Guppy Parasites (Ich) whites spots please help

[adam_silver]

I had this female guppy for 3 days. She has developed white spots dotted around her body. these spots were raised. After reading about these on the internet i have found out that it might be something called Ich and it falls off the guppy and sits on the bottom of the tank develops into hundred and thousands of little parasites and then attack other fish.

She had around 6 raised white spots now only has 2.

Any answers?

 

[LMOUTHBASS]

It is ich - here's one way to treat ich - it's worked for me - raise the temp tank to about 83-85 degrees - this speeds up the parasites life cycle - next begin medicating with ich med - ich is very curable - continue medicating for the enitre time the directions indicate don't stop medicating when you see the white spots go away ! The parasite is still in the water and gravel at this point - ich on the fish is the visible form of the parasite when you raise the temp the parasite will fall off the fish and form a cyst which waits in the gravel to hatch - once it hatches it is a free swimming tomite - this is when the parasite is vulnerable to meds and this is when you kill it - most people make the mistake of thinking they have killed it when they see no more white spots - the tomite has only a short time (not sure of the amount of time think i heard 48 hours before) to find a host before it dies - this is when you kill it with meds - so you want to medicate for the length of time on the instructions but some recomend medicating for at least 3 weeks - don't over medicate though - be sure to follow the dosing instructions -
so lets recap
1. raise temp
2. ich med for -
3. continue medicating and do 25% water changes at least once a week - i also like to vacuum the gravel gently to try to remove any cysts laying within the gravel -however be careful not to stir the gravel up too much as i believe you end up burying some of the cysts in the gravel instead of sucking them out causing future outbreaks -


others may recomend a salt treatment but i don't know how to do this so they may tell you but i think it's prob more complicated - just go with ich med n you will win the battle


it might be a good didea to set up a quarantine tank for new fish to prevent this sort of thing in the future as constant ich outbreaks from new fish can get expensive to fight - maybe set up a 10 g for quarantine

 

[Harlock]

others may recomend a salt treatment but i don't know how to do this so they may tell you but i think it's prob more complicated - just go with the scaleless ich med n you will win the battle

it might be a good didea to set up a quarantine tank for new fish to prevent this sort of thing in the future as constant ich outbreaks from new fish can get expensive to fight - maybe set up a 10 g for quarantine

Actually, the salt/heat route is not anymore complicated than the treatment you described above. Also, it's more natural and you (hopefully) don't have to purchase any additional items for treatment. Daveedka wrote a wonderful article all about ich and treatment here. Basically, you raise temp to about 86 degrees farenheit, add salt (Daveedka gives dosage, I see a lot of folks suggest at least 1 tsp per gallon of water) and treat for 1-2 weeks. I like salt/heat better because it is simpler than most medications and you don't have to remove activated carbon from your filter for it to work (if you use carbon, anyway), while for most ich meds, they require you to remove the carbon filter cartidge. If you read all of Daveedka's article, which is hosted by this very site, you will discover that the salt treatment is reliable, easy and a lot less stressful to your fish. Good luck!