Rookie Mistake - Help?

[thiswasgone]

I didn't write down the magnification on the first 3 or the photos, but it would be 4x or 10x.

The last video here appears to be something different and is 10x from the gills.

Yup based on the videos I would say these are free-floating tomonts under going mitosis. Thus the 10x gill video is most likely a free-gloating theront shifting through the mucus on the slide. What's interesting to me is how low the colony size of the disease is since ich usually doesn't kill until it's spread to the point where you should be able to see multiple different cells of ich clustered together; at least that is my experience with cichlids. I have never kept these cats so I am unfamiliar to how hardy they are.

Still, it is a regrettable loss and I hope the rest of your fish make it.

 

[thiswasgone]

Crime bugs

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creep

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more crime bugs

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who invited these crime bugs

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After some more research I think I've ID the strange orange circular organism. I believe it's a species of shelled amoeba in which case it's basically a living garbage collector and nothing harmful to fish or humans.

 

[thiswasgone]

Yup based on the videos I would say these are free-floating tomonts under going mitosis. Thus the 10x gill video is most likely a free-gloating theront shifting through the mucus on the slide. What's interesting to me is how low the colony size of the disease is since ich usually doesn't kill until it's spread to the point where you should be able to see multiple different cells of ich clustered together; at least that is my experience with cichlids. I have never kept these cats so I am unfamiliar to how hardy they are.

Still, it is a regrettable loss and I hope the rest of your fish make it.

To be more exact, they are "free-floating" in this situation but tomonts, once released from the skin after the trophont stage, typically fall off to the bottom of the tank and attempt to anchor themselves via developing a cyst wall around themselves and any object they can latch onto. This is why the cell walls of the circular organisms are so thick because it's a protective layer as the internal nuclei under mitosis to develop theronts.

 

[Heck]

To be more exact, they are "free-floating" in this situation but tomonts, once released from the skin after the trophont stage, typically fall off to the bottom of the tank and attempt to anchor themselves via developing a cyst wall around themselves and any object they can latch onto. This is why the cell walls of the circular organisms are so thick because it's a protective layer as the internal nuclei under mitosis to develop theronts.

Thank you SO MUCH for this lengthy consultation. I'm still wondering if the meds caused his death - or at least contributed to it - which is making me reluctant to continue treatment on the others, but at least I know I didn't misidentify the lesions to begin with and expose him to a stressful medication for no reason.

I am not super proud of my microscopy skills (or that microscope - but at least the screen is easy to photograph), and I admit I continued disassembling Bendy for a while trying (unsuccessfully) to get a better view, but he's been laid to rest now.

Beavis, Butthead, Blackie, and Jamiroquai still look, at the very least, no worse. I know that by putting the carbon filters back in I've started pulling the meds back out of the water, so now I don't know how I'll proceed. I did find a bottle of Seachem Paraguard I didn't know I had - should I switch to using that?

 

[Heck]

In happier news, Crime Box 2.0 is starting to look kinda fun.

 

[thiswasgone]

Thank you SO MUCH for this lengthy consultation. I'm still wondering if the meds caused his death - or at least contributed to it - which is making me reluctant to continue treatment on the others, but at least I know I didn't misidentify the lesions to begin with and expose him to a stressful medication for no reason.

I am not super proud of my microscopy skills (or that microscope - but at least the screen is easy to photograph), and I admit I continued disassembling Bendy for a while trying (unsuccessfully) to get a better view, but he's been laid to rest now.

Beavis, Butthead, Blackie, and Jamiroquai still look, at the very least, no worse. I know that by putting the carbon filters back in I've started pulling the meds back out of the water, so now I don't know how I'll proceed. I did find a bottle of Seachem Paraguard I didn't know I had - should I switch to using that?

As thebiggerthebetter suggested you could try a formalin and malachite green combo using his medication recommendation (Microbe-Lift Broad Spectrum Disease Treatment). Ich-X is what I used when I first started fish keeping with oscars and got ich. I've never used Seachem Paraguard but a cursory glance at it's ingredient do not seem better than the "Super Ick Cure" and IMO it's worse since it also uses malachite green for the main treatment but also "glutaral" aka glutaraldehyde which is disinfected used on surgical equipment. IME disinfectants tend to make things worse unless you use them only in isolation baths in temporary tubs/bins for 15-30min treatments at specific concentrations; any overdose could result in major issues. I'm sure since it's a "Off-the-shelf" product there is a bit more lee-way than pure glutaral but I would take my chances with one of the other two medications if you don't trust the "Super Ick Cure".

Aside from an insane water change schedule and a UV unit the only other thing I can think of is using the filter/substrate of a well establish tank be introduced into your tank's filter + increase the turnover rate. The microscopic lifeforms in that established tank's filter/substrate should have a variety of larger protozoan carnivores that would eventually kill off the excess ich so that your fish's immune system is no longer overloaded. In fact, high flow + high biodiversity in the filter/substrate = most diseases will get eaten to the point where the fish's immune system is not overloaded. The prerequiste for this is that you find the initial stressor and correct the issue otherwise the fish's immune system will never recover to a healthy state.

Of course the 3rd option could take at least two - three weeks while using a medication mixed with both formalin and malachite green will have guaranteed results within a week at a tank water temp of 73-75F as they directly kill the free-swimming stages of the disease; a little over 1 week for a clean tank. If you want to keep temps at 76-78F then make sure you dose the tank every 24hrs as higher temperatures processes the medication faster. At these temps you should clear ich within 5-7days at full-dosage per the medicine's instructions. Temperatures beyond 80F are not required for any treatment unless your fish specifically require such temperatures (I only know about clown loaches who get extremely stressed below 80F but I would not be surprised if there were others).

If you're scared about overdosing at higher temps you can do a 1/4-1/3 water change and then redose the whole tank (not just the new water) per the medication's instrcuction.