Dwarf Neon Raibows May Have Ick - Help

[satish]

I have 7 dwarf neon rainbows and a couple of them seem to have been infected with Ick.
I see 2 white spots on the pectoral fins of one of the females and another female
has a spot (tiny salt granule like) on the tail/caudal fin.
All the fish feed OK, only one of the females is not schooling much.

I am not entirely sure if this is ick.

I did introduce 3 cherry barbs in to my tank last week, so they probably brought the ick
with them although I do not see any spots on the cherry barbs themselves.

I did a 30% water change, vacuumed the gravel.

I have raised the temperature to 80F. should I bump it up to 86F (30 C) ?

Should I also use salt treatment ? I am not sure if the dwarf rainbows tolerate salt.
Also I have cherry barbs and zebra danios in the tank. Do they all tolerate salt ?

I would like to avoid using medications if I can solve this with high temp and salt.

thanks.

 

[satish]

I forgot to add other details that are required to post in the emergencies section.

1. Water parameters. (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, temp', Hardness etc)

Ammonia 0 ( was 0.25 ppm before yesterdays 30% water change)
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 5 ppm
Ph 7.9
temp 75 F till yesterday. now bumped upto 80F

2. A full description of the fishes symptoms.

tiny salt-like spots on 2 of the female dwarf rainbows.
Only 1 or 2 spots noted on the pectoral fins.
One female not schooling, but feeding well. All fish feed well

3. How often you do water changes and how much.

Weekly 25% or some time twice a week.

4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water.

Just dechlorinater. Either Seachem prime or Superbac all natural decholorinator.

5. What tank mates are in the tank.

7 dwarf neon rainbows, 6 zebra danios, 3 cherry barbs.

6. Tank size.
33 US gallon (120 litres)

7. Finally Have you recently added any new fish?

Yes, 3 cherry barbs 6 days ago.

 

[WILDER]

Sounds like whitespot to me if the spots are the size of a grain of salt.

Never done the salt, and heat method so couldn't say.
I think danio's, and barbs are ok with salt, but not sure on the dwarf rainbow fish.

 

[satish]

Sounds like whitespot to me if the spots are the size of a grain of salt.

Never done the salt, and heat method so couldn't say.
I think danio's, and barbs are ok with salt, but not sure on the dwarf rainbow fish.

I have mostly good news to share and also a question to ask. Wilder or anyone with experience pls
help me here.

Its been one week since I started the heat and salt treatment.
86F/30C and 1 tblsp salt per 5 US gallons. The dwarf rainbows not only tolerated the treatment well,
they all look recovered and fine now. No spots on any of the rainbows. Even the female with
several spots looks spotless and feeding well. The 6 danios I have all look OK and I believe
they did not get affected by ick at all.

The only problem is a male cherry barb I have which still has a few white spots.
His activity level is low but still tries to feed.

With every other fish in the tank doing OK, I am wondering if I should isolate the cherry barb ?

I suppose heat and salt treatment is usually done for a max of 10 days or otherwise the high heat
could be bad for the fish ?

thanks..

 

[WILDER]

You could issolate the cherry barb and use half dose of a whitespot med.
Just hope the others don't break out again.
Thanks for the update.
Good Luck.