I turned on my light this morning and of couse looked at the fish. One of my swordtails appears to have a white spot on his back fin, and another one on his scales toward the back. Other than these two spots, he is completely clear. He does not appear distressed, and is swimming around normally.
I closely checked the rest of my fish (3 other swordtails and 2 yo-yo loaches) and there are no signs of any white spots on any of them. The swordtails have been in there for about 12 days now, and the loaches for about 5 days.
If this is ich, would it start small like that, with only 2 spots? I did a little research and while it said the loaches should be able to handle 85 degrees, the swordtails recommended range stopped at 82 degrees. I would like to treat them naturally the way most here recommend, especially since the loaches will be extra sensitive to the poisonous chemical treatments out there, but if the swordtails can't handle the heat, what should I do?
Should I start slowly raising the temp now just in case it is ich and try to catch it quickly, or wait a bit to make sure it is actually ich?
In any case, any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Paul
EDIT : I raised the temperature on the heater from 75 to 77, I figure this will take a while to raise the temp in 38 gallons, won't hurt the fish, and I will have a jump on getting to 85 or 86 degrees if that needs to happen. My LFS said that it was a good treatment to raise temp and add salt, and that copper would help too if I wanted to supplement treatment? I guess that is what they use to treat ich.
I closely checked the rest of my fish (3 other swordtails and 2 yo-yo loaches) and there are no signs of any white spots on any of them. The swordtails have been in there for about 12 days now, and the loaches for about 5 days.
If this is ich, would it start small like that, with only 2 spots? I did a little research and while it said the loaches should be able to handle 85 degrees, the swordtails recommended range stopped at 82 degrees. I would like to treat them naturally the way most here recommend, especially since the loaches will be extra sensitive to the poisonous chemical treatments out there, but if the swordtails can't handle the heat, what should I do?
Should I start slowly raising the temp now just in case it is ich and try to catch it quickly, or wait a bit to make sure it is actually ich?
In any case, any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Paul
EDIT : I raised the temperature on the heater from 75 to 77, I figure this will take a while to raise the temp in 38 gallons, won't hurt the fish, and I will have a jump on getting to 85 or 86 degrees if that needs to happen. My LFS said that it was a good treatment to raise temp and add salt, and that copper would help too if I wanted to supplement treatment? I guess that is what they use to treat ich.