Ick?

[golfergirl02]

Hi I'm new to this forum so I'm not sure if this is where I was supposed to post or what.

But I have a question regarding my tank.
My ammonia is 0
nitrite0
p.H 7.4
nitrate 0
I'm still in the cycling process of my tank. I did a water change today so that's why the nitrite is zero. I've been reading and I think my fish have ick. There are small white spots on my platy's tail. He is a sunburst platy so his tail is black. My female platy has also been flashing.. I think that's what its called. But she flips to her side and kinda twitches a bit. My female guppy has been doing this as well. They keep doing this even after the water change. My female platy also kinda zones out for a bit. I call it zoning out because she just kinda floats there and then darts around. I'm not sure what to do here. My fish have been acting like this for a couple days now. If it is ick. I have nox-ich. I don't want to add it until I'm sure.
Couple side notes to ask about as well. I have about four week old guppy fry in the tank with no other tank for them to stay in. Will it hurt them if I treat for Ick?
And I also have a whisper 20 filter. I think it might be carbon.. I'm not sure. Will I have to take it out during treatment?
Thank you for any advice and I look forward to posing in the future!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi golfergirl02

Welcome to the forum!

I'll move your thread to the New To The Hobby section. The members there will help you with all of the cycling problem you might have as well as the Ick.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum GolferGirl.
It does sound very much like you may have a case of ich in your tank. If that is true, you will need to treat it even if it means daily dosing of the water to stay up with the fish in cycle. Nox-ich uses malachite green, if my memory serves me, as the treatment chemical. There is a good discussion of ich and its treatment in another location that you can reach from a link in my signature area called Ich info. It discusses not only what ich is but what it takes to treat it effectively. I am a bit concerned about using a dye treatment like Nox-ich at your stage of fish-in cycling because it will make it harder to interpret your testing results. The color that it gives the water will very likely throw off your ability to compare to the color charts of the nitrite test.

 

[golfergirl02]

Thanks for the advice! Sorry about putting it in the wrong spot. Newbie here! lol
Yes it is Malacite green or however you spell it. I'm more concerned about my guppy fry than about my nitrites. Theoretically it should be ok for the three days i need to treat.
I added the medication, took the carbon filter out, turned the lights out and keeping my fingers crossed!!
This is my first batch of fry and I think I would be devastated if they all died. But its a catch-22 I guess. Taking a chance either way. Here's hoping for the best! Hopefully I caught it early enough.

 

[OldMan47]

You need to treat much longer than 3 days. The treatment is only effective on the free swimming form of the parasite and that means treating for a full 3 days after all signs of the parasite are gone from the fish. I like to give it 5 to 7 days after the parasite can no longer be found. Please read the article that I referred you to, it will explain some of the "why" behind the things that we do for ich.

 

[golfergirl02]

Hello again.

I did read the article suggested but I think I'm still left with a few questions.
I took the carbon filter out, and I keep the light off in my aquarium most of the time but I turn it on ever once and a while to see how everyone is doing.
The guppies that I have are mostly white when it comes to their bodies so I don't know if they have been infected. I can't see anything on their tails so I can guess they are ok.
So far my four week old fry are doing just fine. The medication hasn't effected them in any way I can tell, I also cant see any parasites on them so I'm hoping they are ok.
The article said to dry all nets out completely which I get so that the ich can't survive. I've also been soaking them in a high concentration of salt (aquarium) and water before the ick outbreak just to make sure in case of such outbreak. But I have been keeping the filter in water and I also added some bacteria culture because I thought I would want to keep it cultured for when I'm done treating because I read that the medication kills the good bacteria. Is this what everyone else does? I was thinking if bacteria can survive why can't ick? Should I just throw it out and culture a new filter in a bowl while I treat?

Also. I turned my light on this evening to see how everyone is doing and the one male platy that I noticed the white spots yesterday (when he had two) now has like ten times more!! He is also the tank bully. Can you say Karma?? The bully of the aquarium is the only one with NOTICEABLE ick so far. Is this supposed to happen or do I have dud medication?
Thanks for the advice!

I have also been taking a water sample to test before I add medication everyday when the dye is low, and everything is still peachy!

 

[OldMan47]

The ich is a parasite, not a bacteria. The ich is still present in your tank, don't worry about which fish you see it on. If you read through that article you will realize that the 3 stages of an ich's life include the part where they are on a fish and visible, like on your platy, then a point where they fall off the fish and reproduce for a short time in the gravel, those probably exist right now in the tank, and finally a free swimming phase that is very short lived if they can't find a fish to infect. That last phase is the only time that any medication can kill them. It is not unusual to see the spots on a fish with an infestation seem to become many more at first. If you followed the treatment advice, you have raised the temperature and the ich is reproducing faster. We raise the temperature to shorten the life cycle and expose the ich to the medicine faster. Until the ich is completely gone from the platy, don't even begin to count the number of days of treatment. When it is gone from him completely, you can start timing the 5 to 7 days of treatment to kill off all of the free swimming stage ich parasites in the tank. Only after that is it safe to start removing the medication with some fresh carbon. I do not use malachite green in my tanks so I have no idea what it might do to the filter bacteria. There is little point to saving carbon to put into your filter since any carbon that you took out of a filter is probably exhausted anyway. Use some fresh carbon wen you replace the carbon in the filter to remove the medication.

 

[Tropical_Fish]

When you say you took your carbon filter out - what filter have you left in?

You also say everything is peachy when you do you water tests - what are the actual results?

On your first post you have a Nitrate reading of 0 is that correct? I've not seen tap water with a reading of zero yet but I'm sure it's possible.