problem???

[gaya]

Hello!

I don't know if I should be putting this post in the Tropical Fish Emergencies forum cuz I could just be a worry wart. About a week ago I noticed one of my gourami's flicking against some plants so I freaked and immediately gave him a salt bath (2 tsp of aquarium salt in a very small container on the advice of LFS). I think I may have left him in there a bit too long (only 1 minute bath) because he began to float sideways in there like he was dead. i touched him and he began flip about (maybe he was playing dead?). when I put him back into the tank his colors became very bright for a minute or so and then went back to normal. He seems fine now. Does not rub against anything eats well, no clamped fins, but does hide once in awhile (this could be because I have gangster angels in my tank). Now my other gourami is flicking (once in awhile) against plants. Should I give him a salt dip as well? The only water problem I have had is an ammonia spike of .01 ppm barely detectible. I have at least four ammonia kits and only one of them detects the ammonia. I know this happened because I was adding melifix when adding my new angels (added two angels to keep the peace between the other two I already had-temporary). Every time I put melifix in my tanks this happens and I am done adding it to my main tanks.
---this is so long winded...sorry.
everyone looks great in my 29g, like a bunch of peacocks with all fins fully extended and healthy swimming and eating behavior. no white spots on anyone.

what should i do?

thanks for any help
gina

 

[breezer40]

Treating the one fish for whitespot is not going to solve your problem Whitespot or ICH is a parasite and when one fish in a tank has it you have to treat the whole tank.

Before you go rushing off for the salt..what other fish do you have in the tank? Not all fish can tolerate salt and to some it can do alot of damage and possible kill them.

There are a number of aproaches to treating ICH but understanding how the parasite works is a good starting point. The link below not only gives good information about what ICH is but also what methods can work effectively to destroy it.

http/www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion...aq=2&fldAuto=32

Hope this helps

 

[gaya]

thanks for the reply breezer.

I do understand ick and how it works (I have battled it b4 in a different tank and I have a dozen ick links book marked-the link you gave is a good one too) I'm just not absolutely sure if this is ick. (though w/my luck it probably is) I see no white spots on any of them, only the one gourami is flicking himself. I would not add salt to the tank because I have neons in there.
I would only give the gourami a separate salt dip. the list of fish I have in there is on my signiture (29g). i have raised the temp in the tank to 84F and will probably go up to 86F. I have also been doing 25% water changes almost every day.
I really don't want to add meds unless I have to. Having plants, neons, and plecos together i'm not sure what the right med would be.

I suppose I'm just hoping that the raised temp will kill them off if there in there. I'm so sick of ick!

 

[breezer40]

I agree with the meds theory..I always go with raising the heat for ICH unless there is anything in the tank that can't take it.

Might be stating the obvious here but have you done a water test ? If there are no spots then its unlikely to be whitespot IMO.

 

[gaya]

I feel like I do water tests all day on my tanks. Like I said in the first post I had a ammonia spike from the melafix so readings are:
ammonia .01 ppm (not even detectible on some of my kits)
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 10 ppm
ph 6.8-7.0
KH- 4ppm
GH- I don't know how to read this test
temp- 85F (now)
25% water change every other day

I know that neons are super sensitive to things like ick and I try to scope them out as much as possible but they move around so much that it's difficult. Also, I bet that it would be hard to notice ick spots on a blue dwarf gourami because of their light coloring. I don't "see" anything on them.
Tonight I will raise the temp to 86F.

any other ideas?

 

[Leslie]

The flicking could mean quite a few different things, not just Ich. Try shining a flashlight on your fish and see if it might be Velvet. Velvet can be very hard to detect until it's too late unfortunately.

 

[gaya]

good idea...i'll do that tonight
thanks