Is it ick or something worse?

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wetfish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2008
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United States
Hi, I posted this earlier in the topic about treating ick back on 1/10/0, but got no replies. I'm still doing the treatment, but not all of the white spots have gone away. The males sides seem to have cleared up, but his head looks bad and he has a spot at the front of the dorsal fin. One of the females also has two spots. All fish are still eating, but the male might look a little thin compared to the females. I lowered the water level to about 50 gal for ease of treating(probably am going to lower again to 40 if I use meds).

Also will parasite clear work on ich? I've been looking at lifeguard, but it doesn't treat internal parasites(I'm not sure if they have them).

Do you think this molly has ich? What worries me is that I've noticed weird pooping with the mollies. It is light in color and tends to stick to them(particularly the one in the pic) for lond periods of time. I don't think the poop is a worm because I saw one come out and the danios immediatly broke it into pieces. He is in the tank with a few other mollies and zebra danios. They are in about 65 gallons of water.

How easily does ich transer? Before I realized this might be ich I had messed with another aquarium at the same time as this one. Doing things like moving gravel to the cycling tank. I don't think the fish in the other aquarium(a 20 gal) have shown any signs of ich. Should i do something as a preventative?

I started the heat and salt(2 teaspoons per gal) treatment yesterday. I'm gradually raising the water temp to 88(maybe 86). The rest of the salt is going to be added gradually before I go to bed.
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molly11.jpg

molly3.jpg
 
Difficult to tell for sure if it's ich from the pics - too blurred.

Yes, unfortunately Ich is easily transferred from one tank to another - like on wet hands and equipment etc. Just watch the other tank for signs and treat if you see anything suspicious. The earlier you spot the disease and start treatment the better. You could maybe just raise the temp in that other tank as a precaution.

If it is ich you are on the right track with salt and heat treatment. Looks like you are providing plenty of aeration which is good.
In two weeks you would expect it to have cleared up though.

I would continue the current treatment and do lots of water changes (of course adding back whatever % of salt you remove with the water) and gravel vacuuming also.

If you decide to add a med I would choose something specifically listed as an ich treatment.

Good luck :thumbsup:
 
Yea, sorry about the pics. I must have taken over 30 and those were the best I could get. I'll have a look again, but I think the spots look kind of like they are between the scales. I've read a lot about ick looking like grains of salt. These are small, but they look bigger than a piece of table salt.

I'm wondering if what I see on the males head could just be scaring from the ick. The white poop kind of worries me.

The fish in the other tank seem ok. The bichir keeps going in the bubbler, but I don't know if that is because he itches. He does a lot of weird stuff. I would like to move the bichir to the tank with the mollies soon(they will be trading tanks, so the bichir doesn't eat them), but I don't want him to get contaminated.
 
I think it probably is ich, but if so there is a secondary fungal infection involved, which is pretty common. If the ich is treated usually the fungal infection will take care of itself.
 
I'm thinking of buying a 10 gal for a quarantine tank. If I moved all of the danios(5) and mollies(3) to the 10 temporarily, how long would it take any parasites, including possible internals, to die off in the tank without a host(I've heard about 48 hours for ich)? I could then treat the 10 and 20 if necessary.
 
wetfish;1452231; said:
I'm thinking of buying a 10 gal for a quarantine tank. If I moved all of the danios(5) and mollies(3) to the 10 temporarily, how long would it take any parasites, including possible internals, to die off in the tank without a host(I've heard about 48 hours for ich)? I could then treat the 10 and 20 if necessary.
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Could take longer than 48hrs to be sure ich has died off....depends on temp to a certain extent. If you have the fish in another tank anyway then the longer the tank is empty the better. Obviously you would need to keep the filter bacteria fed if the tank is empty for a relatively long stretch.
As for any other possible parasites, there are so many with various different lifecycles, that it's difficult to know for sure how long is long enough! This of course wouldn't eradicate any internal parasites either.
Also need to consider putting all the fish into an un-cycled tank would also expose them to high ammonia. You could move the filter with them but if that's the case you might as well treat then in their original tank IMO.

If it was me, I would persevere with the treatment in their current tanks, that way both the tank and fish get the same treatment. Those size tanks shouldn't be too difficult to dose or do plenty of water changes on.

Good luck :thumbsup:
 
It looks lik ich, a clearer photo and I could say for sure. That said do not add meds, in my experience meds for ich are a scam.

Get your temp up to 90 Deg. F. and leave it for two weeks. the spots will disappear after a few days but keep up the treatment for atleast two weeks. However, with the heat this high you must have sufficient oxigen or they will suffocate, air stones, powerheads breaking the surface to aggitate the water, whatever you have available.
Most fish tolerate this heat suprisingly well but most parasites can't handle the temp above 86.

Also Balck mollies in the wild, I believe sometimes live in brackish water. So I would say add more salt. I'm not sure how much the danios can tolerate. I have added more than 1 Cup of salt to a 30 gal to treat cichlids.

I've researched ich on the internet and in books and found through my own experience this to be the best method, and it works for me everytime.
 
Thanks, I don't know about getting the water to 90 degrees. I have a stealth heater for a 70 gal. The dial only goes up to 89. I've tried to raise the temp, but it was hard getting it to 86 or 87(reason why I lowered the water level). I could try just pushing the dial all the way and what I get I get.

I did a 20% water change and gravel vac tonight. I'll try to do another tomorrow. Last time I checked the ammonia and nitrite were still at zero(will test again tonight). Maybe the fish are too small in number to cycle a tank this big.

I'll try to take some new pics tonight. The male defenitly looks a lot skinnier than the two females, when viewed from above. He is eating, but I think the other fish are eating more than him. Besides the white spot at the front of his dorsal fin, I don't think I see any other spots on him. Both females have a few spots that are kind of skinny and cresent in shape, might be because they are between the scales.
 
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