Sick German Blue Ram

[RyanV]

Can anyone tell whats wrong with my fish in this picture? I thought it was Ick, but I treated for that 2 days now and doesn't look any better.

 

[RyanV]

Bump

 

[fluttermoth]

It's hard to tell if that is ich, from that picture.

Anyway, no medications work on the ich parasite when it's encysted on the fish. You have to wait until they hatch out to the free swimming stage before the med can affect them.

If there's still no improvement (assuming it is ich, and not a fungal infection), you might have a strain of ich that's resistant to that particular medication, so you'd have to remove that with water changes/carbon and try another one.

 

[RyanV]

How much longer will that be before that happens? My fish looks sooo bad already

Here are more pictures if it helps at all:

 

[fluttermoth]

Ok, from those pics that does look like ich,

You should start to see some improvement in a day or two; if not then you;ll have to change meds.

What temperature are you running the tank at? Raising it will help speed up the life cycle (and, if it's not high enough, that could be why your fish is so poorly; rams do need very warm water to do well).

 

[RyanV]

I will try a different med tomorrow, the tank temp is at 80.

 

[yfaris67]

deffinitly ich, a bad one too...

 

[the_lock_man]

I will try a different med tomorrow, the tank temp is at 80.

NOOO!!!!!!!!!

Let the medication you are using run its course. If you read what Fluttermoth posted, the parasite cannot be harmed by the medication all the while it is protected by the white spots. Follow the instructions on your bottle TO THE LETTER, and see what has happened when the instructions say the course is finished. That includes continuing to dose even after the spots have disappeared.

The spots themselves aren't the problem, there's a little creature that lives inside the spot - that can only be killed when it's swimming in the water, not encased in the spot.

 

[mark4785]

Keep to dosing Formalin or Malachite Green to counteract Ich. As a GBR is infected, ensure you are not using methylene blue as it totally eradicates the filter bacteria which consume ammonia and nitrite. If your ammonia/nitrite was to rise the fish would die fairly quickly as they are very picky about their water conditions.