White spots on Fins

[Smudgeboss]

I have a new set up and in about day 6 of starting a cycle. I am keeping the ammonia at about 1 nitrites not showing up yet. and changing about 2 gallons in a 10 gal aquarium sometimes twice a day. The fish seem to act sluggish if the ammonia gets any above 1 ppm.

I have 2 red black and 1 blue black in the aquarium to start the cycle. I noticed tonite that all three fish have little white spots on their tails and fins. Could this be stuff sticking to them that is stirred up by the water change? Or is it a fungus or a disease of some kind?

What do you think?

Thanks

[An t-iasg]

It could be ich. Here's an article: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showqu...q=2&fldAuto=32 Do your fish look like the fish in these pictures?

If this were my tank, I would use the heat treatment, while continuing the daily water changes. The heat treatment will kill the ich in all life stages, and medicines are only useful in the free-swimming stage. It's fine to change up to 4 or 5 gallons a day if you need to. This will hopefully keep the ammonia from spiking too high, and lessen the stress on the fish. It will also remove the free-swimming ich. Remember to use a dechlorinator and match the temperature of the new water to the tank temperature.

Right now, don't change the filter media -- you want to keep all the good bacteria that you get. Do very gentle gravel vacs along with the water change. During cycling you usually don't want to do gravel vacs, because the good bacteria are establishing themselves in the tank. But the ich, in the cyst stage, fall to the bottom of the tank, so gravel vacs will help remove them.

Here's another article on cycling: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showqu...q=2&fldAuto=21

After the ammonia spike, you'll have to watch out for the nitrite spike, since it can be just as stressful on the fish as the ammonia spike. When your parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20-40 ppm nitrates, your tank is cycled. Hopefully the ich will be gone as well! Good luck!

[FMJnaX]

It could be a number of things, and would be best if you could most some more info. Here's some thing it could be:

1) If it looks like tiny bubbles, then it's an over-abundance of dissolved oxygen. Nothing too major as it will sort itself out. It can get to be a major problem though if it does. Over saturation could be from over filtration, lack of surface area, or saturation of a chemical (perhaps ammonia) that isn't allowing the gas exchange on the surface. I doubt this is it since you would have noticed bubbles instead of spots.

2) Stage of ammonia toxification, though it's normally red streaks or black spots. Red streaks can also be from interal parasites/bacteria. The black spots mean that the fish was burned by the ammonia, but it healing now. White spots may also be another (less seen?) symptom.

3) Fungus. Most "fish" fungi will produce a white (sometime fuzzy) appearance.

4) Fin rot. I doubt it's this since you made no mention of the fin actually rotting.

5) Ich. Quite possible.

6) Parasite. I also doubt this since a white parasite is usually seen dangling/trailing behind the fish and not in a "spot".

7) Bacteria. I'm not sure on different strains, but it's possible.

If you can give us a better description of it, we can narrow it down for you. Right now, based on my knowledge, it sounds like a Fungal infection.

The ammonia is probably dropping the immune system enough that everything will attack/latch on. Keep your ammonia lower than 1 ppm (actually, .50 ppm would be better). Do a PWC as needed to help, but try to stay away from things like AmmoLock if at all possible.

definitely sounds like ich.. not fun. I had success with the salt/heat combo treatement. My mother in law tried some stuff and it killed half of her fish. Just raise the heat (slowly) to about 85 and add aquarium salt... not sure on the amount of salt though.

[bzbee]

not sure on the amount of salt though.

3 tbsp/5 gallon

[Smudgeboss]

Originally Posted by FMJnaX

If you can give us a better description of it, we can narrow it down for you. Right now, based on my knowledge, it sounds like a Fungal infection.

one fish has 3 little white spots on the tail. The spots at this point are smaller than the period at the end of a sentence on all the fish. All three have it but the newer introduced one seems to have more spots. The spots are definitely round, and white. Too small at this point to tell if they are raised or not. All three fish have the spots to some degree. From the pictures in the article mentioned by "An t-iasg" it looks like it could be ich. I have started raising the temp. I hope my tetras can handle it.

Thanks for your help guys and gals.