can follow those directions, but remember at half-dose, the meds are less effective against large numbers of the parasite - so water changes (50%) during the treatment works also, just be sure to 'top up' the dose.  (Also be certain to remove ALL carbon from your filter, old or new.  You'll want to add carbon to the tank at the VERY end of the course to remove any leftover meds.)
 
 
Example:
 
Let's assume the med calls for 4mL dose for your tank size.  A proper half-dose for the cories would be 2mL.
 
If you did daily 50% water changes, you would be removing 1mL of the meds with each change, so you'd add 1mL at the end of each change to 'top up' the meds.
 
(If the med calls for a second dose of 4mL after X number of days, without a water change, you'd have to recalculate - although most of the time you can ignore this in the daily water change scenario, as you are adding fresh meds daily.  Most ich meds are 'used up' after a few days, but by adding it continually with each water change, you won't have that issue to contend with.)
 
Continue to treat the tank for ich (remember it is the TANK that is infected, not just the fish) until no signs of ich persist for a FULL 7 days.

 

[greenmumma141]

Spot on advise^

 

[Sophie]

I'd recommend not using the Love Fish brand of medications as they are Pets at Home own brand and being one of their colleagues, I personally find them poop

Waterlife Protozin so far for me has been the best treatment for white spot. All the Waterlife products are pretty spot on actually.

 

[lovestoeatfish]

I had a rather serious run in with ich,and I used medication called coppersafe ( it can be found at most fish stores), and all of my fish made it through this. Even my clown loach that I have been told are very sensitive to medication.

 

[Voxcharm]

Thanks guys, so now actually having looked at a fish clearly RIDDLED with ich in a Pets at Home tank (unquarantined) I don't think it is ich. (Though that description of how to treat it is awesome for future ref thanks eaglesaquarium) the spots on this poor molly in the shop were totally raised. Just like grains of salt like you described.

The spot on my cory isn't raised at all. Also there is a tiny tear in the tail just below the spot. Does this actually sound more like a fungal reaction to the tear?

I also failed to mention I stuck in a nice big Indian almond leaf yesterday. That should help if it is fungal right??

Thanks btw all. This is a nice forum

 

[laurac94]

Yeah it doesnt look like ich. If you have moved everything around it may have panicked and caught its fin on something resulting in what looks to be a small infection, most likely fungal. I would keep an eye on the fish for a day or too, if it gets worse put the fish in a hospital tank (if that is an option) and treat in there instead of the whole tank. Ensure that the hospital tank has lots of hiding places to calm the fish. I use the king British brand which worked on my badly burned pleco ;-)

 

[Voxcharm]

Yeah it doesnt look like ich. If you have moved everything around it may have panicked and caught its fin on something resulting in what looks to be a small infection, most likely fungal. I would keep an eye on the fish for a day or too, if it gets worse put the fish in a hospital tank (if that is an option) and treat in there instead of the whole tank. Ensure that the hospital tank has lots of hiding places to calm the fish. I use the king British brand which worked on my badly burned pleco ;-)

I'm starting to think that's it. Thanks Fish Fanatic. As I said there's some Indian almond leaf in there anyway so ill give it a couple of days and then quarantine treat with the phenoxyethanol (LoveFish anti fungal treatmenr) only if it gets any worse.
* I mean LauraC94. Lol