Gold rams fungal infection?

[cichlidphilosopher]

Hi All,

I came home today to see all 3 of my Gold Rams appear to have a fungal infection. Water parameters are all within spec (pH 6.8, Ammonia 0-0.25ppm, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 0, 27C). I got these fish exactly one week ago and am unsure how to proceed. Any idea what this might be and how to treat it?



Thank you!

 

[Aiken Drum]

That looks like ich to me.

Lets wait for a 2nd opinion from @Andy Sager before deciding what to do next.

 

[cichlidphilosopher]

That looks like ich to me. How long have you had the fish?

8 days as of today.

 

[Andy Sager]

It almost looks like it has ick and Epistylis at the same time. Ick will look like uniform round dots while epistylis is less uniformly shaped. For starters, check your water parameters to make sure the water is good. If it needs changing, change it then treat with Ick medication.
Under " normal " circumstances raising the temp would help deal with the ick part but if you do that, the epistylis will go crazy so this needs a medication vs a holistic approach imo. I often think of ick as more a symptom of another problem vs the actual problem. When fish are stressed, they succumb to the ick parasite. If they are healthy, they can usually ward off the parasite so there is an underlying issue that caused the ick.
Epistylis is a parasite that lives on the fish but feeds on the bacteria on the fish ( opposed to ick which lives on the fish and feeds on the blood of the fish) so it's usually caused by dirty water or unclean conditions. Dirty water can be stressful to fish which could have caused the ick.
With all that said, since the fish is new, is it still in quarantine? How did you acclimate the fish to the tank?