When my GT started showing signs, he showed it on his fins, just like your guys are. I sort of looked at it, but didn't think anything of it, because he'd been in the tank so long on his own (darn wet driftwood from stupid LFS). Anyway, by the next day, he had them on his body -- on his head and nose. Have you seen any evidence of this on their bodies, or just their fins? Again, they're just so large... I agree with you that ich grains are usually smaller. Hopefully someone can positively ID these things.
What is this? (advice please)
- Thread starter JK47
- Start date
justonemoretank;3725661; said:
Absolutly none of these spots on the body of any fish. Nor did it spread to the body after I first noticed it on the tail/pectoral fins. I might just be not allowing it to spread to the body with the treatmens I have been doing but the treatments have not been strong enought to erradicate it?
I have been them for most of the night and just noticed some "head quivering" from the big gold sev and that is a sign of ich correct?
Can you see any yellow coloring to the spots? If you can, it might be velvet. If it doesn't clear up soon, I might recomend using a different brand, And monitor the fish. Is it possible that there is a little fin nipping going on? That could stress the fish out, and make them more prone to further infection. Ich is usually small white spots, and I can see several that are not round, and definately what I would think of for ich. It could be a number of things, fungal infections, velvet, bacterial. Usually, aquarium diseases can be pointed to poor water quality. Have you been keeping up with the water changes, vacuming and so on? Any recent additions or changes to the tank? For serious cases, you might have to do a dip, with concentrated medication. I'll try to look up what the meds would be and the concentration. I believe it might be malachrite green, but the dosage I don't know offhand.
kzimmerman;3726080; said:
No yellow, only white color. I am dosing with Malachite Green (1 drop / gallon). All of the fish are new to the tank (took in a fellow MFK'ers SA tank) what ever it is, it did not come from his tank. I belive it came from one of the sponges I got from my friend who works at the LFS. I set it up with cycled sponge filters from him and an FX5 with cycled media. If it were ich I would think some of the other fish would get it and only the green pair/myersi are showing any visible signs throughout this entire time...
It is not due to water quality as I posted the results I got from my API master test kit tonight. I did not test for nitrate but with a almost a 50% WC every 3 days I cannot think they would be high at all.
I was more wondering about the time before the fish developed symptoms. Are there any red areas? It could also be costia, but the malachite green should take care of that to. There are some that are not commonly seen in fishtanks, but show up at the wholesale level due to overcrowding. Since you got the sponge filter from a lhs, I wonder if it's possible that some of these made it to the store, and you happened to pick it up with the filter? Is the store reputable? Do they do frequent water changes? How does their stock look normally?
I'm not sure what they would be, but my green severum developed spots identical to yours after being in a tank that he was chased around in. I moved him to another tank, and months later he still has them. He even broke out with ich after the move, and those went away and these stayed. Everything else about him is normal though.
kzimmerman;3726190; said:
It's the only store I buy from, very reputable (and a vendor here) and the sponges came from one of the employee's personnal tanks that I have seen many time and are disease free, we trade fish often but the sponges were on a store tank until I picked them up to keep thr BB alive. The symptoms started roughly 3 days after being in the tank (sponge only at that point) and the FX5 was added about a week or more ago. No changes to the symptoms either before or after the FX5 was added. I have pretty much been on the every 3 days WC routine since having the sponges (no mech) and now after the FX5 because of the illness. The media came from my own tanks so I know that's not the issue.
I am so frustrated with this... I just upped the salt to 2 tspns/gallon about an hour ago so hopefully that is going to help?It appears to be the encysted stage of ich (to clarify the ich vs. cysts question). This is the hardest form of ich to kill, and it takes time. You are doing the right thing with heat and salt, keep it up! Personally I would raise the salt (gradually) to about 7 ppt. and keep the heat at the same amount. It's a large cichlid so it should have no problem at that level. I have actually had my green severum at about a 9 before without any issues. Be sure you add an aerator because the water doesn't hold much dissolved oxygen at that temperature. Keep it up for about a month and it should go away.
The other alternative is a dip in 50%-100% salt water. Hold it in for about 30 seconds in a net and do that every night or every other night. It should help a lot.
The other alternative is a dip in 50%-100% salt water. Hold it in for about 30 seconds in a net and do that every night or every other night. It should help a lot.
actually, all of the cases of ich you have ever seen involved the encysted stage. The encysted stage is when the protozoan ichthyopthirius multifiliis is attached to a host and is actively eating. Afterwards, they drop off, fall to the bottom, and begin producing tomites, which then return to the host and begin feeding again. So, seeing as how the spot is too large, and hasn't moved, and no more spots have come up, it probably isn't ich.
So guys, do I have marching orders here? Does anyone feel confident in what I am dealing with or that 86 degrees, 2 tspn/gallon of salt, and the Malachite Green will fix it? I don't want to be doing salt dips etc.. if this is not ich.
