View Full Version : Oscar has ICH ??
optix
01-06-2003, 12:13 PM
My Red tiger has little white spots all over his fins and body, The only thing I can think of is ich, but the temp has remained a constant 77 degrees and hasn't fluctuated at all as far as I know. Is there anything else this could be, or should I start treating for ich
goldfries
01-06-2003, 12:34 PM
can be any stressing factor.
mine had everything going well until i added some carbon on my filter.
just medicate your tank and change some water and add some salt.
i think i posted a thread last week about Ich and some nice people helped out. check around.
Ok I did the salt treatment and now I have a massive amount of white worms floating around the tank again, maybe 30 minutes after I put in the salt they were floating everywhere did this kill them or make them multiply because I thought I had it under control but I guess not, my poor oscar :(
o snap its eric
01-06-2003, 2:19 PM
how do you get rid of white worms. i had them before and i freaked out and i sold all my fishs and emptyed out my tank and let it dry for like 2 weeks. i hate worms!!!!! :mad:
o snap its eric
01-06-2003, 2:23 PM
you know how i get rid of ich... i did the all natural way haha. set your heater to about 82-84 degrees. and cover your tank completely and not letting any light in or it will mess up the process. so cover it up about 24-48 hours. then let it have light for 5 days and then repeat the first step again. by the second time you cover the tank you ich will be gone... as for me i only did the first step and i saw noticable differance. but then i decided to give them some medicine. never heard of anyone try this before so i figured this might be the first to do it.
OrionGirl
01-06-2003, 2:55 PM
Light makes no difference in the reproductive cycle of ich. The ich parasite infests a fish via it's gills, and then slowly makes it's way through the muscle. It forms a cyst on the skin of the fish, which drops off and lands in the substrate. This cyst hatches into many free swimming tomites. The tomites make their way through the water in search of a fish to re-infect. The time this process takes is temperature dependant--higher temps makes it go faster. The tomites are the only stage we can effect with medications.
However, if you saw worms, it wasn't ich. With the exception of the cysts (the white crytals on the skin of the fish), the life stages of the ich parasite are too small to be seen by the naked eye.
Sorry--I can't identify what you do have, but it isn't ich.
Allison Reed
01-06-2003, 4:58 PM
I was told ich could not breed in temperatures under 80 degrees. My 100 gallon is at 80-81 degrees at all times, and I've never had a problem with ich as long as i've had it.
goldfries
01-06-2003, 8:51 PM
wow that's like room temperature for your fish.
well at least it's around my room temp.
o snap its eric
01-06-2003, 11:26 PM
i thought light has to do with something...
goldfries
01-06-2003, 11:30 PM
if the light is related to stress, then YES.
i think you got the LIGHT issue mixed up with algae growth. i mean, if lights really can cause sickness than aquaria lights would be a problem, wouldn't it? and real life fish who live under the sun would no doubt be sickness prone.
o snap its eric
01-07-2003, 12:05 AM
no i mean light helps the ich produce faster... like all single cell organisms... they need light to live and for energy
Harry Tolen
01-07-2003, 12:11 AM
Ich is not sensitive to light. Ich can reproduce at temperatures lower than 80 degrees (although the life cycled is slowed down, it is not interrupted). I suggest a little reading...follow the, er, following connection:
http://www.thekrib.com/Diseases/ich.html
goldfries
01-07-2003, 1:39 AM
ah well......
most people say just raise the temp and put salt would be just fine.
o snap its eric
01-07-2003, 2:23 AM
trial and error!
goldfries
01-07-2003, 2:34 AM
can't really afford to error when your precious fishs' life is on the line. :D
i was hoping my O didn't die of Ich. He did well, didn't even behave sick at all.
very happy that Ich went off.
ok, I did a 50% water change today and got rid of the worms, and the cysts are now looking like scars or something, and the oscars fins look milky and have like tears or something looks more like rotted away and all around he looks really bad, nitrates are 10 ppm, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, PH is a little high its 8.2 but its been like that for the 3 months I've had this fish and I don't know the hardness, I don't have a test kit for that, and to top it off he has become like nocturnal, he wont come out in the light anymore, and this all happened after my other oscar died, it died of hole in the head just the other day. After that my red tiger just suddenly had ich cysts all over it, now today it has what looks like scars from the cysts and white patchs all over, not fungus or any kind of bacteria, it just looks like its scales turned a milky color in areas and it isn't coming out as much, it eats the same, still has an appetite, but it just isn't the same frisky little guy it used to be always at the front of the tank showing excitment when I'd come by :(, its grown so well and was looking promising and now this :(. It really bums me out