Ick attack?

[h99]

Hey guys - Inotice that there’s a white spot on my one of the platy’s fin in my aquarium. The aquarium is a 54L of size, with around 10 platies ( all of sunset platies), and 5 amano shrimps.

they lived there for quite some time and I had not added anything recently.

The photo isnt cleared and i cannot take a cleared anyway as she’s dashing fast…

Other than ick could there be anything else that cause this white spot?

Thanks alots for the help

tanks ammonia amd nitrate are checked to be at 0 using drop kit, nitrate is less than 30

ph is slight acidic a bit 6.8, water hardness should be around 150-180, temp at 25 degree

 

[Colin_T]

I looked at the first picture and it looks like there is a white spot on the end of the tail and a sore near the body. Then I looked at the second picture and the white spot is on the filter. You should clean the glass before photographing fish

The spot on the tail where it meets the caudal peduncle (the part of the body the tail attaches to) is not white spot. It looks like a sore and should heal up by itself if conditions are good.

You can try adding a bit of salt or just do a big (75%) water change and gravel clean every day for a week. See if it helps. If there's no improvement after a week or it gets worse, post more pictures.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[h99]

Just come back for some update - obviously my glass is not clean (and I had taken action on it).

Salt water is not helping, but I had also get used to give some level of salt to my tank. Did a few times of ~60% water change but the white spot seems to be getting just bigger. Water condition is undoubtedly good - my own api drop test kit and vet drop test kit shows a consistent result of ammonia, ph, hardness, nitrite and nitrate. Temperature are kept in 26 degree.

The suggestion from vet is to starting to use some eSHa 2000 and eSHA EXIT, which I am going to try.

Thanks again Colins for all the input and help.

 

[Colin_T]

new pictures so we can see how it is growing?

 

[h99]

she’s hiding inside a decoration and is not coming out, even there are food, will give it a try when she swim out of the hideout

 

[h99]

just tried to use some lighta to force her out of the hideout temporarily, and tried to take photos from different angles, hopefully it is cleared enough

 

[Colin_T]

That's interesting. It looks like the fish is producing excess mucous on both sides of the tail where the lump was.

I would try the esha 2000 first and see how it goes after a week of that. But be careful if you have shrimp in the tank, because it contains copper. If it's going to work, there should be an improvement within a day or two of adding the medication.

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To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating with chemicals or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working. You do not need to remove the carbon if you use salt.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence when using chemicals, to maximise the oxygen level in the water.

 

[h99]

Thanks alots Colin. The vet said eSHa2000 will be fine for Shrimp, what will be the problem with copper?

 

[Colin_T]

copper kills invertebrates like shrimp, snails, crabs, starfish, seahorses, sea anemones and anything else that isn't a normal fish.

 

[h99]

I started the dose of eSHa 2000 and eSHA EXIT last night, the water turned into green, but this morning the water color turned back into normal.

I think possibly it is the filter? But I am 200% sure there are no carbon in my filtrates

 

[Colin_T]

Why are you adding both medications?
You only want to add one not both. Adding one medication puts a huge amount of stress on the fish. Adding 2 medications at the same time can kill everything in the tank.

 

[h99]

ewwww It is the vet said I can use both of them...

 

[h99]

I will stop the dose tonight and only do eSHa 2000 the next

 

[h99]

OK just come back for an update after doing 3 days of treatment.

One of the fish got his right eye some white patch, and it was cured using eSHa2000 for 3 days. There are some skins peeling off around the head area, not sure what is it but I attach a photo here. The peeling is not continuous. This fish however hide himself in a corner and only come out when there are food.
Another fish which is the original one that have white patch at her tail, shows no improvement (putting in a photo again here). I had used extended the treatment for another 3 days according to the instruction but it is still not improving.

It is weird as not only what we discussed here but asked around friends / vets and even the shop and they cannot tell what is this. I had done more frequent 40% water change, keep measuring the water quality (it is as usual as same parameter, 0 / 0 ammonia and nitrite, 20~30ppm of nitrate, ph 7, temperature kept at around 26 degree and water hardness is low, these parameters were not changed for few months).

Not sure how will it be ultimately but to keep track of the status and hope it will help someone else that might have the same issue in the future.

 

[Colin_T]

When you first used salt, how much did you use?
If you have a spare tank, you could move the platy into it and add a lot of salt, use the dose rate for livebearers in post 2. See if it helps.

Post pictures of any sick fish including the one with skin peeling off its head. It's more likely to be excess mucous coming off the fish than skin, but if it is skin, then there is a serious issue.

If the medication isn't working after a week, stop using it because it isn't helping.