I have noticed flashing in my fish over a period of time. I have done a fish in cycle so it could have been ammonia too however I thought this would completely stop at some point. Has anyone got any suggestions? Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.
Suspected ich or gill flukes?
- Thread starter Guppylover3x
- Start date
The February FOTM Contest Poll is open!
🏆 Click to vote! 🏆
It is more likely to be ich than gill flukes. Ich is caused by severe stress, and first attacks fish in the gills where we don't see it, but the flashing is a sign. Often doing substantial water changes can help. I see some flashing on newly acquired fish occasionally in the planted QT and I tend to leave them alone. I have never had an outbreak doing this. Keeping stress as minimum as possible and water changes may be all you need.
At this stage I would not increase the heat, as the aim is to allow the fish to fight this off naturally, and heat speeds up the ich cycle which would only burden the fish even more at this stage.
At this stage I would not increase the heat, as the aim is to allow the fish to fight this off naturally, and heat speeds up the ich cycle which would only burden the fish even more at this stage.
OP
OP
Many thanks for the excellent advice as always Byron.
All external protozoan infections on fish will cause them to rub on objects in the tank. The most common protozoan parasites are whitespot (Ichthyophthirius), costia, chilodonella, trichodina and velvet (Oodinium).
Costia, chilodonella & trichodina cause cream, white or grey patches on the fish's head and body and sometimes fins. In severe cases the area around the cream, white or grey patch will be red from blood leaking out of the fish where the parasites are eating it.
Whitespot shows up as small white dots on the fish's body and fins. Velvet can be hard to spot unless the fish is heavily infested, then they develop a yellow/ gold sheen over their body. If you turn the tank lights off and shine a torch on the fish, you can usually see a gold sheen or gold patches on fish with a low level velvet infection.
All external protozoan infections that affect fish are introduced into an aquarium with contaminated water or diseased fish. Big water changes, gravel cleaning the substrate, and cleaning the filter will usually help reduce the chance costia, chilodonella & trichodina occurring in a tank, but you will normally need to treat the fish with salt, copper or Malachite Green.
Water changes will not treat whitespot or velvet but big (75-90%) daily water changes will help dilute the number of pathogens in the water and can buy you time to work out what is going on. You can use heat treatment (get the water to 30C for 2 weeks) for whitespot and velvet, or use copper or Malachite green to treat them.
Having said this, do not treat the tank unless you can actually see a disease on the fish. Poor water quality can cause fish to rub on objects, but normally the poor water quality and lack of tank maintenance will encourage protozoan parasites to build up in number and affect the fish.
Costia, chilodonella & trichodina cause cream, white or grey patches on the fish's head and body and sometimes fins. In severe cases the area around the cream, white or grey patch will be red from blood leaking out of the fish where the parasites are eating it.
Whitespot shows up as small white dots on the fish's body and fins. Velvet can be hard to spot unless the fish is heavily infested, then they develop a yellow/ gold sheen over their body. If you turn the tank lights off and shine a torch on the fish, you can usually see a gold sheen or gold patches on fish with a low level velvet infection.
All external protozoan infections that affect fish are introduced into an aquarium with contaminated water or diseased fish. Big water changes, gravel cleaning the substrate, and cleaning the filter will usually help reduce the chance costia, chilodonella & trichodina occurring in a tank, but you will normally need to treat the fish with salt, copper or Malachite Green.
Water changes will not treat whitespot or velvet but big (75-90%) daily water changes will help dilute the number of pathogens in the water and can buy you time to work out what is going on. You can use heat treatment (get the water to 30C for 2 weeks) for whitespot and velvet, or use copper or Malachite green to treat them.
Having said this, do not treat the tank unless you can actually see a disease on the fish. Poor water quality can cause fish to rub on objects, but normally the poor water quality and lack of tank maintenance will encourage protozoan parasites to build up in number and affect the fish.
OP
OP
Many thanks for your response. How long would you advice I wait before treating the tank with salt etc.
You can use salt any time and generally the sooner you treat the fish the more chance of success.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.
OP
OP
Many thanks for the reply. I am glad salt will do no harm to my water quality or harm the fish in anyway. I will look into adding if there is no improvement soon. Thank you for the advice.
OP
OP
Update - I have added a teaspoon of salt into a 50% water change carried out. I’ve noticed a fish already still flashing. I will perform another one tomorrow and add 2 teaspoons in if it carries on. Out of curiosity could adding to much tap water conditioner cause rubbing against things? Many thanks for the help.
OP
OP
For a number of reasons I’ve been unable to watch the fish much today apart from the once earlier. So therefore I have no idea if their still flashing or not. What would you advice I do about adding more salt? And if I don’t add more when do I next perform a water change? Many thanks for your help.
If you are going to use salt then use it for 2 weeks and see what happens. If the fish are still rubbing on objects after that time then it could be whitespot or velvet. Just add salt at the maximum level and keep it in the water for 2 weeks. then do small water changes to dilute it out.
OP
OP
Thank you for your reply Colin. I will continue to carry out water changes adding 2 spoons of salt each time. Is this correct? I need to carry out at least 3 large water changes this week as one of the fish died this week. Hopefully this clears up any irritation the fish are feeling. Many thanks.
I don't know how big the tank is so can't comment on how much salt you should add. I also don't know what fish are in the tank so you should follow the directions for dosing salt in post # 6.
If you have a mixed community tank then you add 2 heaped tablesppoons of salt for every 20 litres of water.
If you only have livebearers, goldfish or rainbowfish then add 4 heaped tablespoons for every 20 litres of water.
If you have a mixed community tank then you add 2 heaped tablesppoons of salt for every 20 litres of water.
If you only have livebearers, goldfish or rainbowfish then add 4 heaped tablespoons for every 20 litres of water.
OP
OP
Many thanks for your response. I forgot to specify sorry. I have 6 male guppies, the tank is 10 gallons.
Similar threads
Most reactions
-
439 -
355 -
294 -
258 -
257 -
185 -
178 -
165 -
137 -
126 -
124 -
101 -
87 -
87 -
86