ichy ichy

dragonslair said:

This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it?
The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot.
It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and manifests as tiny white spots all over the fish. The spots are no larger than grains of salt. The wide host range of this parasite is it's life cycle, and speed of mutiplication especially in a tropical aquarium. When you can see the white spot on your fish it's already too late for those ich particles to be killed, they can only be killed in the parasitic stage.

FISH parasite stage under the skin and fin. }TROPHONT exits fish and forms a reproductive stage(TOMONT) } The tomont then settles on the substrate and starts its division. The Tomont can reproduce 200-800 THERONTS The Theronts must locate a fish within 24 hours otherwise it will die.It is at this stage when the free swimming Theronts can be destroyed by treatment/chemicals. If it infects a fish the cycle starts again, if not and it is killed off by the treatment the cycle stops. Early signs of white spot are when fish begin to flick themselves against rocks. Other signs are your fish swimming in an odd behaviour as if they were trying to use the water to wash away an irratation. Then you have the white spots. There are many causes for white spot, fish catch white spot like we catch a cold! Some of the more common causes are stress, bad water conditions, live food that have been infected or you've bought an already infected fish without knowing it. The main culprit is the parasite Ichthyophthrius multifiliis
Treatment: There are many remedies out on the market, most are based on either Methylene Blue or Malachite Green. Salt can also be used(not table salt),but only with salt tolerant species and if you have a major outbreak than the "big guns" need to be brought in. The big guns being UV irradiation.

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fourplayfishy said:

ok u know what... big words confuse the hell outta me im 16 for heaven sakes gimme a break with the methal blue and stuff like that... and u know what... myself i rather natural remedies but you see he already has salt in his tank... and i dont want to add more! so you know what... dont freak on me for getting confused and lost with all the damn big words in that post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O AND HES GOT MEALA IN THERE CUZ I WAS STILL HAVING TO GIVE HIM DOSES FROM WHEN HE FREAKED OUT!!!

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fourplayfishy said:

ok u know what... big words confuse the hell outta me im 16 for heaven sakes gimme a break with the methal blue and stuff like that... and u know what... myself i rather natural remedies but you see he already has salt in his tank... and i dont want to add more! so you know what... dont freak on me for getting confused and lost with all the damn big words in that post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O AND HES GOT MEALA IN THERE CUZ I WAS STILL HAVING TO GIVE HIM DOSES FROM WHEN HE FREAKED OUT!!!

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Jess said:

Melafix is a natural remedy and it works cos ive used it!

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