Goldfish Ich

[thedon986]

Hi, im kinda new. I have three comet goldfish and all three seem to be swimming sluggishly and last night i noticed one white spot on one of them, thats it. but this morning i noticed the same spot was gone and the other goldfish are still clear. if it is ich is it okay to use the heat method with goldfish?

 

[jsoong]

You can try, but single tailed goldies don't handle heat as well as fancies, so you might not be able to get the temp high enough. Safest is to up the temp slowly (say a couple of degrees every 6-8 hrs) and watch for signs of distress. Increase O2 in water with airstone, current etc.

Since you suspect ich without any external spots, it may be that the ich is in the gills. In that case the fish already have impaired respiration & will not handle the heat (& low O2) at all.

I think the best way to treat goldies with ich is salt. You can raise the salt level to 0.3% over 24 hrs (ie. increase 0.1% every 12 hrs) and maintain that for 3-4 weeks (depending on your tank temp). With heavy infestation, you can cosider a salt bath - I treat mine in 1.0% salt balth for 30 min (remove to clean water sooner if the fish appears passed out - they'll recover within a couple minutes). You'll still need the 0.3% salt in the tank after the bath, however, to irrradicate ich.