Is It Ich?

[CosmicChild87]

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help! Apologies if I give too much detail, didn't want to miss anything important out

My first tank, its 60 litres in size, tropical. Was setup and run for 3 weeks with no fish to start before one Ballon Molly was added, levels esp. were very high for 2 weeks or so. After 3 weeks the levels were good so I added 3 more ballon Mollies to the tank and after a further week added 3 Platties. Shortly after I added the Platties one of the Mollies unexpectedly started giving birth to Fry, 12 or so in total. 6 days after adding the Platties one of them was looking very lathargic - I examined it carefully and saw quite a few white spots - which I assumed to be Ich, they looked the right size and similar to examples I found on the net. The next morning I went to the pet shop and bought some Ich treatment. The treatment made the tank water go very dark blue for about 20-30 minutes before it cleared up again. Shortly after the fish I noticed the spots on died, closely followed by another Platty and the next morning my final platty. The mollies seemed quite unaffected until the last platty died, and my black molly seemed to rapidly develop lots of white spots.

His fins have become ragged and he seems to be slightly isolated from the rest of the group now, but he is not gasping for air nor does he seem to have any difficulty moving.

On the saturday after I noticed the spots for the first time I did a 20% water change and added the ich treatment, and did a water test which showed normal results (very slightly elevated nitrates)
I slowly raised the water temperature from ~25 to ~29 deg c.
I have done 30% or so water changes the last 2 days
I also increased the amount of aeration due to the increase in temperature

I read that removing the gravel might help but I am worried that this might affect the fry as they seem to like hiding in it. I don't have a 2nd tank setup that I can move them two - but I thought that if it was Ich they are probably as infected as the adults? Should I remove the gravel?

I feed my fish every other day on flakes mainly but occasionally a block of frozen blood worm. With 20% weeky water changes (Using tap safe and cycle). Here are some pictures of my poorly molly - apologies for the poor quality but he seems to be the only one that is camera shy, He was jet black, even his eyes and you can sort of see the white areas on him that don't belong. There is also a picture of the first fatality platty that shows the spots a little more clearly.

Do you think that it is Ich - is there anything I am doing wrong or could be doing? The woman in the pet shop started having a go at me for mistreating my fish which upset me a little so I was hoping that you might be able to give me some better advice

I'm based in the UK if that helps

Thank you all again

Alan

 

[Dieses Madchen]

It defo looks like ich. You have already raised the temp, and i ould invest in a good ich medication. what are your ammonia an dnitrite levels?

 

[Fishy friend2]

looks like to me, but first we need to find the cause of this disease as we need to prevent it from happening again, usually ich is a result of poor water conditions, poor water parameters, bad stocking, or sometimes with livebearers it can be from stress due to being pregnant. but only if the water parameters are bad then i dont see why as that tank is perfect size for them temporarily, but mollies can easily outgrow that tank. and by raising the temp and adding medication, you did the right thing. all i would do for now is raise the temp to 84-86 temporarily, and add aquarium salt as your fish are tolerant of it and will most likely apprecciate it as they love having a bit of salt in there water, if you have soft water then that could be a factor to why they are sick becuase mollies are known not to last as long in softer waters, due to there personal preference being hard akaline water

 

[CosmicChild87]

It defo looks like ich. You have already raised the temp, and i ould invest in a good ich medication. what are your ammonia an dnitrite levels?

I used the "Love Fish" white spot treatment http/www.petsathome.com/shop/love-fish-anti-white-spot-and-parasite-fish-treatment-57284, ammonia is showing nil as far as i can tell from the color chart, and I think the nitrite is showing a very slight change in the color in the test tube, but it's very slight.

Im using chemical tests so I cant give an exact number. Does Ich usually cause the frayed fins? or is this something else on top?

 

[Fishy friend2]

it can be ich, and usually ive noticed that my sick fish will get picked on and fin nipping can easily cause frayed fins, and if your nitrite is showing anything above zero then i recomend that you do a water change of 30-40 percent

 

[CosmicChild87]

looks like to me, but first we need to find the cause of this disease as we need to prevent it from happening again, usually ich is a result of poor water conditions, poor water parameters, bad stocking, or sometimes with livebearers it can be from stress due to being pregnant. but only if the water parameters are bad then i dont see why as that tank is perfect size for them temporarily, but mollies can easily outgrow that tank. and by raising the temp and adding medication, you did the right thing. all i would do for now is raise the temp to 84-86 temporarily, and add aquarium salt as your fish are tolerant of it and will most likely apprecciate it as they love having a bit of salt in there water, if you have soft water then that could be a factor to why they are sick becuase mollies are known not to last as long in softer waters, due to there personal preference being hard akaline water

I will get some aquarium salt tomorrow, I'd didn't know that about hard water - but im central london and my tap water is very hard.

I did about a 20% change on Saturday and 30% on Sunday and again a few hours ago - fingers crossed I guess, I was surprised that the fry seem to have out lasted the adult platties

 

[Fishy friend2]

well, as long as you keep on top water quality, add salt, raise the temp, and add medication then everything should go well

 

[CosmicChild87]

Thank you all for your help last night - just a quick update. No more deaths today which is good, and the black molly is still with us. His fins are looking worse than ever but he seems to have less spots on his sides. He is still moving quite freely and is even chasing the other fish around a bit this evening - He was the first one to get to the food but didn't seem to eat much, which is slightly concerning.

I took out about 12 litres of water this evening and disolved 60g of salt into in and slowly put it back into the tank using a syphon to spread it about the tank a bit,

Again thanks for your help, looks like we might just be starting to turn the tides against the Ich, fingers crossed!

 

[Fishy friend2]

i hope he does well! its good to know that its going super great so far!
good luck!

 

[CosmicChild87]

Little bit more of a problem it seems - I'm confident that the ich has cleared up now or so I thought,

The Black Molly has a white spot on both the top and bottom of his head and is still being bullied by the others in the tank, and is often apparently hiding in a corner or inside the ornaments, all of the fish have started developing very long stringy feces, that looks like spiders silk with fatter sections attached, I will try to get a picture when I can.

I have done more water tests and everything is fine as it was before, my temp is still raised just to make sure that I completely kill off the ich. The fish seem to be spitting out food, and not eating as normal - so it looks like they might have internal parasites? There isnt any signs of bloating in the fish (but they are ballon mollies so the always look bloated), no sign of worms, and no sign of a prolapsed rectum. Do you think it is parasites? What do you reccomend for treatment - I am in the UK

Thanks again

Alan

 

[ShaneL]

Any fish I've ever bought from pets at home have caused a white spot outbreak so if you buy your fish from the same place you bought the medicine that could be where it's come from Looks like you're spot on with the treatment, keep it up until you haven't seen any white spots for a week and you should be ok.

 

[ShaneL]

As for the possible parasite issue, just stick to one treatmant at a time, it could just be they're a bit run down after the white spot and the treatment and will recover in time themselves.

 

[CosmicChild87]

All my fish came from pets at home , the last treatment for Ich was about a week and a half ago, and the spot on the black ones head seems to be getting smaller (it looks too big to be ich) so i was just asuming it was a fungal infection caused from being run down, so i didn't want to treat that while I was treating for ich, so I will just make sure I'm not over feeding them for the next week or so and see if they get any better

 

[ShaneL]

If you can't find a better store check any fish you buy from there very carefully before taking them home, as all the fish tanks tend to run off one water system if you see any dodgy fish in any tank don't buy. And never add the water the fish come in to your tank, use a net and you reduce the risk a lot. Of course, your pets at home could be fine and it's just me who's had the bad experiences