Guppy disease ID?

[shantyt]

Well, I have a male guppy that has an interesting disease. He seems to periodically develop bright red lines that go down the middle of his breast. When this happens, one or two little "dots" of fungus (or Ich?) appear on a fin. Just one or two at a time though. This has been occuring for about a month, and it's never spread to other tankmates. My question is: Could this be Ich coupled with another (bacterial?) disease? Should I treat the tank?

I just noticed this morning that the Ich (or whatever the little salt-crystal sized white dots are) has spread to a few neons, so I want to take immediate action. Assuming that it is Ich, can anyone reccomend a specific treatment for a planted tank with ghost shrimp, neons, and guppies?

Thanks,

Will

 

[TankGirl]

Will-
It does sound like ich. In a tank with plants and inverts I'd use the heat treatment. Even though the plants won't care for it, they'll bounce back. I'd definitely treat the whole tank because the eggs of the parasite are in the gravel.

Slowly, over a couple of days, raise the temp in the tank to at least 86F. Keep it there for about two weeks. In the meantime do twice weekly gravel vac/water changes of about 20% to collect as many of the eggs as possible. While the temp is up oxygen will be at a premium so lower the water level to create splashing of your filter return, and/or use a bubble wand. Surface agitation will increase oxygenation of the water.

I have no clue about the bright red lines on the guppy, but often red patches are related to parasitic diseases and will resolve with the heat treatment. You could consider salt therapy in conjunction with heat but I'm not sure how the shrimp would handle that. The plants, again, won't care for it but I know people who treat with salt up to one tablespoon per 5 gallons of water and don't have problems killing plants. This depends on what kind of plant, no doubt.

Good luck!

 

[shantyt]

Hrmm. I was thinking about trying out a little bit of salt. I have read conflicting reports about the effect of salt on Neons, if anyone has ever tried this please let me know!

A friend has put 1tbs salt/5gal water and his ghost shrimp were fine, I'm not too worried about those little buggers.

I'll try the 86deg F + light salting. According to this University of Florida extension article, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_FA006

"Salt at low concentrations (0.01 to 0.05% solution, 0.05% = 500 mg/L) is an excellent means of controlling "Ich" in recirculating systems without harming the biofilter."

I'll try a .05% solution. Salt has a relative density of 2.165g/ml, and 1tsp is about 5ml. A salting of 1tsp/5gallons, a conservative salting, is about 10.825g/18.9L, or .057% salt.

Since there is air space between salt grains in this volumetric measurement (it's not solid salt) this is a high estimate. Nonetheless, it's an error on the safe side. We'll see how it goes, eh?

Will

 

[TankGirl]

Sounds good to me. From what I have read from advanced aquarists on the Krib, people have "salted" tetras conservatively without any ill-effects that were obvious. It is definitely a more definitive treatment to use salt and heat, and the salt will also aid in respiration hampered by the increase in temp.

Keep us posted!