PLZ HELP! Kissing Gourami has Ick!

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

PLEASE HELP! He was my first fish, and I don't want him to die... I just fed them and I noticed that my Kisser has a ton of white spots on his body and fins. I figured it was ick, so I would like to know what I can do to cure him right now.... Should I separate him from the rest of the group? If it truly is ick, how should I treat it?
Please help... Thanks in advance.

-GoLdFiSh_GrL

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

 

[my_fallen_angel]

You can buy medication from the fish shop.
It is Contagious so you have to treat the whole tank and not just one fish.
I've had ich twice now,
Its not a nice thing, Also a good thing to do is to turn the temperature up to around 29c, which is about 83f, as the ich is a cold water protozoan and cant survive in the heated water.
The only problem whihc the medication you get from the shop is that they dont treat the white spots they only treat they protozoans when the spots fall off and multiply.
Dont worry im sure he will be fine.




I hope this helps

Kellie

 

[commanderdoom21]

Get both itch and fungus medicine just in case. Then go and get me a cookie.

 

[AquaNut]

Ugh. What a mish mash of advice you've received to such a basic question. Can you tell us what other fish are in your tank, goldfishgirl? If the gourami is 'covered' in white spots, as you say, it sounds like it's somewhat advanced already. They usually just appear as a few spots on the pectoral or caudal fins, first. I would indeed crank up the heat in your tank to about 84 degrees, but you have to do it slowly... one degree every couple of hours is usually alright. Depending on what other fish you have in your tank, I'd also add aquarium salt - at least 1 tbspn per 5 gallons... if you've got tolerant fish, I'd go 1 tsp per gallon. If the parasite is as advanced as I'm suspecting from your description, you will indeed need some meds from the lfs, but again, what kind depends a lot on what other fish are in your tank. With the higher temps and chemical meds in the tank, oxygen will be depleted - increase the aeration in your tank and do daily 10% water changes, topping up the salt and meds to replace what was lost in the w/c. If you use carbon in your filter or filter cartridge, make sure to remove it before adding the meds or they will be filtered out. Good luck and please get back to us with an update.

 

[commanderdoom21]

Ugh. What a mish mash of advice you've received to such a basic question. Can you tell us what other fish are in your tank, goldfishgirl? If the gourami is 'covered' in white spots, as you say, it sounds like it's somewhat advanced already. They usually just appear as a few spots on the pectoral or caudal fins, first. I would indeed crank up the heat in your tank to about 84 degrees, but you have to do it slowly... one degree every couple of hours is usually alright. Depending on what other fish you have in your tank, I'd also add aquarium salt - at least 1 tbspn per 5 gallons... if you've got tolerant fish, I'd go 1 tsp per gallon. If the parasite is as advanced as I'm suspecting from your description, you will indeed need some meds from the lfs, but again, what kind depends a lot on what other fish are in your tank. With the higher temps and chemical meds in the tank, oxygen will be depleted - increase the aeration in your tank and do daily 10% water changes, topping up the salt and meds to replace what was lost in the w/c. If you use carbon in your filter or filter cartridge, make sure to remove it before adding the meds or they will be filtered out. Good luck and please get back to us with an update.

and get me a cookie

 

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

well, so far none of my other fish are infected thank God. Here's a list of my fish:
Gold, Opaline, Dwarf Powder Blue, and Kissing gouramis
Elegant, Albino, and Green cory cats
Tiger barbs

I added some salt, but i have a conflicting issue. Some people say I shouldn't because of my cats, majority of people gave me thumbs up so I did it and my cories are acting fine..

 

[AquaNut]

Yeah, I'm sure I'll get pounced on for saying this around here, but I have half a dozen cories in my 45 gallon community tank and they live in trace salt always, and have at different times lived in pretty salty guppy tanks etc. I've never had a problem with any of them. They're undeniably healthy, not just 'alive', and the oldest ones are about 4.5 years now (and chubby, active, social fish, just as they should be). I really can't wrap my brain around the whole salt-burns-cories-because-they-don't-have-scales thing; I sure don't mean to call anybody wrong... in writing the whole explanation for not having them in any salt sounds great. I can only speak from my own personal experience, though, and I've never seen a hint of a problem.

 

[Inchworm]

I agree with AquaNut. She has given you good advice.

I have treated tanks with corys in then before and had no bad results. However, that was before I learned that salt was not good for them. (Now I would take them out and put them in another tank.) However, I wouldn't exceed 1 Tbs. of salt per 5 gallons of water with them in it.

Use aquarium salt that is available at your lfs, not table salt. Begin the treatment as soon as possible because ich will spread quickly. I would also continue treatment for several days longer than the medicine calls for. If you do not have the ich totally removed it will return.

______
Ich is not a fungus. Do not get any fungus medication for this problem.

 

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

yea i use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Aquarium Salt. (by Doctor Wellfish ) I haven't exceeded 1 tblspn per 5 gal. I added salt after I did a 75% water change and they're reacting normally (as in that I mean nothing unusual is happening) I'm not overexceeding the salt, though. My stupid heater still won't work! (I fixed my filter ALL by myself! ) I have my heater on temp. 83*, but the stupid thing is on 76*!) Have any ideas on good meds?

 

[Inchworm]

If you don't get a reply tonight, go to a good lfs and ask for a recommendation on an ich medicine. I won't recommend mine; I'm not that happy with it.

However, while you are there, you MUST get a new heater!!! Your defective heater is probably the reason you have this outbreak of ich. A drop in temperature will often bring it on.

Do not change any more water. You must take care of the bacteria growing in the tank. Wait until the treatment is over and make gradual water changes then.

Good luck!

 

[AquaNut]

Hey Goldfish Girl. Inchworm is right... you need to make sure you've got a properly functioning heater. Not only is it likely the reason for your ich outbreak, it's also a really huge risk for all the fish in your tank (sometimes defective heaters get stuck 'on' ). As far as ich medications go, I've not had to treat a lot of ich in my time, but have been satisfied with the results of a malachite green/quinine HCL anti protozoan formula. If you read the active ingredients on the labels of all the ich/white spot meds in your lfs, you should be able to find one that contains these ingredients.

 

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

well, this morning I checked the temperature and it was 83*! so i guess it's working now... though my Kisser still has ich... does "Quick Cure" work for scaleless fish like cories?

 

[Inchworm]

well, this morning I checked the temperature and it was 83*! so i guess it's working now... though my Kisser still has ich... does "Quick Cure" work for scaleless fish like cories?

One thing you should never "guess" about is your heater. It either works right or it doesn't! If it drops the temp, you get ich; if it overheats, you have cooked fish. If you don't trust it, replace it immediately,

If your corys have ich, you are in big trouble. You have a major infestation of ich and the only thing you can do is continue to treat it until it goes away or the fish die. Even if that happens, continue to treat the tank to get it completely gone before you add more fish. Whatever medicine you are using will work for the corys, too, unless it says different on the label.

Just continue treatment for a few days and let us know what happens. It will take some time.

 

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

Well, my mom took me to PetSmart to buy a med and I chose Kordon Rid-Ich because the label said that it's cory-friendly. I added it today... how long should I keep treatment up?