Is anyone able to tell me if this white spec on his fin could be ick or just debris stuck in between his fin. I separated him from my tank to be safe to monitor him. The spot has been here for a few days now and he is eating fine and no new spots have developed. I am new to aquariums and we have been trying to cycle our 55 gallon tank so the water quality has been unsteady. We have been doing daily water changes to keep the nitrite levels low and dosing with prime and stability. Ammonia has been zero for about two weeks. I do not see any other fish in the tank with any spots on them. Thanks in advance.
White spot on Gourami
- Thread starter acabral51
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I would continue to monitor. It could just be a fin ray fracture. If more appear either on this fish or others in your main tank then its more likely to be ich. If it disappears in a week or so, then its more likely to be ich because thats a sign of the parasite leaving the fish and moving on to its reproductive stage. You could increase the temperature of the hospital tank to 28c as this will speed up the lifecycle so the parasite should be done with the feeding stage in just 2 or 3 days instead of a week. Remember that the white spot disappearing isnt a sign that the parasite has been killed, its just moving onto the next stage in its lifecycle and is still infecting your aquarium. And ich treatment is only effective while the parasite is in its freeswimming stage, which is after its reproducing stage and before the visible feeding stage.
If you have introduced nothing into the tank in the last week or two then its less likely to be ich, but still possible. The parasites cant just magically appear, they have to be introduced by you somehow. If it is ich then removing the fish isnt going to be much help as you now have 2 infected aquariums instead of 1. If one fish in infected, then the parasites will be in the aquarium even if the other fish arent showing visible signs of infection. Otherwise healthy fish can be infected and show no visible signs, but the parasites are there, doing their thing, going about their lifes, until you take active measures to kill them. When a fishes immune system eventually becomes compromised by another issue the white spots can then "magically" appear months or even years after the parasites where first introduced.
If it turns out to be ich, return the hospitalised fish to the main tank so you are only treating the one tank.
If you have introduced nothing into the tank in the last week or two then its less likely to be ich, but still possible. The parasites cant just magically appear, they have to be introduced by you somehow. If it is ich then removing the fish isnt going to be much help as you now have 2 infected aquariums instead of 1. If one fish in infected, then the parasites will be in the aquarium even if the other fish arent showing visible signs of infection. Otherwise healthy fish can be infected and show no visible signs, but the parasites are there, doing their thing, going about their lifes, until you take active measures to kill them. When a fishes immune system eventually becomes compromised by another issue the white spots can then "magically" appear months or even years after the parasites where first introduced.
If it turns out to be ich, return the hospitalised fish to the main tank so you are only treating the one tank.
Thank you. I have not introduced any new fish in two weeks to the tank. If the fish still has the spot after a week am I safe to assume it is not ich and return to the main tank? I have not done any treatment in either tank as I wanted to confirm what it was before I added chemicals to the tank and harm the fish. I did order a bottle of ich x to have on hand in case it ends up being ich.
With ich you have to think more along the lines of the tank being infected rather than individual fish. If your fish is infected with ich your main display tank that you removed it from is already infected, the other fish in that aquarium are already infected even if there are no visible signs.
The ich parasites life cycle is temperature dependant. The warmer the water the quicker the parasites go from one stage of its lifecycle to another. There is a freeswimming stage, the parasite then infects a fish to feed, then drops off into the substrate to repriduce, before the offspring go freeswimming and the lifecycle starts over again leading to fish being reinfected.
At room temperature a complete cycle takes a few months, at tropical aquarium temperature it takes 3 or 4 weeks, at say 28c about a week. 2 weeks at tropical temperature (24c ish) should be enough for the parasite to pass from feeding stage to reproductive stage. If you dont raise the temperature id want to wait a couple of weeks, if you bump the temperature up to 28c a week should be enough. If the spot does disappear in a timeframe that suggests ich, you should still return the fish to the main tank to treat because as said, your main tank would be infected and need treatment to kill the parasites present there.
I have an angelfish with a fin ray fracture, shes had it for many years. Looks just like an ich white spot, but its harmless, just a cosmetic injury.
Are your fish showing any other signs of parasitic infection? Rubbing themselves on your aquascape and substrate trying scratch them off for instance?
The ich parasites life cycle is temperature dependant. The warmer the water the quicker the parasites go from one stage of its lifecycle to another. There is a freeswimming stage, the parasite then infects a fish to feed, then drops off into the substrate to repriduce, before the offspring go freeswimming and the lifecycle starts over again leading to fish being reinfected.
At room temperature a complete cycle takes a few months, at tropical aquarium temperature it takes 3 or 4 weeks, at say 28c about a week. 2 weeks at tropical temperature (24c ish) should be enough for the parasite to pass from feeding stage to reproductive stage. If you dont raise the temperature id want to wait a couple of weeks, if you bump the temperature up to 28c a week should be enough. If the spot does disappear in a timeframe that suggests ich, you should still return the fish to the main tank to treat because as said, your main tank would be infected and need treatment to kill the parasites present there.
I have an angelfish with a fin ray fracture, shes had it for many years. Looks just like an ich white spot, but its harmless, just a cosmetic injury.
Are your fish showing any other signs of parasitic infection? Rubbing themselves on your aquascape and substrate trying scratch them off for instance?
I have not seen any fish scratching on anything and seem to be acting normal. Because the tank is so new and the fish have been dealing with a lot of stress from the cycling process, I did not want to over react and treat for ich not knowing if they have it. This aquarium was a gift to my daughter and we did not know anything about fish prior to and I made many mistakes along the way. I have done a lot of research and did daily water changes of 50 percent to keep the fish from suffering from the nitrite and ammonia spikes. This morning my tank appears to finally be cycled as the nitrite is now zero and the nitrates are finally appearing. The gourami I removed was hiding the morning I noticed the spot and that entire day did not come out of hiding, wasn’t eating like he normally did so I removed him to the hospital tank to monitor. When I feed in the mornings he was always seen with the rest of the fish eagerly waiting for food, so hiding was new for him. Since removing him he is eating again and the spot is still in the same spot. I would like to add that I have a feather fin catfish that the store owner told me nothing about just that he was safe to be with the fish I had. He does swim aggressively at night all along the bottom and is possible he knocked into him causing an injury such as the fin fracture you mentioned.
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