Gek Sim... Fish kena white spots...

[Justikanz]

Gek Sim ah... After 2 weeks of not changing water and TLC becos of my reservist, all my cardinal tetras are succumbing to white spot! Seems like my cherry barbs are also beginning to succumb too... They are beginning to rub their bods on my sword leaves...

The last time my fish kena white spots, I let them settle themselves and only a couple of fish will die... Or at least only 1 type of fish will suffer... But this time, it seems bad...

I have Yamato shrimps and horned and zebra snails in the same tank... What can I do about the white spots without harming my inverts??

[PohSan]

I don't know if ich will affect shrimps and snails. To me, I will remove all the fishes from the tank to a hospital tank and all the rest to another tank. Then I will give treatment to the hospital tank: be it a salt bath with heater or any commercial medication.

Let the main tank run for a few weeks. Without host to attach to, it should break the Ich reproduction cycle.

Also, I cannot agree to your treatment to the fish. Any sick fish must be treated immediately, not leave it and hope that fish will recover by itself.

Regards.
Ong Poh San

[Justikanz]

The ich will not affect the inverts but all medicine will kill them...

The fish are in a 4ft heavily planted tank... I think its impossible to remove them...

[Justikanz]

So, any medication I can use in my tank?

Would switching off the fan to increase the tank temperature be useful?

Quite desperate now... My loaches are also starting to rub their bods on the gravel... Dun want my Khulis and SAEs to perish...

[PeterGwee]

Use salt..Check the old threads on dosage.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[PohSan]

I really don't understand, I know that it is difficult to remove fishes from a dense planted tank, especially SAEs, but do you ever tried? Even some fishes is still better than simply sit infront of the tank and panick.

Regards,
Ong Poh San

[PeterGwee]

Treat the whole tank..you don't have to remove the critters which will stress them further. Plants are fine with some salt for a couple of days.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[Justikanz]

Table salt? How much for how many days? Maybe I can go thru the old threads tomorrow at office...

Time for some explanation... I will not attempt to remove any fish from my tank. 3 reasons:

1) No spare tank. Also no place to put tank, if have spare tank. Also, no airpump if have spare tank. I dun use airpumps for any of my tanks and the whole family hates the humming sound of the airpumps...

2) It is virtually almost impossible to catch any fish from my tank... You can see pic of the tank, taken 2 months back at http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...tachmentid=742 Furthermore, it will stress the fish beyond what they can handle as they will have to be chased around a lot!...

3) It is pointless to treat the fish only for whitespot. The tank will then have to remain fishless for 1-2 months. All the fish will have the stay at the hospital tank all the time while waiting for the ich parasite to completely die out in the display tank that way. Thus, the WHOLE tank will have to be treated. Problem is ich medication contains copper which kills all inverts, shrimps, ich and snails.

Thus I was asking if there was any way I can treat a planted tank without harming the Yamatos and the decorative snails... Oh, and the plants too...

Thanks!
Thomas

[ms]

Hi,
I am also having the same problem.
I am seeing my Cardinals rubbing themselves on the bogwood. The same problem is that I have difficulty catching all of them into another tank.

Anyone with a miricle cure, without harming the plants and shrimps, PLEASE HELP!

MS

[yokogi]

does ICH look like this in the picture?? i've a dying tetra fish every day due to this. i also never change water about 3-4 weeks already.

just another qn - is the belly of cardinal tetras normally white colour?? I can't remember. if it's not......then i'm in big trouble!

[Justikanz]

I can't see properly from the pics. But did not see any white spots...

When a fish has ich, it will have a lot of white spots on the body, thus the other name for the parasite, white spot. The spots are like tiny pin heads and will split up into many many tiny eggs when mature. The fish will look fine but the parasite is multiplying inside the tank. After a couple of weeks or more, the ich parasite will then be looking for host. They will die without a host, though...

That's how ich spreads. That's also the reason why the whole tank must be treated.