I will be adding more tannins (wood) today. I see the spots on the gills and I’m very worried. If it was anywhere else I’d feel more normal about it but the gills make me concerned.
Does my fish have ick?
- Thread starter coolcomfort
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yeah that sounds bad, driftwood, alder cones, almond leaves, and various other stuff would help, I would be ready to medicate if he doesn't get better soon or gets worse
I purchased a heater about 3 days ago and the spots are looking like they are clearing up. I'm not certain. I added a huge piece of driftwood today so I think it will help. Do you have a recommended ph level? It says mines about 7.0-7.5. I've seen different recommendations for ph when it comes to gulper's. Not sure.
5-7 is fine, 6 would be pretty good and probably what you end up with if you add in driftwood and almond leaves, I have no experience with gulpers though so I'm not sure, I can tell you though it definitely IS NOT ich
So i'm seeing more small white dots appear. Do you think now I should apply ich medicine? I have temperature to 82 already.
ok, did it just disappear and then more showed up or did a few more just show up, if it disappeared then showed up then it is ich, in which case you should wait for it to drop off and then remove all your substrate, do large water changes or remove your fish to another tank, if this doesn't work then medicate it when it drops off
Yes they disappeared and then a lot more showed up. I'm going to remove all gravel and do a large water tank. What should I medicate with? and should I turn the heater up? It's at 80 right now
no it's not really necessary to raise the heat, as far as medication goes you could go with API General cure, Ich-X, Super Ick Cure, and some other ones if you can get them, though I would suggest trying to treat it without medication first just so they don't build up an immunity or anything to the medication
Hello; I am afraid I must take exception to some of the advice given in these two posts.
In order,
first being that it is ich if it disappears and then shows up. The ich parasite is visible as small white spots when attached to a fish. As it feeds on the fish it will soon begin to produce eggs which drop off and mature for a time in the tank. The eggs hatch and then the new hatchlings swim around looking for more fish o attach to. So usually the spots just keep getting more and more numerious.
Next - No reason to remove all substrate nor to remove fish to another tank. The reason being the tank it infested and such actions are not needed. You will need to treat the entire tank with the fish and substrate in place
nwxt - raising the heat to 86 degrees F and higher is meant to speed up the life cycle of the ich parasite. There are two issues here to consider. Not raising the temperature means the total time to treat for the parasite is much longer. Many raise the water temperature to speed up the whole process.
next - how to treat the parasite without some sort of medication is a mystery to me. I know that some think the high heat alone will kill off the ich parasite. Iam no longer sure about this from my readings on this forum. There are also some warm water strains of the parasite is my understanding.
Is it possible you meant to say that the use of ordinary salt to treat the ich is a way to treat the ich and that salt is not a medication?
next - A way a disease or parasite builds up an immunity to medications is to not use a strong enough dose to kill all the parasites or pathogens. Use enough medication to be fully effective and the issue of building up an immunity does not happen. So what ever medication is used then get the dose up to full strength right away. salt in a strong enough dose to treat an entire tank will eventually kill all he ich.
One last comment. I have been following this thread and am not yet convinced the problem is indeed ich (ick). The OP can do a video mut so far the fish is moving too fast to tell. A few still photos might be of more use.
