Possible ich?

[Vienolac]

This is my fish lady.
I tried to put her in a breeder net to take better pictures however this did not result well for me as I can seem to get clear pictures from the side.

Long story short.
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10

Weekly water changes 33%.
Upping to 2/week.

2 white sand like dots on the back of the tail fin.
A 3-4 on the body. One on the tail look like it was hanging off a little bit..
Slight side fins rot.
Sounds like what I have heard for ich. All other fish seem fine.

No fish was not qt. don't have a qt tank set up.
Recently fish death a 4 month old sword tail.

Currently treating water for ich/protozoan parasites using chemical containing
Formalin,
malachite green.

Any suggestions. Is this ich.... Is my tank ruined.... I really wish to not have a 5 month set back....


Also, look like possible right side gill swelling.

 

[Vienolac]

Sorry the pictures are not good quality.
I don't have a digital camera I just use my iPhone.

Anybody any suggestions?

 

[Hholly]

Wow, it's really hard to tell anything from your pics. Is she acting any different? Labored breathing? Is it possible she just injured herself on something?

 

[Vienolac]

Yah she seems to stay towards the bottom. Still eating. But hiding a lot. I wish I could get better pictures.:/

Just seems coincidental maybe?
What other types of fish disease or injurys cause small white sand like dots. I looked at the forum with the ich on the angel fish. It's not quite so uniformed on the body, more like random and few......

I'm not sure what other details I could add to make this less vague...

 

[Vienolac]

Also, I raised the temperature for the last few days from 78 or so to about83-5 now.

And I have noticed more white dots appearing on her as the hours go by. This Morning she had 2-3 on her tailfin. And now has 4+ also with mini dots that are hard to see.

 

[Vienolac]

So, I have another fish. It's a calico colors bristle nose pleco. Apparently it is a hard one for the fish store to get !!

Anyways. He was the first fish I noticed with little white spots, but I didn't question it at all... Because he's so actively eating all of the algae and sucking on the driftwood. In and out of crevices. I just thought maybe it was substrate materials he had wiggled onto himself.

But he has the dots. And since he sits still more than lady. I got a picture of him.

And confirm/deny of ich on this fellow(who's name is paco the pleco)

 

[Hholly]

Sounds like ich. to treat with heat and salt, raise temp to 86, use aquarium salt, increase aeration with airstone and/or let filter make more wake. Continue for 2 weeks. Gravel vac. Beware salt affects some fish more than others. You can use a half dose if you have any doubts. Good luck!

 

[Vienolac]

Just found.

2 ballon mollies also have developed white dots on tailfins

I'm thinking possibly for sure ich?
Since the water temperature is now abt 84 Probably. I would say it accelerates the speed of ich from what I have read... I have currently been treating for ich since yesterday. So today is day 2... Hoping my problem sorts itself out. Information of medicine is on first post

 

[Vienolac]

Sounds like ich. to treat with heat and salt, raise temp to 86, use aquarium salt, increase aeration with airstone and/or let filter make more wake. Continue for 2 weeks. Gravel vac. Beware salt affects some fish more than others. You can use a half dose if you have any doubts. Good luck!

I do a small amount of gravel vacuuming everytime I do a pwc. I just shove the hose into the gravel and it picks up a lot of junk!! Nasty brown stuff. Is there another method to this. Or is that the basic.

Also... How often do I treat with salt? Every day? Every other day? Twice week?

And can I just add to the tank after I dissolve it? Or does it need to be during a water change?....

Sorry for the questions. I just wish for the best health of my fish.

 

[Hholly]

I do a small amount of gravel vacuuming everytime I do a pwc. I just shove the hose into the gravel and it picks up a lot of junk!! Nasty brown stuff. Is there another method to this. Or is that the basic.

Also... How often do I treat with salt? Every day? Every other day? Twice week?

And can I just add to the tank after I dissolve it? Or does it need to be during a water change?....

Sorry for the questions. I just wish for the best health of my fish.

