ich?

[Maj0rFiSh]

I think my Albino shark has ich, what should i do?

She has a few white spots on the anal fin and one or 2 on her side fins

I found out that my water is very high in nitrate, (i will be doing 50% water changes every day for at least 5 days), has this caused it?

 

[soupdragon10]

Unlikely - ich is a protozoan so it was probably hiding out somewhere. There is a really good article about ich on this site, I have recently had this problem with a young oscar. I raised the temp. over 24 hours to 86 degrees and used a white spot treatment (although 86 degrees is supposed to kill the parasite anyway I wanted to make sure). I am also not 100% confident of any thermometer reading.

If you have biological filtration, make sure the treatment doesn't kill the bacteria (some do). The treatment I used had to be done twice four days apart, so I did a water change before dosing, and another a week later as I normally would. I intend to leave things as they are for a while to make sure no more spots appear. Oscar is feeding fine and growing v.quickly and seems to have no ill effects from temp. or meds.

 

[Maj0rFiSh]

I thought ICH was where you get white spots?

anyway, i see a couple of fish now have these white spots :S

Ill have to get some treatment,do you think this illness is enoguh to kill them?

 

[freeless2002]

I thought ICH was where you get white spots?

anyway, i see a couple of fish now have these white spots :S

Ill have to get some treatment,do you think this illness is enoguh to kill them?

It is. the white spot is the parisite. and yes, ich will kill your fish if it goes untreated.

 

[Maj0rFiSh]

How long can they last with it? I found it this morning, its now too late to go to the shop and get something, will they last the night?

 

[freeless2002]

How long can they last with it? I found it this morning, its now too late to go to the shop and get something, will they last the night?

Hard to say. it may last the night and still die when you treat the tank. The more spots you see on a fish the worse the ich is and thus more likely to die. either way you have to treat the tank.

 

[soupdragon10]

You could start raising the tank temperature slowly to 86 degrees which is supposed to kill the parasite. 1 degree an hour no more. Fingers crossed, I had the same problem with oscar, raising temp and bought treatment the following day and he is still fine 10 days on.
Are they still active and eating?

 

[Maj0rFiSh]

Yes, acting a bit ifferent though, not as active, still eating though...

 

[Vyper]

I just wanted to add I've seen articles which say if fish are exposed to lower temps of water this can also trigger ICH, I figured this may explain the sudden outbreak if you've done 50% water changes for 5 days and used cold water straight out of the tap in a tropical tank ?????.

Also aside from raising the temp in your tank which if nothing else will speed up the ICH lifecycle you can add aquarium salt, be careful though and ensure your fish can tolerate salt, I've heard 1 tablesppon to every 5 gallons of water is the ratio to aim for. It might be worth a try if you can't treat with medication for a while. Just one thing though ensure the salt is aquarium salrt and not just your average table salt, ordinary salt contains extra chemicals which can be harmful to fish.

 

[pl*co]

So far, I have been following the article below from this site, specifically the salt treatment. Dave wrote a very informative article and I now know more than ever and am very confident I am doing the right thing. The article makes the life cycle of the Ich and how the steps to treat it are related, easy to understand. The only difference is, I am using 1 tsp. per 5 gallons. I happened to have a box of aquarium salt on hand, so I am using that instead of regular table salt or Nu-salt. I just need to get the temp up a little higher to make the process go faster. Things seem to be going well, but not fast enough for me, because I know my fish are uncomfortable... they are doing much better though. It is important to be patient and make changes slowly. I am also following up with a treatment of (broad spectrum) medicated food flakes to take care of any post bacterial infections as a result of the parasites. Dang little buggers.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759