White spots on fish? is it ich? or something else.

[Britt20]

So I think that my fish have ich... I just went to feed them and noticed that the female one is covered in white spot, another fish has a little bit of spots showing now and I cant notice if there are any on the silver molly... whats the best way to tell for sure if it is ich and the best medicine to treat it?


I'll try and get some pics, but cameras are being stupid

[Britt20]

well, I was looking on the internet for pictures of what ich looks like and here is one pic.


this is what my molly looks like including the color.

http://www.duboisi.com/diseases/Molly.gif

[Blueiz]

yes, that I would say that is definately ich.

CHeck this article out : FRESHWATER ICH (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601)

Blue

[jm1212]

for ich that advanced i would use meds. the salt treatment will take a while to work, and then the ich could kill your molly.

[Britt20]

Is it safe to use both the salt and medicine or not? It looks like I wont be able to get to the pet store until the morning boyfriend has car and is working.

[Britt20]

well thanks to my dearest dad he bought some medicine for me..

[Blueiz]

There's no need to use both. Either treatment you choose will stress the fish on top of the stress they are having from the ich. Using two meds at the same time will be even more stress. Choose one or the other, both work. I highly reccomend the salt method, have never used anything but that.

Blue

[Blueiz]

for ich that advanced i would use meds. the salt treatment will take a while to work, and then the ich could kill your molly.
The salt treatment will take no longer to work than the meds will. The salt will kill the ich just the same as the meds will.

Blue

[jm1212]

The salt treatment will take no longer to work than the meds will. The salt will kill the ich just the same as the meds will.

Bluei didnt know that.
but i always caught ich early in my QT tanks when there was only 1 or 2 spots and the ich meds seemed to work within 24 hours

[fish_freak]

Do to the complex life cycle of ich it would impossible for it to be killed in just 24 hours. The visible sypmtoms may have gone away in 24 hours but I assure you that the parasite was still in your tank. There are instances where a tank with no new fish added to it goes years without ich and then suddenly there is an ich outbreak. Where did that ich come from? It was there the whole time but the fishes immune systems where able to keep the infection at a minimum and the aquarist most likely never noticed it.
You must treat a full 7 days to be sure that the ich is completely gone as the only stage that it can be killed is when it is free swimming before it attaches to the host and after it goes dormant and mulitplies. Take a look at this article I worte that blueiz linked earler.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601
If you have any other quetions about ich feel free ask me.

[Britt20]

Thanks. So I just need to treat it for 7 days or maybe longer depending on the how the fish are doing. But there is no maximum for how long you need to add the treatment for? Anyway to prevent future breakouts of ICH?

[fish_freak]

The treatment should clear things up in seven days with out a problem but there are some resiliant strains out there that may not die off that quickly but they are rare. Treat for seven days and as long as the white spots on your fish are gone for two days then you should be ok. I wouldnt recomemd continueing treatment unless you still see symptoms in the tank as these treatments are both some what tough on your fish. If it does come back again then you may have to take some stronger measures but its not really worth it to your fish to do this now as it will severely stress them and the chances that you have a resistant strain are slim.

[Britt20]

Thanks for your advice everyone

[Britt20]

well 2 of the 4 fish have died. The little baby one must have had the disease and just couldn't swim anymore and got sucked up the filter and the female must have died sometime during the night. Just woke up and was going to feed them and find that i was missing the female fish so i looked for her and she is behind the treasure chest. So I guess I will have to take her out and flush her.

[jm1212]

Do to the complex life cycle of ich it would impossible for it to be killed in just 24 hours. The visible sypmtoms may have gone away in 24 hours but I assure you that the parasite was still in your tank. There are instances where a tank with no new fish added to it goes years without ich and then suddenly there is an ich outbreak. Where did that ich come from? It was there the whole time but the fishes immune systems where able to keep the infection at a minimum and the aquarist most likely never noticed it.
You must treat a full 7 days to be sure that the ich is completely gone as the only stage that it can be killed is when it is free swimming before it attaches to the host and after it goes dormant and mulitplies. Take a look at this article I worte that blueiz linked earler.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601
If you have any other quetions about ich feel free ask me.i forgot to say that my fish had ich and then we had a power problem that messed up my heater, so it was powering the water at 87 degrees during and after the meds were added, and the carbon in the filter wasnt exactly the newest when i put it back in (keep in mind this was still when i was new to fishkeeping)

[Britt20]

i forgot to say that my fish had ich and then we had a power problem that messed up my heater, so it was powering the water at 87 degrees during and after the meds were added, and the carbon in the filter wasnt exactly the newest when i put it back in (keep in mind this was still when i was new to fishkeeping)


im not sure what you are saying exactly. :confused:
The temp is about 75F in the tank.

