I wouldn't start any treatment until you actually see some white spots. The fish looks healthy. Cichlids flash for different reasons.
Ich?
- Thread starter Brooke Owens
- Start date
I see no ick, may be flashing for other reasons. water quality perhaps, keep in mind crystal clear water does not mean good water.
and all fish from time to time well take to flashing, does not mean anything is wrong with them.
My oscar is starting to itch too I'm really afraid this is the begging of ich or velvet.. what's the next step I should take? If you're suggesting a chemical treatment or salt treatment could you give directions in detail, I don't want to harm my fish 
I would really go with heat and salt at this stage. It takes a couple of days to kick in but it's the least harmful to the fish and won't produce medication-resistant parasites.
Go with heat as recommended. For salt, you want about 2-3ppt. If you have a friend with a saltwater tank (or know a store that sells saltwater), that means about an 8-10% water change with salt water. Add it over the course of a day to be easy on the fish. Or, you could use the typical tablespoon per gallon. It's a bit less accurate, but should do the trick. Only use pure salt (sodium chloride, not iodized), aquarium salt, or marine salt (for saltwater tanks).
The idea is to get the salinity high enough without killing your biolfilter, which happens above around 3ppt. Eventually new, more-suitable bacteria will colonize it though. Don't do water changes without replacing the salt you lose from them. Maintain these levels for 1 month, but results will be seen in about 5 days. If it's ich then you aren't killing the parasites on the fish (which stay for 4 days), but the ones that drop off and multiply. It prevents re-infection, and without a host the ich will be gone in 30 days.
Go with heat as recommended. For salt, you want about 2-3ppt. If you have a friend with a saltwater tank (or know a store that sells saltwater), that means about an 8-10% water change with salt water. Add it over the course of a day to be easy on the fish. Or, you could use the typical tablespoon per gallon. It's a bit less accurate, but should do the trick. Only use pure salt (sodium chloride, not iodized), aquarium salt, or marine salt (for saltwater tanks).
The idea is to get the salinity high enough without killing your biolfilter, which happens above around 3ppt. Eventually new, more-suitable bacteria will colonize it though. Don't do water changes without replacing the salt you lose from them. Maintain these levels for 1 month, but results will be seen in about 5 days. If it's ich then you aren't killing the parasites on the fish (which stay for 4 days), but the ones that drop off and multiply. It prevents re-infection, and without a host the ich will be gone in 30 days.
http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/pdf/476fs.pdf
"Typically, Ich cannot reproduce properly at water temperatures above 85o F (30o C)..."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3937118
"A case of reproduction of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis in the superficial tissues of larvae and fry of Amur wild carp is described. At a temperature of water from 28 to 29 degrees trophonts of Ichthyophthirius encysted on fishes. Inside cysts repeated cell division occurred but this process did not result in swarm spores formation. Later on with the increase of temperature to 29.5--31.5 degrees cysts degenerated."
Meyer also did a study in 1984 and determined that at 85F, ich ceases to reproduce and dies at 86F.
Thus, 84 F accelerates it's life cycle but does kill it. At 82-84, cysts continue to be active although not producing spores. At 86, cysts degenerate (die.)
Temps of 84 F (or lower) are viable tools combined with other methods to kill it. But using heat alone will need to be 86 or more. (Some strains can apparently survive slightly higher temps.)
"Typically, Ich cannot reproduce properly at water temperatures above 85o F (30o C)..."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3937118
"A case of reproduction of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis in the superficial tissues of larvae and fry of Amur wild carp is described. At a temperature of water from 28 to 29 degrees trophonts of Ichthyophthirius encysted on fishes. Inside cysts repeated cell division occurred but this process did not result in swarm spores formation. Later on with the increase of temperature to 29.5--31.5 degrees cysts degenerated."
Meyer also did a study in 1984 and determined that at 85F, ich ceases to reproduce and dies at 86F.
Thus, 84 F accelerates it's life cycle but does kill it. At 82-84, cysts continue to be active although not producing spores. At 86, cysts degenerate (die.)
Temps of 84 F (or lower) are viable tools combined with other methods to kill it. But using heat alone will need to be 86 or more. (Some strains can apparently survive slightly higher temps.)
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Well put, and good references. The second reference confirms my assertion that such temperatures will prevent re-infection. As you mentioned in your quote, 82.4-84.2 F will prevent spore formation. But you are correct to note that there are a number of different strains out there. That's why you see so many studies report different temperatures. The first article notes an outbreak at 92 degrees!
I'll have to read the Meyer article later. He did not publish in 1984 (according to google scholar) but he did earlier, so I'll read those when I get back to a computer with journal access.
For the OP: if you're just keeping African cichlids then upper 80's is fine to be safe. I would still encourage the addition of salt though. The combination of heat and another treatment reduces the need for higher temperatures seen in some strains. If you have cold-water or scaleless fishes I would amend this treatment.
