Is this ich?

[mcbetty]

I'm a beginner hobbyist. I want to have confirmation if this is ich. Otherwise, please state other disease/condition.

 

[jaylach]

Looks like it to me. Read the following...

What is ICH?

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...

www.fishforums.net

 

[jaylach]

Oh, to add on, your infection looks to be pretty bad but there are things that you can do.

1) Gradually increase the tank water temperature to 86 F, about 2 degrees per 3 hours.

2) Treat the tank with salt. This is fairly frequent advice here but I can't weem to find an article on it so will supply the following link.

Treating Ich With Salt Guide To Treat White Spot Disease

Treating Ich With Salt Guide To Treat White Spot Disease In this article, you'll learn exactly how aquarium salt can help treat ich, how much salt...

www.tropicalfishcareguides.com

3) NEVER move fish that don't show spots to another tank thinking that they are not infected as they most likely are and you will just infect the second tank.

4) Treat with meds.

To be honest I have not had Ich in a tank since I was a young teen 55 years or so ago. If anyone offers other advice it may be best to take theirs above mine.

Come on guys. This person has a serious issue that I am not all that qualified to handle. Many of you have much more experience with parasites than do I. Please join in and help...

 

[Sir Guppy]

I have done this treatment when my endler tank got this sickness, and recovered.

Be warned however if you have any rabbit snails.
Mine died during treatment!
If you have any rabbit snails I’d recommend sticking them in a quarantine tank during treatment.

 

[Seisage]

Yes, that definitely looks like ich.
I've just finished dealing with a minor case in some new fish I got a week ago. They didn't have any signs when I bought them, but it cropped up a couple days after I brought them home.

Unless you have a severe case, ich is a rather trivial disease when you use targeted medications made specifically for it. To be frank, I wouldn't even bother with salt for ich. It can work, in conjunction with higher temps, but not always. And as soon as you lower the temp, it can come back. Don't waste your time and energy. Just go ahead and use something like Ich-X right away. The one fish that actually had cysts in my tank completely recovered after just two doses. It really works fantastically, doesn't stress fish (in my experience), and doesn't harm plants like salt will.

Rules of thumb for using Ich-X and similar meds:
1. Use caution when handling. Gloves and maybe eye protection are recommended. Formaldehyde and malachite/copper compounds are carcinogens. Make sure to dump water after water changes down the drain, and not outside into the environment.
2. Remove any invertebrates from the tank before treatment.
3. Don't use sulfur-based dechlorinators like Prime while you're using these meds. It makes the medication less effective
4. Don't combine it with other medications.
5. IMPORTANT: Continue treatment for 3-4 days AFTER the last signs of ich. After the cysts drop off of the fish, they incubate on the substrate until new parasites hatch out from them into the water column. Continuing treatment for a few days after the last cyst has dropped will ensure that you kill all of the newly hatched parasites before they can re-infect your fish.

 

[MaloK]

I second using a specialty medication, It's a lot less stress on the whole environment and it's faster to resolve the issue.

 

[Naughts]

I just turned the temperature up to 30c/86f for two full weeks then back down again. Job done.

Then I found a better place to buy my fish and have never seen ich again.

 

[mcbetty]

Thanks alot for the help! So far, I've been raising the temp to 85-90 range and supplement fish feedings with garlic juice for immunity.

So, my concerns are gravel vacuuming, medications, and salt.

• Gravel Vacuuming
  • I use an under-gravel filter, so vacuuming will ruin the biological filtration and expose the water with unwanted stuff (P.S. I've seen the hate. If you're telling me it's garbage and change it immediately, screw you. This hobby is already expensive. I'm trying to be resourceful.)
  • I also read an article that mulm within the bed of gravel kills the parasite
    • I'm not sure that's true
• Medication
  • If you saw the picture, I got hillstream loaches
  • I heard they are sensitive to medications because they don't have scales
  • I don't have Ich-X and there is none near me, so I have to get it on Amazon
• Salt
  • Loaches and plants
  • I have Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. Is that fine?

My tank is a 30 gallon, filled with 10 rummy nose tetras, 3 hillstream loaches, and one betta. Tetras act pretty fine. No other symptoms besides white spots.

I got them last week. Don't worry about cycling because I did that prior. I assumed the tetras got ich because they easily are stressed out than the rest of the species. I can set up an emergency hospital tank but it will not be cycled. I prefer not to set it up because the community tank is already infected anyways.

