Itch
- Thread starter bad_boyz
- Start date
Hiya Badboyz, welcome to MFK.
Scratching is not a good sign,
Take a good look at the fish, check for white spots that look like grains of salt (ICH),
Reddish brown, small spots that look like cinnamon powder (velvet),
small black dots that move (flukes),
small, soft looking patches of glistening gel (clostia)
threadlike things hanging from the skin (anchor worm)
or semi-transparent flattened critters around a quarter inch long (argulus fish lice)
If you don't see those, or even if you do, there are a few other things to check.
Test your pH, ammonia, and nitrite levels, then take a good look to make sure that no sources of zinc, copper, or iron have fallen into the tank, also tobacco.
It is almost always ICH but the other things can also cause "flashing".
If it is ich, velvet, or clostia do a salt treatment by slowly raising your tank temperature over the day to around 85 degrees farenhiet and adding salt dissolved in water at a rate of 2 teaspoons per gallon of water in your tank, then wait, the salt should stay in the tank for at least ten days. Most fish tolerate this very well but you might wish to increase surface motion in your tank with an airstone or powerhead as the warmer, salted water holds a bit less O2.
If it is one of the other parasites you will need aspecific treatment for it.
If it is a toxin or pH problem you need to remove the contaminant and do a couple 30-50% water changes until the levels are within acceptable levels, for ammonia and nitrites that means none detected by the test kit.
Scratching is not a good sign,
Take a good look at the fish, check for white spots that look like grains of salt (ICH),
Reddish brown, small spots that look like cinnamon powder (velvet),
small black dots that move (flukes),
small, soft looking patches of glistening gel (clostia)
threadlike things hanging from the skin (anchor worm)
or semi-transparent flattened critters around a quarter inch long (argulus fish lice)
If you don't see those, or even if you do, there are a few other things to check.
Test your pH, ammonia, and nitrite levels, then take a good look to make sure that no sources of zinc, copper, or iron have fallen into the tank, also tobacco.
It is almost always ICH but the other things can also cause "flashing".
If it is ich, velvet, or clostia do a salt treatment by slowly raising your tank temperature over the day to around 85 degrees farenhiet and adding salt dissolved in water at a rate of 2 teaspoons per gallon of water in your tank, then wait, the salt should stay in the tank for at least ten days. Most fish tolerate this very well but you might wish to increase surface motion in your tank with an airstone or powerhead as the warmer, salted water holds a bit less O2.
If it is one of the other parasites you will need aspecific treatment for it.
If it is a toxin or pH problem you need to remove the contaminant and do a couple 30-50% water changes until the levels are within acceptable levels, for ammonia and nitrites that means none detected by the test kit.
Wow, very good Guppy!!!! Going to keep yo in mind if have any fish problems!!! Do have a question that you may be able to answer for me....
Thank you for the warm welcome Guppy.guppy said:
I have observed them ans spotted no signs of any of the above symptoms luckily the scratching have stop after i added a table spoon of salt.
I suspect the root of this problem came frm the feeder guppies.
It was probably a very early case of ich, the fish often start to flash as soon as the parasite tries to attach and before you can see them. They are vulnerable to salt at that stage, just keep an I on them for the next few days.
Hiya ian roby, welcome to MFK.
I use aquarium or canning salt because it lacks additives like iodine or anti-clumping agents. If you have cory cats be very wary of using salt and with loaches don't use things like clout.
If you don't have cory cats add 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon and slowly raise the temp to 85 degrees or so. If you do have corys try just 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons and raising the heat to 90 degrees. The temperature alone should kill the ich but there are a couple of heat resistant strains so the salt messes up the mobile stages osmotic system and causes them to die. Leave the salt in there for at least 10 days.
I use aquarium or canning salt because it lacks additives like iodine or anti-clumping agents. If you have cory cats be very wary of using salt and with loaches don't use things like clout.
If you don't have cory cats add 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon and slowly raise the temp to 85 degrees or so. If you do have corys try just 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons and raising the heat to 90 degrees. The temperature alone should kill the ich but there are a couple of heat resistant strains so the salt messes up the mobile stages osmotic system and causes them to die. Leave the salt in there for at least 10 days.