Ich won't go away!

[zenkatydid]

A fish tank with fancy goldish (fantails, comets, shubunkins and black moores) at the pet shop I work at has had ich for at least 3 weeks now. It's been treated with a multicure solution that has malachyte green and something blue, from memory. The two normal ones, anyway A number of the fish have been cured, and have been moved into an observation tank without meds, and none have had the spots return. But the fish still in the sick tank just aren't getting better.

First, is it a good idea to move individuals who are no longer infected out of the sick tank? The thought was that itwould prevent re-infection, and also reduce the load.

Second, what else can I do to speed up the treatment? I've read of adding salt and raising temperatures, but I'm not sure if goldfish would like that too much.

Also, all the spots are on the head and gills. I've enver seen any spots on the rest of the body, or the fins. Is it really ich?

 

[Jchillin]

Unfortunately, heat and salt don't help golds as they have problems with the increased osmotic pressure. Medications are the only route to go.

Do these spots appear to have mucus on them or do they appear to look like grains of salt stuck on them (ie: bumps)?

Removing what appears to be cured fish isn't a good idea as the ich parasite could still be within the fishs' gills. This will definitely create another infestation when these fall off and start their process all over again.

Great job in asking questions. You will prevent your customers from buying infected fish if your employers believe in what you tell them.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

They may be breeding tubercles, not ich. Do all the fish get the white spot or roughly half of them? Males who are ready to breed will develop white spots on their head.

 

[zenkatydid]

they look like someone's taken a white marker and dotted their heads and gills. the vast majority only have 3 or 4 spots on their gill flaps (love the 'terminology' ). i would guess they are slightly raised.

as for removing the healthy ones - we haven't had any re-occurrance of any signs on the removed fish (i wasn't mixing them with unaffected fish just incase i missed a spot, as or you said, carried some hiding bacteria). i'll leave the rest to be treated as you say, however.

i certainly wouldn't want anyone buying a fish from us to have to go through this - especially as most people wouldn't know what ich was, or be bothered to treat it. unfortunately goldfish are seen as a far too disposable a pet. i'd like to do my best to make them as permanent as possible!

what is the most successful medication for ich?

 

[zenkatydid]

on second thought, this pic of breeding tubercles looks a lot like the few spots that appear on a gill. now i'm so confused! maybe we don't have white spot after all? the thing is, i've never seen these spots on any other fish... did we just get a bunch of really healthy, breeding-condition fish? but, then, that makes no sense, because even some of the really small (5cm) fish have these spots and they wouldn't be sexually mature yet... would they??

 

[zenkatydid]

anyone?