Fish has white spots on fins

[Mark Hewitt]

So obviously you think "It's Ich", which is what I thought, and it may well be.

But he's had the same spots in the same place for a full three weeks now. As soon as I saw it I increased the temperature of the tank to 26C and put about 15 teaspoons of salt in to help.

I was of the understanding that the spots would disappear, when the Ich enters it's free swimming phase, and that would happen within 3-5 days, but it's three weeks now. Perhaps it isn't Ich?

It's one of 5 black skirt tetras in a 17 gallon tank, all the other fish appear to be fine, no spots, and none are showing any particular signs of distress, still chasing each other like mad, all the time!

The tank is coming out of it's cycling process, Ammonia was nearly 0.05ppm last weekend but it's now zero but nitrites are around 0.02 (or is it 0.2 ?!)

[dkpate]

It could be fungus too.

[Lynae]

Can you post a picture??
Pweeease?

[i3k]

26c = 78F is way too low to control ICH. You need to bump it up to 30c = 86F.

[annnie]

is your fish getting better? Mine had spots just on its fins and ive been treating it as a fungus with pimafix and its getting better. the spots are white and different from ich as they are kind of raised and larger than ich.

[rusilja]

I think my cardinals also have Ich, I put my heater to 32° (without a roof on my tank the temp drops to something 38-30° I guese)

[dkpate]

Yikes! That much of a drop is really bad for your fish.

[i3k]

Sometimes ICH will clump up in one spot making the white spot bigger than the usual grain of salt size.

[DragonFish71]

If it looks like this picture, then it's not ich. It's called lymphocystis or cauliflower disease and there are mixed notations on a cure. We've lost our little famle ram (the one pictured) to this.

Fish Disease and Treatment

[Mark Hewitt]

Originally Posted by annnie

is your fish getting better? Mine had spots just on its fins and ive been treating it as a fungus with pimafix and its getting better. the spots are white and different from ich as they are kind of raised and larger than ich.

No. It's strange as I first spotted the spots around 3 weeks ago now, and there has been no change at all! I would have thought after that time it would have either got better, or got worse!

The fish still seems fine, he's swimming around all the time and chasing the other fish like he has always done.

None of the other fish are showing any symptoms either.

[dkpate]

I would still guess it's fungus, and treat the tank. I wish you luck!

[Mark Hewitt]

Just to answer the above post, it isn't furry in any way. I know what Ich looks like as I've had two goldfish die from it before . It's just curious that I would have expected something to happen before now, either it to clear up or the fish to show other symptoms.

[dkpate]

My fish had what I thought was ich, and it wasn't, it was fungus. I treated with Pimafix, and the spots are gone. It wasn't furry either.

[Blueiz]

I'm with dk on this. If it were ich, it would have went away by now and possible more spots would have came on if your treatment method for ich wasn't working. Regardless if you were treating for it or not, the cysts would have still ruptured and the white spot would be gone from that same location on your fish. .

Try some pimafix and see if it helps, it wont hurt.

[Mark Hewitt]

Yeah I think you are right. As I say, I've had fish with Ich before and they died within a matter of days! To go three weeks with nothing rules it out I think.

I'll see if I can get some Pimafix. Although I'm not sure if it'll be available in the UK, there's quite often not just a difference in brand names here, but what chemicals are and are not allowed.

Is there a specific active ingredient I should be looking for?

PS. Presumably I will have to remove the filter carbon during treatment?

[Blueiz]

Thye sale it there, so you shold be able to find it somewhere.. Fish Remedies at PawsAway.co.uk

Edit: If you cant find it adding salt at 1/2 to 1 tsp per g can be used as a general cure , if you will.

[Mark Hewitt]

Originally Posted by Blueiz

Edit: If you cant find it adding salt at 1/2 to 1 tsp per g can be used as a general cure , if you will.

Well, the tank is already salted, for the suspected Ich.