Is this Ich?

[Long Island Fish Guy]

Not sure if this is Ich or not. I look at my tank pretty frequently and didn't notice these white spots a few hours ago. Both my Hoplos have 3-4 of these spots too.

No other fish in my tank have these spots.

If this is ich, what do I do? I have a 10 gallon tank currently being used as a grow out tank for my Shovelnose Lima. I might need to just treat this whole tank if this is ich.

2 of 3 filters push down small air bubbles. Is it possible these are bubbles that are sticking to their bodies? Not to sound stupid, but they look identical.

 

[duanes]

I found it very hard to see what you meant from the distance of the photo. so I edited it to get a closer look. Maybe it will help others with a better eye than me. It could be ick, but hard to tell.
If it is ick, you will need to treat the entire tank. There are plenty of Ick medicines available, or you can use salt. The trick with salt is to get the salinity at and/or above 3ppt (parts per thousand) under 3ppt the ick protozoans are unaffected.

 

[tlindsey]

View attachment 1245910
I found it very hard to see what you meant from the distance of the photo. so I edited it to get a closer look. Maybe it will help others with a better eye than me. It could be ick, but hard to tell.
If it is ick, you will need to treat the entire tank. There are plenty of Ick medicines available, or you can use salt. The trick with salt is to get the salinity at and/or above 3ppt (parts per thousand) under 3ppt the ick protozoans are unaffected.

It looks like ich would treat entire aquarium like duanes suggested. Make sure your Hoplo catfish can tolerate whatever you decide to use salt or med.

 

[Long Island Fish Guy]

I am only treating with heat, and it's working! He tank has been at 88/87 degrees for the past 2 days. The only fish that have ich now are the Silver Dollars. The white dots on them are VERY small now. The fish look great and are very active. No signs of stress from the heat.

I read up and found that if you heat the tank, there's no reason to do anything else since ich cannot reproduce past 87 degrees. I did not want to use chemicals because I'm anti chemical and I have a Royal Pleco. I heard they do not do well with salt.

I will leave the tank at this temperature for a full 10 days and then slowly bring it down to 78 again.

Any changes???

 

[duanes]

Each ick spot, erupts into up to 100 tiny ick young.
Many of these fall to the substrate, and reattach to fish as they swim by.
So daily vacuuming of the substrate can hurry your treatment along.
Just because you don't see spots after a couple days, doesn't mean ick is gone, so yes, it is good idea to keep up your treatment of choice for at least 10 days after the spots disappear.

 

[Long Island Fish Guy]

Each ick spot, erupts into up to 100 tiny ick young.
Many of these fall to the substrate, and reattach to fish as they swim by.
So daily vacuuming of the substrate can hurry your treatment along.
Just because you don't see spots after a couple days, doesn't mean ick is gone, so yes, it is good idea to keep up your treatment of choice for at least 10 days after the spots disappear.

Do I need salt? I found a thread saying that 100% heat does not work. I would be willing to get it, but what do I need? I feel like I'd need to buy a significant amount.

I have a Pleco, I heard they also don't do well with salt. If I don't need it then I'm not getting it.

Just an update, the ich is still on the fish. The white spots are so tiny now. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The tank has been at 88 degrees for 2 days.

 

[BIG-G]

You need to have something in the water to kill the ich parasite. The reason you raise the temps is to speed up the life cycle of the parasite. If you dont have anything to kill it you will just speed up the infection rate.
At first the spots will go away making you think everything is good. Really what has happened is the cysts have ruptured and soon their will be more white spots as the fish are infected with the new parasites.

I have use Ruby reef's Kick Ich with good results even with clown loaches and plecos. Its plant safe also. Salt does work at the right levels.
You may also want to increase your aeration with the higher temperatures.

 

[duanes]

I use rock (or water softener) salt when treating for ick, putting handfuls in HOB filters until the salinity reaches just over 3ppt.
This is because most of my tanks are on a line of 300 gallons or more, and raising temp is very difficult at that volume. But buying a 50lb bag of rock salt works fairly quickly.
Here is a sequence of pics curing a bad case after I did not quarantine some new arrivals long enough..
Day one of treatment.

day 3

day 4

day 5

The problem I find with using only heat, is sometimes secondary infection, many bacteria such as columnaris, and fungi such as saprologenia thrive at high temps. The salt (or other commercial treatments such as Nox-Ich, also suppress those secondary vectors.
Sometimes the 2ndary infection are worse than the ick itself.
Here is a nic, that was on the same sump as the fish above, and although ick was easily cured, the 2ndary disfigured its eye.

 

[Long Island Fish Guy]

I use rock (or water softener) salt when treating for ick, putting handfuls in HOB filters until the salinity reaches just over 3ppt.
This is because most of my tanks are on a line of 300 gallons or more, and raising temp is very difficult at that volume. But buying a 50lb bag of rock salt works fairly quickly.
Here is a sequence of pics curing a bad case after I did not quarantine some new arrivals long enough..
Day one of treatment.

day 3

day 4

day 5

The problem I find with using only heat, is sometimes secondary infection, many bacteria such as columnaris, and fungi such as saprologenia thrive at high temps. The salt (or other commercial treatments such as Nox-Ich, also suppress those secondary vectors.
Sometimes the 2ndary infection are worse than the ick itself.
Here is a nic, that was on the same sump as the fish above, and although ick was easily cured, the 2ndary disfigured its eye.

First off, what kind of fish are they? They look great!

I have a 125 and I would be willing to use salt. I just don't know what to buy. Can you provide me with a link for the salt you used?

I read that the free swimming ich cannot live in temps over 86 degrees. Is that not true? On the morning of day 3 1 of my Silver Dollars is showing no white spots anymore.

 

[duanes]

I used rock salt, or water softener salt from any home improvement center (Home depot, Menards, or Lowes) salt is salt (Na Cl). The water softener salt, pure enough to be considered for potable use.
The fish with ick in my pics, are Saratherodon linnellii, a cichlid endemic to a small crater lake in Cameroon called Barumbi mbo, they area small Tilapine.
Here's a few pics of some healthy.


Another of my favorite fish from the lake is small predator called Stomatepia pindu, the white spots on the head are cephalic pits used to sense prey, in the substrate