Damsel with ich?

[DamselnDistress]

I have a black and white striped damsel and i've had it for like 3 weeks now. It looks like it has white spots all over its fins and they look chewed up. I've never heard of damsels with ich. Think it's ich? The other two damsels seem fine. Maybe the other damsels are going after it? But there are sort of white spots. Any idea what it is? How do I treat it? Should I give him the flush?

 

[cloydog]

One time a pet store had us dip a fish for 30 seconds in fresh water to kill the ich that was on it. It worked, you might want to try it.

 

[DamselnDistress]

is this ich?

 

[steve-s]

is this ich?

Yes!

FW dips are effective at removing the trophonts attached to the fish but will do nothing to treat the tank. The "attached" stage is only one of three so you are basically only paying attention to 1/3 of the problem.

Quarantining all the fish in the display tank and treating them with hyposalinity or copperin a sepeate tank is the best course of action. Once all the fish are being treated, the display tank can then be left fallow for 4+ weeks to ensure the parasites die out naturally without the need for further treatments.

It also looks like it has a secondary bacterial/fungal infection so a gram negative anti-biotic would be good as well.

Cheers
Steve

 

[DamselnDistress]

did the fresh water dip....doesn't look like anything came off the fish. Does it take a while? I'll work on the quarentine tank today.

 

[steve-s]

Only the little white dots on the fish will be affected by the FW dip. Those are the parasite trophonts. The "fluffy" bits all about the damsel are fungus and will need to be treated with an anti-biotic.

Once the QT is up and running, both can be easily treated!

Cheers
Steve

 

[DamselnDistress]

Ok I went to the LFS and they had a deal for a 10 gallon tank, a Hagen Aquaclear filter for up to 20 gallons, and a 50 watt heater, and a stick on thermometer for 30 bucks. They also included a net, dechlorinator, and a small container of fish food in the package too. Set it up and used the cardboard box the aquarium came in to make a cover for the top and did some ghetto decorating with this base from a lego set and some tiger woods bobble head dolls....tiger tiger woods ya'll haha. So i put my sick fish in there and the lfs suggested some sea cure copper treatment. Sound ok?

 

[TriggerHappy]

hey damsel, i think we have the same prob. I have a trigger that shows signs of ich. I just got a 10 gal too for a qt tank. are you using cupramine, or what kind of medication? Let me know how it goes. Im gonna set up my qt tank tonite.

 

[DamselnDistress]

i'm using sea cure copper treatment. Hopefully your trigger is ok...i'd have to have a 20 dollar fish...or 60 dollar fish (if its a clown trigger) with ich. I also heard copper safe was good for it.

 

[steve-s]

i'm using sea cure copper treatment

Chelated copper treatments tend to work better and are less stressful that their ionic conterparts but the "SeaCure" should still be effective. Be sure to follow the manufacturers directions and properly test 2x a day to be sure the proper levels are maintained and you should be fine.

Be sure to monitor for NH3 and NO2 levels with a new QT and do the neccessary water changes if they get to high. Remember with new water need to maintain the copper levels if so...

Cheers
Steve

 

[TriggerHappy]

well i was gonna give my trigger a fw bath but i cant catch him

 

[DamselnDistress]

it took me forever to catch my damsel...and to get those pics of it

 

[TriggerHappy]

any luck with your qt tank? I got all my equiptment but haven't set it up yet. questioning whether to use lighting or not. I tried to find one of those deals but ended up gettting all the parts seperately.

 

[steve-s]

questioning whether to use lighting or not.

Lighting on a QT is really unneccessary and ambient room lighting can often be all that is needed. It will help reduce the animals stress as well.

Cheers
Steve

 

[DamselnDistress]

my fish has been in the qt for about 5 days now...he looks like he's lively but his white spots havent dissapeared. about the lighting.....i just keep the lights in the room on...no hood on the tank just a ghetto cardboard lid.