You're doing the gravel vac like I do. You dose your tank with salt according to instructions on the bag. Dissolve in some water and add it slowly over a period of several hours. When you do a water change add back the proportion of the water that you removed. Like if you change out 50%, add 50% of the salt back. If you have doubts about your fish tolerating salt, just use half the recommended dose. The ich will still die off.

 

[Vienolac]

Unfortunately I added the salt before reading this last post lol!

I added 15g of salt. Wich. What it said was. To promote healthy stress free environment, 15g per 10 gallon.

But for curing diseases fish it was 15gram per 5 gallon.

I only used 15g. And I have a 20 gallon. So I did half of the healthy environment. Because I have a Cory. And I have shrimp. But maybe they died haven't seen them in like 2 weeks.

Anyways. I guess maybe I should at least slowly add the other 15 grams to even it out for disease curing

 

[Hholly]

Honestly, the heat and frequent water changes alone will probably work. It did for me when my tank had ich. Good luck!

 

[Vienolac]

Honestly, the heat and frequent water changes alone will probably work. It did for me when my tank had ich. Good luck!

Much appreciated!
You've been big help!!

 

[Hholly]

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Bowhunterking]

i successfully treated ich recently. raise the temp of your tank to around 85, this willl slow the reproduction of the parasite. There isnt a effective way to kill the parasite once they are attached to the fish, its best to kill them when they detach. I added some melifix to the tank to work on the ones that are swimming around. increase salt to create a salt bath, i used around 7tbsp for my ten gal. i know it seems excessive. do a water change at lease every day, for at least the first week. thats really ll you can do for ich. it may see like your not going anywhere, but ich take a while to kill. give it at least a week and a half be for you start seeing progress

 

[Vienolac]

Noticed that almost ALL of the rest of my fish have it with the exception of 3. My largest Molly. My smallest fish a guppy. And the panda Cory I have.

All the rest have it.

The original fish I believe. Was lady. My yellow Molly.
And she has some swelling next to one fin. Actually looks like it is inhibiting her swimming, today is day 3 of my protozoan/ich cure medicine. With malachite green. And some other thing in it. I will be doing a 30% water change. And adding back 7 grams of salt. Tank temperature is about 87. I turned the heater down just a tad. It's old so it's hard to get it in the right spot. But I believe the fish should be doing better soon.

 

[Bowhunterking]

Sounds like you should be fine

 

[Hobgob]

You don't need salt. The temperature will work on its own. But it needs to be atleast 86 I would go 87 as long as your fish can handle it. When ever you take water out you need to put the same amount of salt in that you took out. Don't use meds for ich! Ich is an easy thing to deal with and honestly everyone has to deal with it at some point.
You should google the life cycle of ich so you can understand it better and therefore kill it faster! Also fish use the oxygen quicker at higher temperatures this is why you need to add and airstone or power head. Something to get oxygen into the water.
Yes higher temps speeds up ich life cycle. But at 86.7 they cannot lay eggs or attach to a new host. One or the other cant remember. Then at like 87 something they do the other. Then at like 89 all the ich dies instantly.

One more thing! Don't treat with meds unless you know for sure what it is. Otherwise these meds might be useless in the future.

 

[Hobgob]

You are over thinking salt it's one tablespoon per 5 gallons. So you have 20gallons you need 4 tbsp. you should do around 50% water change do you can remove the free swimming ich and the eggs in your substrate. Fill you tank back up and add 2 tbsp.

20gallon tanks are easy. If you do a 25% water change you add one tbsp, 50 is 2tbsp and so on. 25% is 5 gallons in your tank.

 

[Hobgob]

So your using a bunch of meds to do the same thing? Or just one type? I don't use meds for ich so I'm not exactly sure whats going on now.

How are you changing your temperature? You can only do about 1 degree an hour otherwise your fish could go into temperature shock. Another thing is changing your temperature to fast will stress out your fish making them weaker and an easier target for the ich.

Ich is a stressed caused disease and you need to figure out what is stressing your fish otherwise it will just come back.