Do white spots ALWAYS mean ich???

[Kyla575]

So I have a 40 gallon tank with four goldfish in them, one being an oranda. This guy was originally like this whenever I got him (or so I remember) and he has been fine and I just kind of left him for a bit, but I've had some probably with fin rot with some of my other fish that they had been in contact with (which is kind of irrelevant) but I'm having a hard time knowing if he is sick with ich or not. He behaves normally just like the others, but I have ich treatment waiting for the second I'm sure that he's sick. Please take a look and let me know what you think. He also has some on his front fins but I can't tell if that's just his design or if he's just actually sick. Please help!

 

[SAT]

Kyla575,
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Reef Central is primarily for saltwater aquarists, so you may not get the best answers about goldfish here. However, freshwater and saltwater Ich are fairly similar, enen though different species.

I see some fraying and cloudiness of the fins. That could be from handling or a bacterial infection. It is commonly a result of poor water conditions, which irritate the fin & skin, leaving openings for bacteria. It may be that all the fish needs is clean water and time to heal.

I can't tell from the photos whether the fish has Ich or not. That can also be a cause of cloudy fins, particularly if you see little pinpoint white spots.

If one fish has Ich, it is now in the tank so treating just the one goldfish won't work. One commonly recommended treatment is to raise the temperature to 86F for 10 days, but I'm not sure it's safe to do that to a goldfish. Another treatment is to move a fish from tank to tank every day for 7 days, sterilizing the previous tank. You could use the transfer method on the goldfish and use the temperature method on your display tank in order to kill any parasites left in the tank.

 

[Jdub968]

Picture 3 dose look looks ick if these were salt water fish I would start with a fw dip but that won't won't help you. For your best info I would recommend fishlore.com they deal with fw ick good luck