New fish get spots

[darlar76]

Hey all,

I have had a few fish in my tank for about 6 months now. It seems that my cowfish has spots that come and go all over him. They are little white spots. They will be on him for a week and then go away. When I added two new fish to the tank a month ago, they did fine for about 2 weeks and then one of them got spots all over. The spots went away after about 4 days and turned into greyish blotches. About a day later the fish was belly up. The next day the other new fish and my clown died(Niether had any signs of problems). I've noticed before that when i add a new fish ther is a 50/50 chance of the spots appearing, Every other time the spots went away in a couple of days.

Ever had this happen?

thanks


ph=8.1, 77 degrees, all levels at 0, .026 sal

 

[melosu58]

Your tank has a parasite in it that is deadly to your fish. Couple things need to be done. 1) Stop adding fish to your tank. Any that you add will suffer also. 2) Any fish in your tank need to be Quantined in a QT and treated for ick. 3) Your main needs to be fishless for 8 weeks to break the life cycle of the parasite. Treatment that works is Hyposalinity or copper. Just so you know when you see those white spots and they disapear they are falling off and over 200 tomites(small fry) will come from each one. This is the cause of your deaths in your tank.

 

[melosu58]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=50

Here is a good article on ick. Please read.

 

[darlar76]

thanks for the response,

Just one question though, why are someof my fish not affected if it's ick. I was told that it wouldkillmy wholetank in a week but three of my fish never show any signs of ick and the cowfish gets it and then is fineafter a few days. I just don't understand.

Thishas been going on for a while now

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

For the same reason that some people in a family get sick just by looking at someone with a cold, and others do not. It's just depends on the individual fish's immune system at the time.

 

[melosu58]

Some fish are more suseptable to ick because stess levels lower immune systems as Kurt mentioned. What size tank is this? The cowfish is a harder to keep fish so his immune system will be the first to go compared to a damsel who wont die for any reason. The problem now is your tank has ick in it and needs treatment ASAP. Good Luck.

 

[roka64]

I would definitely QT the fish, if that cowfish dies, I beleve then can poison the whole tank.