Help, fish disease 65G

[quenton]

My 65G is infested with something. At first I figured ich -- white spots showed on my clown loaches, about 20 or so per fish (3), and they started rubbing against the drift-wood. Then they showed up on my Bala Sharks. I treated with Maricide, with no apparent effect. Looking more it perhaps looks more like velvet, but the spots on the clown loaches not appear smeared rather than individual dots and the loaches are looking very distressed.

I am attaching two pictures, bala and loach -- quality not all that great, the loach is moving around very fast.

Hm -- I have not used this forum much before -- the preview does not show my pictures -- if they are not there I guess I need help with that too! I used the Manage Attachments button below this

Hm -- OK, made them smaller -- lets see NOW.

[YuccaPatrol]

You might have tried to attach photos that are too large. Curiously, this forum won't allow standard 640x480 photos which are the "small" size that I use most everywhere. Photos are limited to less than 64K and 550x500 pixels.

If you do think it is ick though, I would begin a salt/heat treatment. I have success by raising the temp to 84'F and adding 2 teaspoons salt per gallon. I use regular non-iodized table salt, pickling salt, or rock salt, rather than any special salt sold at the fish store.

[quenton]

You might have tried to attach photos that are too large. Curiously, this forum won't allow standard 640x480 photos which are the "small" size that I use most everywhere. Photos are limited to less than 64K and 550x500 pixels.

If you do think it is ick though, I would begin a salt/heat treatment. I have success by raising the temp to 84'F and adding 2 teaspoons salt per gallon. I use regular non-iodized table salt, pickling salt, or rock salt, rather than any special salt sold at the fish store.
I am afraid to use salt -- lots of plants. That is why I chose mardel's maricide.

Thanks for the comments re the pictures, I made the smaller and they seem to be
there now!

[YuccaPatrol]

Well, the good news is that Maracide treats both Ich and Velvet, so you can continue with the same treatment. I understand that it only affects the free-swimming parasites (before they attach to the fish), so it can be working effectively even though you still see the spots.

I did look at the photos, and it is hard to say which is which. I am actually leaning toward saying it is velvet because of the very fine nature of the spots, but it is a toss-up.

One thing I just read about velvet said that it depends on light and that turning off your lights during treatment might help.

[Holly9937]

Its a bit hard to tell from the pics, I think it looks more like a serious case of ich. try www.fishpalace.org/disease.html There are some pretty good pictures on that site

[mduros]

Looks like a bad case of ich to me. I just lost a clown because of it, too. And it's friend isn't doing well, but he's the only fish in the tank that still has ich on him. Poor Clown. Anyhow, I have plants and used the salt/raised temp method and my plants are doing a-okay, and ich cleared up beautifully except for the loaches. The other thing you can do is pull the plants out and keep them in a bucket until you finish treatment, I have done that before, too.

Good luck to you and your fishies...
Mary.

[quenton]

I'm still tending toward ich too -- given that it started when I put 3 clown-pleco's
and 3 whiptail cats in -- 2 days after. I gather velvet mostly erupts after some
damage or stressing of the fish, and my tank has been in perfect balance for
almost 2 months now. Anyway, I am going to continue the maricide with a slightly
raised temp (about 82), I will do one more treatment beyond the recommended 3 and
see where things are. Thanks for everyone's quick replies.

[Star_Rider]

ich needs to be treated for 14 days...sometime longer..raising the temp helps speed the ich cycle.
the ich is only treatable when it is in the free swimming stage.
the cyst you see are the ich in a stage that is not treatable.even after this falls of you need to continue treating. the ich cyst falls off and then will incubate..it then hatches and begins looking for a new host. this is when the ich can be treated.

the 14 days is considered the general cycle at raised temps.

[quenton]

ich needs to be treated for 14 days...sometime longer..raising the temp helps speed the ich cycle.
the ich is only treatable when it is in the free swimming stage.
the cyst you see are the ich in a stage that is not treatable.even after this falls of you need to continue treating. the ich cyst falls off and then will incubate..it then hatches and begins looking for a new host. this is when the ich can be treated.

the 14 days is considered the general cycle at raised temps.
Thanks -- I was kinding of thinking that myself even thought the mardel product
says to treat on days 1, 3 5 and no need to raise temperature. My reading had indicated otherwise re the life-cycle. Thanks.

[Roan Art]

Do NOT raise the temperature unless the medication says you can!!!

Sorry for yelling, but some meds become more toxic at higher temperatures and could kill your fish.

Research your meds before you do anything other than what the instructions call for.

FWIW, salt will not hurt your plants. A lot of us with planted tanks have treated ich very successfully with salt + heat.

Roan

[quenton]

Thanks to everyone -- my tank is now clear. It appears that it started as ich then developed a serious bacterial problem -- my 3 bala's lost about 90% of their fins (and tails) -- one died, the other are fine and fins mostly grown back.

I eventually went to salt and 84F temp and two antibiotics (maricyn 1 & 2). Took 2 weeks.

I now have a quarantine tank which is just establishing itself -- nothing goes into my 65g without sitting in the new tank for 3 weeks!!!