Ich or Fungus??!! Help!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
M

Meniscus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 21, 2005
163
0
0
Ontario, Canada
So it looks like my tank is going through a period of disease right now :thumbsdow
The tricky part is that I'm not sure if it's fungus or Ich. A few of the fish are exibiting fin rot, and almost all of them have some white fuzzy spots on them. The worst is my Chocolate Cichlid, he has quite a few of these. My JD has a couple white spots that stick out pretty far. Now because these spots are sort of white and fuzzy and stick out from the body it makes me think fungus. However it seems to be spreading to all the fish?! :confused:
I was under the impression that fungus wasn't contagious like that, so that makes me think it's Ich. I don't have any pics nor will I have access to any before I need to get this treated.
So anyone have any ideas on what this is? :help2:
 
See that's what I thought. The only thing that throws me off is how it is hitting all my fish...
 
That is weird....unless your fish are fightig and inflicting small wounds on each other...like scales missing, something you would not really notice...I had a africian cichlid tank, and if one had the fungus, most of them got it too, I think it may also stem from "dirty" water...you may want to do a really aggresive water change before you treat your tank too, thats one thing I always did before I treated my tank...I am religous with my water changes, and always have been, but sometmes, it seems like it get dirty so fast with lots of fish!
Jen ;)
 
One word ...Salt, lots of salt and raise the temp. Meds scare me...I'll use them but it seems like I loose more to the meds...although you may be to faralong to get by without meds....I try to get the salt in when I see the fish flashing or any spots apear.

Good luck
 
I have been doing lots of water changes lately. I did 3 20% changes last week. Last night I did a 50% water change and cleaned out my canister filters as well.
I have bumped up the temp to 86, and am going to add salt as soon as I get home tonight.
Meds scare me too, but I think that I am too far along to get by without them. My Chocolate has it pretty bad, and my Balas are getting it. I have heard that it hits Balas hard and fast too. I am just REALLY hoping that I don't loose any fish to the meds...
 
That is a bad thought...Although, I have had lots of luck with the maracyn, it works really good, and I never lost a fish to it yet! Just watch the dosage you put into the tank...Everytime I see any sign of fungus...I pop a couple of the tabs in, I never take out the carbon either...and it works!
Good luck hun!!!
Jen
 
yeah I would two teaspoons of salt per gallon but I am not so sure I would raise the temp just because if it is the fish beating each other up which there is a slight chance that it could be it would make the fish more aggressive... you can also use fungus guard... I don't like to use meds and have only used it one time but it worked wonderfully...
 
At the 2005 ACA in texas Jack wardley said that ich can't live above ....I think he said 85..so thats what I'm going to try the next time it shows it's ugly head....higher water temps with meds makes the ich go through it's life cycle a lot faster and the only time the meds kill it is when it's hatching in the gravel....thats why I like salt for the fish and ..if it's to that point ...meds to kill it before it gets back on them...read somewhere that ichs life cycle is 2-3 days.

:swear: Ich
 
If your fish have ich the lowered immune response and small wounds left by the critters can lead to fungus. If one fish has fungus and your tank contains even a few ich freeswimmers they can go wild on that fish due to it's lowered resistance and that can lead to an ich breakout in your tank. Luckily the heat and salt treatment seems to help with both and there are several treatments available for fungus alone including the old standby of a quick(30sec) dip in malachite green solution. Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom