Ich, One of my fish may have ich!

[KidneyMittens]

I fear one of my fish may have ich! My black balloon Molly has fuzzy looking white growths on her fins and body. I have no hospital tank (unfortunately I don't have enough room for one) and have a black moor, another balloon Molly, and a golden dojo loach in with her. No other fish show any signs of ich. I would prefer to treat with salt if possible (buying ich treatment is expensive and raising the temperature wouldn't be good for my moor) should I use sea salt, table salt, and how much if it should I put in my tank?

 

[KidneyMittens]

There are two pictures. Keep in mind she does have a few white spots naturally

 

[Tommy10]

What is the temperature and what are ur levels?

This is off topic but you shouldn't mix goldfish with tropical fish as they require way different temperatures.

 

[KidneyMittens]

Temperature is about 77, it stays constant but it is hard to get an exact reading because I have a cheap stick on thermometer.

My goldfish actually seemed to like the warmer temperatures better for some reason :?

 

[Tommy10]

Well to treat ich you will have to raise that temperature to 86 which the goldfish will not like so you would probably have to take him out and raise the temperature and do atleast 25% water changes daily... It may sound hard but it's the best way to keep your fish alive

 

[KidneyMittens]

Okay, well I have a new development, my sick fish is now laying sideways on the ground, he is still breathing but not moving. Should I get him out of the tank to help keep my other fish uninfected? Or can she still be helped? None of my other fis

 

[KidneyMittens]

Sorry, accidentally hit post, I was saying none of my other fish show any signs of sickness yet

 

[Mebbid]

That's not ich. It looks more like a bad fungal infection to me. If you want to save the fish (which I don't believe is possible at this point) I would suggest that you do a salt dip for it.

Link: Fish Dips and Baths

 

[KidneyMittens]

Thanks for the response mebbid, unfortunately by the time I read it my fish had already died, i will defiantly use that method in the future though!

 

[ciph3ro]

That sucks.

My tank had ich in it too and by doing lots of water changes my fish are healthy enough to resist getting white spots (a healthy amount of slime on them is too thick for the parasite to get to the skin).

New fish sometimes do get it. This is because my one and only local pet shop has ich in their tanks... :/

I set up a tiny tank with a cave and some plants (2.5 gallon from Wal-Mart - $25) and I put fish with ich in there and do daily 70% water changes. That's my ich insurance for the future.

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