To Treat or not to treat?...Where do I go from here?

Boohoo

Boohoo

AC Members
Feb 22, 2005
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Bridgewater,Nova Scotia
Back around the middle of September I moved. 10 days after the move I noticed a few visible signs of Ich on 2 of my fish, so I treated with salt&heat for 3 weeks.
Then I noticed one of the fish that had visible signs of Ich still flashing. I then treated with Prazi-Pro for 7 days.
I still see this same fish, plus one other(they are both platys) flashing occasionally.
Now, last evening I watched the one platy spend most of its time in the front corner of my tank standing on her head. She just dropped a batch of fry earlier this week. She came out to eat this morning, she swims normally, but I saw her flashing this morning.
Even with the move I haven't had any ammonia or nitrite spikes. Water Parameters are Ammonia~0
Nitrite~0
Nitrate~10
PH~7.6-7.8
GH~160
KH~140
Temp~78
Tank is a 55g community tank. With lots of fry in there!
Sorry for such a long post, but I am stumped. What should I do next as far as treatment? I do not want to medicate if it is not necessary. I have corys, a Tiger Pleco, and 2 ID sharks in there. All help greatly appreciated.

BTW... I do 50% water changes every 3 days.
 
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i have a guess... since the parasite, ich, burries its 'head' in the skin layers of fish to draw nutrients from the host (the white spot, the 'adult' ich), your fish might still be dealing with some irritation... kinda like a scar that itches as it heals.

just a guess, but it might be that simple. since you are seeing no other signs of disease, hopefully time will take care of it. just keep an eye out for the behaviour spreading to other fish... that would be a good indicator that there is an active and spreading irritant and/or disease.
 
Boohoo,
Have these fish ever had a period since you owned them that they did not flash?

The reason I aks is that previous to your ownership they may have had permanent gill damage of some sort. Being platies they are hardy enough that they could have survived pretty high ammonia and swam away with scars as mentioned. I have seen fish that went through excessive ammonia spikes and flashed from (presumably) the scarring it caused.

The ich scars are also a possibility, although I personally have not seen ich cause damage that showed signs over a week or so. If I remember correctly you did not have a heavy outbreak to deal with.

Is there possibly something in your tap water that irritates them? Does your local utility have a website?
Dave
 
they lift their tops... hehe

the fish dash in an unnatural motion, often against tank objects or walls of the tank itself., 'flashing' their lighter colored bellies. kinda hard to describe, actually.

its only considered proper on the day before lent begins.

sry, couldn't resist.
 
Dave, I have seen these fish flash occasionally since I've had them. Got them back in May. The ICH outbreak was very mild. Only 2 fish with visible spots, and probably only about 6-10 spots each. As for my water, it comes from a dug well. Could that be a possible cause?
 
Something is going on here!!! Today I saw one of my danios and a white cloud flashing. What is spreading through this tank? No fish have been added since June. And the plants I just added a week or so ago, I had in a 19:1 bleach solution for 10 minutes.
 
Pull a water company report and see if anything funny is being done there.
And take a very judgemental look at anything you add to your tank such as dechlorinator. MAybe somethng is mildly amiss with your tap water, or your treatment method.
dave
 
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