Is this ich?

[squirrilah fish]

It's hard to discern the smudges on the glass from his spots, but I thought it was worth the ask anyway, is this ich?

 

[Moobs99]

Sorry to ask but what is ich ?

 

[FeldmansFish]

It looks like it, are any other fish showing these symptoms? Are any fish rubbing against decor., substrate, ect? Ich is an extremely comon parasite that affects fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and shows up as tiny white spots all over the fish. The spots are no larger than grains of sand. I can't really describe it as well as I dont know a ton about it.

 

[ezy33]

It's a parasite. I can't tell from the photo. It first appears as white spots and causes the fish to flash (rubbing against rocks). The trick to beating it is to catch it early.

 

[squirrilah fish]

Out of the thirty fish only him and his little brother have spots, there larger spots though, not granulated, they both scratch OCCASIONALLY.

I wasn't sure because the last fish I had that had ich constantly scratched, that's all they did until I treated them, the two rainbow sharks still swim, play, eat, but they have white spots, and scratch occasionally, no other fish is showing symptoms or spots. Are they any diseases particular to rainbow sharks, that look like ich. I am super nervous about treatments, I hear lots of awful things. The guy at petsmart recommended maracyn, but I haven't seen much improvement. The last time I tried the salt and raised temperature I lost 3 fish. (Temp at 85)

I don't have a hospital tank, but I was thinking about putting the two sharks in a 5 gallon bucket with malachite green for a day, but I am nervous to do that because no filtration, temperature regulation, and ammonia could build up fast in that small area, of course I would use prime, but realistically I could only keep them in there for a day right? Would that do it? Could they survive in a bucket with no filtration longer?

 

[Tlc]

That definitely looks like ich to me

 

[Wiggles24]

Sounds like Ich. The best treatment is to raise the temp in the tank to about 88-89 degrees and leave it there for st least a week after all the spots are gone. Doing this speeds up the life cycle of it so its going to look much worse before it looks better.

 

[Wiggles24]

I WOULD NOT recommend the bucket. Whatever fish in your tank that are going to catch it probably already have even if they aren't showing any symptoms yet. Just treat the whole tank with heat, that really is the best way to combat Ich.

 

[Rivercats]

Yes it appears to be ick. Ick looks like grains of salt sprinkled on the fish. If even one fish has ick it is in the tank and the tank must be treated. Maracyn is an antibiotic for gram positive bacteria and will do nothing for ick. Is your tank planted? If not there are many Ick meds you can use if you don't want to do the temp treatment. If your tank is planted then you options are very limited. Paraguard by Seachem is safe for planted tanks but you have to use it a long time to be sure the ick is truely gone as it is more of a natural remedy with a touch of medicine in it.

 

[squirrilah fish]

What I used is Maracide.

 

[squirrilah fish]

I'm still working the heat up too, I am a little concerned they don't seem to mind. At 80 now started at 75 yesterday, aiming for 86 right?

 

[Rivercats]

What I used is Maracide.

That sounds better but your post said Maracyn... lol. I'm surprized the Maracide isn't helping, from what I've heard it works pretty good.

 

[squirrilah fish]

Well the reason it didn mt is because I had to do so many water changes for the ammonia. I did another dose tonight, now that my ammonia is reasonable ( .05).

 

[squirrilah fish]

It appears to be helping, both sharks are a lot more active than they have been last couple of days.