My Livebearers Have Ich..some Help?

[maddoctopus]

Hi all,

Ok so this evening i cleaned my livebearer tank and i removed 1/3 of the water as i always do once a week. But after 5 hours later i started to notice my mollies, platys and guppies scratching their body on rocks and leaves. Then it was like all of them did the same thing. I know this is not a good sign as i had experienced last year which most of my fishes in the tank died. So i don't want the same nightmare to happen again esp this time since most of my fish in the tank now grew from they were fry. Most of them are still active but now 2 platy seem to rest at the bottom and breathing fast. Anyway i haven't notice any white spot on them. I treated with anti-ich medication that i bought like last year and i don't know if it gonna work this time, but from previous experience it seems not really effective and i don't know its active ingredient as it didn't show on the label.

I don't know much about ich and is it true that my fish is gettin ich or maybe other disease? How can i avoid this thing to happen? Is is cause by bacteria and is it an external infection? What is the first thing i need to do to treat the fish with ich? What is the chance of the survival for the fish in my tank? What is the highly effective active ingredient for this kind of disease?

p/s- I also put table salt, but from what i read it should be aquarium salt. What is the different between the two, i never buy aqua. salt yet but i think table salt is also NaCl chemically so it should be no prob rite?It is because of the melting ability?

Any help and advice would be appreciated. ;p

 

[WILDER]

Did you match the fresh water to the temp of the tank.
How many gallons is the tank.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
Any excess mucas on the fish.
Check the gills to see if there pale with excess mucas or red and inflamed.

Whitespot looks like the fish had been sprinkled in salt.
You can't use salt with fry.
Is there enough aeration in the tank.

 

[maddoctopus]

Did you match the fresh water to the temp of the tank.
How many gallons is the tank.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
Any excess mucas on the fish.
Check the gills to see if there pale with excess mucas or red and inflamed.

Whitespot looks like the fish had been sprinkled in salt.
You can't use salt with fry.
Is there enough aeration in the tank.

-no i didnt match d temperature
-about 5 gallons
-5 balloon mollies, 6 guppies and 8 platies and 2 swordtails
-I don't know the water stats as i don't hv d kit
-No i don't think they hv any excess mucas
-One swordtail did hv white spot on her caudal fin but she died just a few hours ago
-I believe there is enough aeration in the tank

 

[Colin_T]

Sometimes when fish are subject to sudden changes in temperature they produce excess mucous on their bodies. This allows tiny air bubbles to become trapped on the mucous and can make it look like the fish is covered in little white spots. However, if there hasn't been any new fishes added to the tank in the last few months, chances are there isn't any whitespot parasites in the tank. The fish are probably stressed from a sudden change in temperature and are sulking.

White spot & Ich are the same thing, an organism called Ichthyophthiriasis, (ich for short).
Velvet or Oodinium is caused by a parasite called Oodinium.
Whitespot is about 1mm in diameter whereas velvet is about half that size and can have a golden sheen to it. Whitespot is an actual white spot. Marine Oodinium is identified by lots of very small white spots.

Both parasites are treated in the same way.

The best thing you can do to prevent whitespot appearing is to minimise stress and make sure the fish are kept at the correct temperature for the species, about 24-26C for most tropical fishes. Then if an outbreak occurs treat the fish with an appropriate whitespot remedy. Continue treating the tank for about a week after the spots have disappeared.

You can raise the water temperature a few degrees (maximum temp is about 30C), increasing it speeds up the parasite’s lifecycle. This causes it to develop quicker and die off sooner. However, the temp should only be raised after the medication has been added to the tank. If you turn the temp up and don't have medication in the water then the disease organisms grow faster and spread more rapidly, causing more damage to the fish.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen levels in the tank. Medications and high temperatures reduce the oxygen carrying capacity of the water, so the more surface turbulence the higher the oxygen levels will be.

You don't have to increase or change the temperature to treat the fish. I often leave the temp at about 26C and just treat the fish for about 10-14 days. "Waterlife Protozin" will treat it, as will any medication with copper or malachite green in. If you have catfish or loaches in the tank check the directions and use at half strength if it says to.

Keep treating the fish for a week after the spots have gone. The whitespot parasite has 3 stages to its lifecycle.
1) the white spots on the fish
2) 2) the spots fall off the fish and multiply in the gravel
3) 3) the cysts in the gravel rupture open releasing thousands of new parasites to re-infect the fish.
The parasite can only be killed during the 3rd stage when they are free swimming and before they attach to a fish.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Doing a water change and complete gravel clean before treating the tank will reduce the gunk in the tank and allow the medication to work more effectively. It will also lower the pathogen count in the water and mean there are less nasties around to infect the fish. You can ignore this part if you have just done a water change.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating otherwise it will absorb the medication out of the water.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine and has a similar temperature & PH to the tank.

There isn’t much difference between table salt and aquarium salt. Table salt often has iodine added to it and aquarium salt is course rock salt. Marine salt is different again. If you use non iodised table salt it is virtually the same as aquarium salt. Some aquarium salt has magnesium & calcium in too.

 

[maddoctopus]

Hey Colin_T,

Thx for your answers. That was really helpful and informative. I'll try my best to keep my fish healthy like u said.