Possible ick? advise please!

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kablam

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Jan 16, 2003
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I think my blus spot goby is coming down with ick. I noticed some fuzzy loking blisters on him yesterday, but not on any of the other fish.
He's in a 30 gallon with
1 Spotted Puffer
1 South American Puffer
2 Knight Gobies
1 Dragon Goby
I did a water change and up'ed the salinity from 1.008 to 1.011. Is that an extreme enough change to kill the ick? The fis seem to adjust rather well to it. I judge this by always feeding them after a water change.
1. to cheer them up :)
2. I would guess if they were some how shocked by the water change they wouldn't have much of an appetite.
Any other advise on clear ick up?
thanks!
-bryan
 
Raise the temp to 85-86 & do a 50% water change. Leave the heat up for a while & keep doing water changes every other day.
 
I've seen them sold as both at the LFS. Actually I have one in a freshwater tank at work and one in a brackish tank at home. They seem to thrive in both.
 
A couple of clarifications.

First if your tank is brackish and what you are seeing looks like FW ich - then you are dealing with Crypt its marine counterpart. FW ich will not survive in salinities of more than 4-6ppt. SW crypt will survive in waters with a salinity of 15ppt and above generally speaking.

Second "white fuzzy blisters" does not sound like crypt (or ich for that matter). Crypt looks like tiny pieces of salt stuck to the skin. Occasionally just before an outbreak or just after an irregular white hazy patch will be present where the parasite was/will be located.

Does the fuzzy blister have a ring of reddness or pink around it? this would suggest a bacterial infection. Does it look like a cottony tuft? this could suggest a fungal or possibly a colonial ciliate problem.

If you still suspect crypt - I would suggest a FW dip for your effected fish. Set up a container with FW with the same pH and temp as your tank. Put the fish in for the FW for 3-5 min. brackish fish have no problem with this and it will knock off the feeding stage of the parasite that is on the fish. It will also help with fungal and ciliate problems.

Hope this helps
let me know if you have other questions
 
To finish the job, switching their tanks for a little while might not be a bad idea since "crypt" (going in the glossary) cannot survive without a host, if I am not mistaken. Thus the crypt affecting your fish would die in the FW bath and the tank crypt left over would die from lack of food. HTH,

Matthew
 
South American Puffers (colomesus asellus) are freshwater fish. they can live in brackish water but I think 1.008 is pushing their limits. I think cranking up the heat to ~85* may also help with the white fuzzies.
 
I agree ChilDawg.

In the book Fish Disease by Noga (my bible), it states that crypt is pathogenic at 68-86^F (optimal reproduction occurs at 86^F). At 70-75^F the life cycle is completed in about 6 days, but some may take more like 15 days. isolating the tank with an increased temp for 20-25 days would be good.

lowered salinity would probably be the best if this is indeed a case of crypt. the entire tank can be treated with out moving fish or raising temps simply by lowering the salt for a min of 21 days or indefinately given the type of fish

Crypt can also be carried into a system by inverts like hermit crabs, shrimp, liverock etc. We normally isolate for 90 days to cover crypt and other possible problems that may pop up
 
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