Will I kill my catfish if...

[Chicxulub]

I add salt for an Ich treatment? We had a really bad cold snap a few days ago and the windows were open and it got quite cold in the house. The tank only dropped to about 68, but I'm guessing that's enough.

I've read that my pleco should be fine, but I'm worried about the yarrelli and the RTC. It's still really mild at this point and I'd like to cut this off before it gets bad.

Thanks...

 

[justonemoretank]

Ich had to come from somewhere. The temperature of your water would not have caused it. Are any of these fish new additions? If not, and if you haven't seen any ich activity within a month, I'm guessing this isn't ich. Do you have a photo so that we could get a positive ID on what's wrong? To answer your question, no, salt won't hurt your catfish if you add it properly (the correct doseage added gradually to avoid stress). However, if it's not ich, then this may not help. Do you feed feeders without quarantining them? If so, it could have come from the feeders. However, temp change alone does not cause ich. Ich is a parasite with a fairly short life cycle.

 

[Chicxulub]

Ich had to come from somewhere. The temperature of your water would not have caused it. Are any of these fish new additions? If not, and if you haven't seen any ich activity within a month, I'm guessing this isn't ich. Do you have a photo so that we could get a positive ID on what's wrong? To answer your question, no, salt won't hurt your catfish if you add it properly (the correct doseage added gradually to avoid stress). However, if it's not ich, then this may not help. Do you feed feeders without quarantining them? If so, it could have come from the feeders. However, temp change alone does not cause ich. Ich is a parasite with a fairly short life cycle.

The yarrelli and the pleco have both been in there for only about two weeks. I've had the RTC for about six months. The RTC does not show any symptoms of the problem. The pleco's spots are yellow, and the yarrelli's are tan; they're not white on either fish. They look like little bumps on both fish, the yarrelli has 3-4 on his head and a few in his fins, the pleco has several on his head but I couldn't see any on his fins. Again, the RTC had no visible symptoms. None of the fish are flashing, they all appear fairly comfortable and normal. Neither fish had any noticeable symptoms until today (I spend alot of time watching them). The spots really aren't even noticable unless you shine a flashlight directly onto them.

I do occasionally feed feeders, but most of the time it's bloodworms and pellets. I've had feeder shrimp and guppies in the tank for about six months (acquired at the same time as the RTC), but the yarrelli finally just ate them all over the course of the last week. I do weekly 10% changes.

Sorry, no pics for now. The wife has the camera in Florida, and my cell phone cam is worthless.

 

[justonemoretank]

Honestly, unless you're seeing the salt-type specks so common with ich, I would try to re-diagnose the issue. Bumping temp and adding salt probably won't hurt anyone. But, if it's not ich, it's not necessarily going to fix the problem, either. Maybe someone else will step in with an idea of what it is. You could also google image different fish diseases and see if anything comes up which looks familiar.

 

[tscharf]

cam, i keep salt in my tank constantly, i believes it works well with cats cuz thats all i have in there. i just get aquarium salt and add what it says to add. usually a tsp per 5 gallon and i add it all at once. my cats were fine and show no signs of ill helth and the temps around 84. id say bump ur temp up a little and add the salt. what your describing doesnt really sound like ich, my mollies had ich and it killed almost all of them and was very white. this might be another sort of fungus. like i said though add salt and just keep a colse eye. i hope these boys are alright.


justonemoretank... where are you located, im in lanham, bout 5 mins outside DC

 

[justonemoretank]

I'm in the Hampton Roads area... a few hours from you. I made the trip up to Fredericksburg a couple of times to pick up fish from $INI$ST3R; it's about 3 hours to his house.

 

[tscharf]

ah yea i got my RTC from pat... we should all get together sometime

 

[justonemoretank]

He never mentioned he had an RTC.... I know he's got a TSN now.... I think that would be awesome. I picked up one of my Florida gars and the last Pacu from him. Wasn't his Pacu. He was holding it because the lady wanted to get rid of it like the next day. How can you suddenly decide to get rid of a gigantic Pacu in a too-small tank and it has to happen immediately... anyway, we're way off topic. PM me if you want. It would be cool to hang out.

 

[tscharf]

haha srry quadcam... hope those guys get better,

 

[Chicxulub]

haha srry quadcam... hope those guys get better,

No problem, me too. Did you see the PM I sent you about the $10 ARTC's?


Upon further investigation, it's clear this is Ich. I changed the way I was lighting (direction wise) the tank and used a high quality LED flashlight with a cool white beam to bring the bumps into sharp relief, and well, there's no mistaking it. There's also more bumps than I had first thought. I checked my records, and I added the pleco last Friday, so that would be about the right amount of time, would it not?

This sucks. Time to give meh fishhez a nice warm salty bath.