First time Ich!

[parrotfish13]

Hello, I'm new to the forum! I've got a Blood-red Parrot Cichlid that my family has noticed has been acting strange the past 2 days. He was erratically swimming (spinning around, rubbing on the ground or tank walls) every now and again and he seems to eat normally. And today I finally decided to read up on his symptoms. He has showed signs of Ich but they are not as prominent as pictures I've seen. At first I didn't see any visible white spots but I put a flashlight on him and noticed on his right side which I also noticed his fin will clam to his side for a few seconds but he does not have any white dots on his fins just the base of his fins and spread around on his right side. I'm not very knowledgeable on fish as my sister got this fish 6+ years ago as an impulse buy and we never actually did any research on how to properly care for a fish. Surprised it's lasted so long.

 

[parrotfish13]

Part II. He is a wal-mart fish (yes, i know). 2 months prior he was sick and came to the conclusion he was being over fed and ended up constipated. I bought a heater, fasted him for 3 days and feed him skinned-peas and he got better. If someone could give some advice on how to get rid of ich and before anyone says anything about improper care I'm aware and since seeing him being sick the first time, me and my family have become more attentive to the fish and his health!

 

[FishGuest5123]

I don’t know anything about that particular breed of fish but if they tolerate heat, then the best thing for it is to slowly turn the heat up in the tank to 86F. Do this about 2 degrees an hour. Keep it there for 14 days. The heat will kill the ich. I use a little aquarium salt too. This is more effective than any meds you can buy. Good luck!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Have you tested the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?
If yes, what are the results in numbers?

How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

What sort of filter do you have?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

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Any chance of a picture and short 20 second video of the fish and the tank?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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Before you increase the water temperature, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water. When they are clean put them in the tank and wash the filter case and impellor assembly under tap water. Then put the filter back together and get it going.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.