[jm1212]

higher the temp, the faster the ich goes throught its life cycle, and carbon removes meds, and older carbon doesnt remove anything as well or just shuts down

[Britt20]

whats the highest and safest tempurature to turn the heater to?

[Ulan]

whats the highest and safest tempurature to turn the heater to?
Most people seem to recommend 84F to 86F. Above 80F is a more general recommendation. It depends on the fish and how much oxygen they need.

I'm treating for ich at the moment. But I seem to have a strain that is resistant to high temp and salt. Well, this is Arizona. I had to go down with the temperature in order to keep the fish alive, after a few of them died and some of them fell unconscious from time to time.

I don't want to discourage you from trying the high temperature/high salt method, as most people seem to fare well with it. Especially mollies should be fine in high salt. Just watch your fish closely. Of course, that's the same with other methods, too.

[Britt20]

Is it ok to keep adding the medicine after 7 days if its not going away? or what do you people suggest?

[Ulan]

Did you remove all carbon from the filters? And what kind of medicine did you use?

In principle, the suggestion is to medicate for at least a week, but always three more days after all symptoms vanished.

[Britt20]

ok good to know, because the lyretail molly seems to be getting worse and not better like the other male molly in my tank. The female and baby died couple days after the disease began. The black molly seems to have no spots on him at all. I haven't had a chance to change the filter yet as it hasn't been 7 days yet, but I going to go to petsmart in the next couple of days to get some more filter cartridge.

[Ulan]

New cartridges are not good, because nearly all of them contain carbon. Fresh carbon is even worse, because it will remove all medicine (at least something like malachite green) very efficiently. And old carbon has to go, because it can contain ich.

[Britt20]

So I should go within the next day and get a new filter instead of waiting until the 7 days are up? And how long after the filter is changed can I put new fish in?

[Britt20]

New cartridges are not good, because nearly all of them contain carbon. Fresh carbon is even worse, because it will remove all medicine (at least something like malachite green) very efficiently. And old carbon has to go, because it can contain ich.

How do I remove the carbon from the filter then? or what are you saying to do?

[Ulan]

How do I remove the carbon from the filter then? or what are you saying to do?
Well, with Aquaclear filters, you just take the carbon pack out. With Tetra filters, you should try to assemble your own cartridge (or take the one you have apart); they sell the stuff separately. I'm not sure about other models. Look for cartridges without carbon. Very old cartridges might work too; if the carbon is older than a month, it usually doesn't bind much anymore.

[Britt20]

For the medicine for this disease is it harmful to the fish if it was added twice in one day by mistake. I put some in before I went to work yesterday and then when I got home my boyfriend said he added some medicine. Will this be harmful or should I just skip a day of putting it in? What should I do?

[CaitxSith]

i think some fish are sensitive to the common ick meds that contain *something* green (?).

but you can check out this thread i made when i first got ick (don't worry, i conquered it! but i lost 2 fish in the process :()
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85311&

i'm sure it'll help at least a little

[Britt20]

So should I be skipping a day or just continuing on from where I left off?

[Ulan]

Don not skip a treatment. Just proceed with the normal intervals. The procedure includes water changes, anyway.

[Star_Rider]

what is the name of the med?

there are different med for ich.
salt heat is a preferred method by many and it works.heat should be set to 84-86 and should allowed temp to slowly rise. it take a few days for it to get there. also add an airstone as in warmer water there is less dissolved O2.
.for resistant strains you may have to resort to malachite green aka victoria green and formalin
others use copper sulfate

ick is only treatable in the free swimming stage. the stage you see as 'salt' is the stage where the ick cyst is digesting the fishes flesh..it will drop off and incubate/multiply then hatch and swim to find a new host..it is at this time ich is vulnerable to treatment. this can take some time usualy treatment for ick is 14-21 days

[Britt20]

what is the name of the med?




it is called anti- ick from petcetera. its what my dad bought