Ich

[kadkins20]

i've tried looking it up, and asking my brother (who has had fish with ich before) but i dont really know what it is, or how to tell if my fish have it. None of the websites i looked up gave me satisfactory explanations of what it is or how to identify it.

i'm afraid they might have it though... i see a few really tiny white spots on the fins of a few of my fish. My brother says it tends to be on the gills first, but i dont see any spots on my fish's gills.

any help would be great XD

 

[5teady_2012]

The whitespots can be all over the fish, or just on fins...

Its like little grains of salt dotted all over the fish.

If you think you have you have it, you need to up the temperature to 28-29deg, wait for the spots to fall off then treat with a whitespot medication.. (interpet no9) or (WS3) are good..

Treat the tank until your happy that your rid of it, after the treatment you need to do a waterchange (instructions on med bottle)...

Whitespot (ick) is in 3 stages

The white spots, however, only indicate one stage of Ich (the only one that can be seen by the naked eye). After infecting the fish, the adult organism falls off into the gravel and becomes encysted in a free-living dormant stage known as a Tomont. THIS CYST STAGE IS INVULNERABLE TO MEDICATIONS. This is the reason why a raise in temperature is suggested IN CONJUNCTION with Ich treatments...it speeds up the life cycle and makes the stages that are treatable come around faster. If you do raise the temperature, do so very slowly so as not to stress the weak fish further. Raise it no more than 1-2°C every day, and do not allow this temperature to fluctuate. Also, consider the types of fish you are keeping...most tropicals can tolerate as high as 30-31°C, but most Goldfish will start to languish in the high 20's, so don't push them any further.

 

[Colin_T]

Ich is short for Ichthyophthirius, the genus (first) part of the scientific name for whitespot. Whitespot being the common name for the disease.

It is an external parasitic protozoan that infects fresh, salt and brackish water fishes. It is small and appears as little white dots on the fish. They can be anywhere on the body, fins or gills. The gill filaments are often infected but you cannot see the gill filaments because the gill covers protect them. The gill covers are the parts you see moving back and forth opening and closing on the side of the fish’s face. The gill filaments are under the gill covers.

The disease normally appears when the fish get stressed (a sudden drop in water temperature) and is often introduced with new fish. It is a good idea to quarantine all new fishes for a couple of weeks to prevent diseases like this getting into the main display tank. Once the disease has been eradicated from the tank it should not re-appear unless it is introduced again.

There is another disease called Oodinium. This is called velvet when it affects freshwater fish because it often appears as tiny yellow or gold spots. In marine fish it is just called Oodinium and appears as tiny white spots. Oodinium is smaller than Ichthyophthirius.

 

[5teady_2012]

Ich is short for Ichthyophthirius, the genus (first) part of the scientific name for whitespot. Whitespot being the common name for the disease.

It is an external parasitic protozoan that infects fresh, salt and brackish water fishes. It is small and appears as little white dots on the fish. They can be anywhere on the body, fins or gills. The gill filaments are often infected but you cannot see the gill filaments because the gill covers protect them. The gill covers are the parts you see moving back and forth opening and closing on the side of the fish's face. The gill filaments are under the gill covers.

The disease normally appears when the fish get stressed (a sudden drop in water temperature) and is often introduced with new fish. It is a good idea to quarantine all new fishes for a couple of weeks to prevent diseases like this getting into the main display tank. Once the disease has been eradicated from the tank it should not re-appear unless it is introduced again.

There is another disease called Oodinium. This is called velvet when it affects freshwater fish because it often appears as tiny yellow or gold spots. In marine fish it is just called Oodinium and appears as tiny white spots. Oodinium is smaller than Ichthyophthirius.

HeHe

I read on that on a site (all of it)... you should really quote a copy and paste job

 

[kadkins20]

"There is another disease called Oodinium. This is called velvet when it affects freshwater fish because it often appears as tiny yellow or gold spots. In marine fish it is just called Oodinium and appears as tiny white spots. Oodinium is smaller than Ichthyophthirius."

im 90% sure its not velvet. its definitely bright white in color

also, i got a medication for it... since i couldnt find any of the recommended ones, i got one my brother recommended (i guess we get different stuff in america than in britain )

it's called ick clear by jungle... it says to treat every 24 hours "if ich persits." I'm assuming that means until well after i cant see any more white pustules. Should i actually use it everyday though? if i did that id have to use like 3 packages at least for my tank

 

[omega59]

sounds like Ich to me. i used API and Jungle for Ich in my aquariums, the key is to get it quick! and good luck to you.

 

[kadkins20]

should i continue to treat daily? or just assume that one or two treatments will handle it?

cuz if i need to treat it daily im gonna have to go to petsmart and buy more by the end of tomorrow before i go to work

 

[Colin_T]

Keep treating the fish for a week after the spots have gone. The whitespot parasite has 3 stages to its lifecycle.
1) the white spots on the fish
2) 2) the spots fall off the fish and multiply in the gravel
3) 3) the cysts in the gravel rupture open releasing thousands of new parasites to re-infect the fish.
The parasite can only be killed during the 3rd stage when they are free swimming and before they attach to a fish.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Before you treat the tank do a 50% water change and complete gravel clean. This will reduce the gunk in the tank and allow the medication to work more effectively. It will also lower the pathogen count in the water and mean there are less nasties around to infect the fish.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating otherwise it will absorb the medication out of the water.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine and has a similar temperature & PH to the tank.

Any medication that contains Malachite Green or Copper will treat Ich and Oodinium.

 

[kadkins20]

one of my mollies died and i think another one isn't doing so well (but it is pregnat, so i might be confusing the symptoms with pregnant behavior - shes hiding a lot) but im still treating and my platies and rainbowfish are looking better

my catfish look like they are having absolutely no problems: i wasn't able to identify any white spots on any of them, and they are as active as ever