Help! My Black Moor has ick

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KarlaM

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Jun 24, 2010
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Chicago, IL
About two days ago I noticed one of my black moors has his tail shredded. I separated him and started treating him with Melafix. I noticed he has been trying to scratch himself against the glass and some of the ornaments but he has no white dots. So this morning I cleaned the tank and started treating him with table salt and turned on the heater but my fish started swimming very fast as if it could not take the salt and the heat. So then I noticed it was at the bottom of the tank laying on one side and not moving. Out of desperation I scooped him out and put him in another tank with fresh water all he was doing was doing was kinda floating belly up. I decided to add some Melafix, it no longer looks like if it going to die but I still need help on treating his shredded tail, what should I do? Please give me suggestions.
 

Ballyhoo

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Jun 27, 2010
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1. what are your water parameters?
2. what temp did you increase to?
3. How much salt did you add?
 

KarlaM

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Jun 24, 2010
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Chicago, IL
The temp was aboy 80F and I added about 4 tea spoons of salt to the 4 gallon tank. I have no way to measure the water parameters.
 

Ashes2ashes

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May 4, 2010
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About two days ago I noticed one of my black moors has his tail shredded. I separated him and started treating him with Melafix. I noticed he has been trying to scratch himself against the glass and some of the ornaments but he has no white dots. So this morning I cleaned the tank and started treating him with table salt and turned on the heater but my fish started swimming very fast as if it could not take the salt and the heat. So then I noticed it was at the bottom of the tank laying on one side and not moving. Out of desperation I scooped him out and put him in another tank with fresh water all he was doing was doing was kinda floating belly up. I decided to add some Melafix, it no longer looks like if it going to die but I still need help on treating his shredded tail, what should I do? Please give me suggestions.

Do you have pictures? I am not that great with fish disease diagnosis, but I have never heard of ich without ich spots. I would think you could get a much better diagnosis from some of the people on the forum very knowledgable in fish illness if you post a picture and water params, and then get a treatment plan going from there. :) Good luck.
 

Somervell

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Feb 8, 2009
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I have never heard of ich without presenting spots, either. The tail shredding could certainly be a symptom of a problem with water parameters. If that is the case, the tail will heal with super clean water. Rather than try treatment after treatment, it would be a really good investment to get a water testing kit. If it is a water quality issue, you should see improvement very soon.

I am not sure how well melafix, which is just Tea trea oil extract in a base, works with salt. It might be counterindicated. If there is a coming infection, the salt would wipe it out, anyway, so the Melafix is probably overkill, and seems to help only anecdotally, anyway. Some people swear by it-- others just claim it is useless.
 

KarlaM

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Jun 24, 2010
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Chicago, IL
I could not get any pictures downloaded I will most likely try tomorrow. But everything in his body is perfect exept for the tail it is deteriorating little by little you can already see the white strand and some of his black skin from the tail come off. All the other fish that where in the same tank with my black moor are fine. Is it posible that it is some kind of fungus?
 

Ballyhoo

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Jun 27, 2010
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I'm not too familiar with fungus treatments. If you post in the freshwater illness and disease forum you will have better luck at getting a response.
 
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