Water parameters are zero across the board in terms of the nitrogen cycle. Everytime I did water change due to rise of ph, tetras are more stressed out. So I should keep it at a minimum?

 

[jaylach]

• Gravel Vacuuming
  • I use an under-gravel filter, so vacuuming will ruin the biological filtration and expose the water to unwanted stuff
  • I also read an article that mulm within the bed of gravel kills the parasite

Not true. The bacteria do not just float free in the gravel but adhere to the gravel surfaces. Sure a vacuum may remove a little bacteria but not enough to make a difference. Actually a vacuum improves the under gravel filtration by removing built up gunk improving water flow.

I've been running under gravel since the 1980's.

 

[mcbetty]

Not true. The bacteria do not just float free in the gravel but adhere to the gravel surfaces. Sure a vacuum may remove a little bacteria but not enough to make a difference. Actually a vacuum improves the under gravel filtration by removing built up gunk improving water flow.

I've been running under gravel since the 1980's.

That's good to hear! How often do you recommend to vacuum them?

 

[jaylach]

That's good to hear! How often do you recommend to vacuum them?

Normally I'll vacuum the gravel surface every water change just to get loose stuff. I'll vacuum deep every month or two.

 

[Seisage]

Thanks alot for the help! So far, I've been raising the temp to 85-90 range and supplement fish feedings with garlic juice for immunity.

The garlic juice probably isn't doing anything for your ich problem, but I suppose it can't hurt.

The bigger issue is that you're heating your tank without using any form of medication. Heat does not kill ich directly. Not at temperatures that would be safe for fish, anyway. Heat simply speeds up the life cycle. The reason heat is used in ich treatment is to make the treatment process faster. But using heat alone might actually make your ich problem worse.

Edit: You should lower that tank temperature anyway. That's pretty high, even for ich treatments, and is probably stressing your fish out. 82-83F should be sufficient.

• Medication
  • If you saw the picture, I got hillstream loaches
  • I heard they are sensitive to medications because they don't have scales
  • I don't have Ich-X and there is none near me, so I have to get it on Amazon

Ich-X and similar products are safe to use on scaleless fish. You also don't need to use Ich-X specifically, just something that has malachite green and formalin. Kordon Rid Ich is another product with those ingredients. If you don't have that locally either, then go ahead and order online. It's worth it. Steer clear of botanical "medications" that claim to cure things.

• Salt
  • Loaches and plants
  • I have Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. Is that fine?

That would have to be the most expensive salt treatment ever haha. As long as it's pure NaCl with no additives (iodine, anti-caking agents, etc.) then it's safe to use in aquaria. But I would go to the grocery store and get rock salt. Much cheaper.
I can't speak much to loaches, but I know scaleless fish are more salt sensitive. Some plants can also get fussy with high salt levels. Your fish are more important though, so I wouldn't worry about damaging plants.

Here's what I would do in your situation: Order an ich medication online ASAP. While you wait for it to arrive, add salt so that you have at least some form of medication in the water. The veterinary recommended dose for treating ectoparasites (like ich) is 1-5 grams of salt per liter of tank water. If you went with a conservative 2g/L, your 30gal tank would take 230g of salt. One tablespoon of aquarium salt is approximately 20g and rock salt would be very similar, although if you have a kitchen scale it's always better to measure by weight due to the highly variable grain sizes of rock salt.
Make sure that any water you add during water changes is that same concentration. It's easier to dissolve the salt in a small amount of water first, and then pour that solution into the tank.

 

[Naughts]

So far, I've been raising the temp to 85-90 range and supplement fish feedings with garlic juice for immunity.

This is fine. Keep the temperature at 86 for two full weeks.

Don't use meds with the heat, this is too much for the fish. Heat alone will do it. Malachite green is even more toxic at higher temperatures (especially so with lower pH levels). Meds, salt and heat individually all deplete oxygen levels - in combination this could be fatal.

 

[MuddyWaters]

Looks like you have plenty of more qualified advice than I have, but I'll tell you my recent experience. This was the last straw before I finally gave in and got a real quarantine tank for my new fish. I got some new neon tetra and ember tetra from the big box pet store and after a day or two, they and my rummynose tetra had ich that looked much like yours. This was in my 75 gallon aquarium, so I have a bunch of fish in there.

I bought API ich meds and just followed the instructions. Only one fish died, the rest did fine. Having said that, I may have just gotten lucky, so I'd do what the folks above are saying.