What is this ?
- Thread starter mrpenguin
- Start date
paulamrein
New member
It's more than likely ich, you should remove all the fish or it won't go away. There are thousands of threads about treating ich, the ones that are stickyed on the top are the best collective resources. Any questions feel free to ask.
mrpenguin
New member
This is going to be a big pain, I put the net in the water and he was gone in a second underneath a rock.
I have been reading up on Itch on this forum, it is very confusing because so many people are contradicting each other on how to treat this.
One say FWD, the other one say no .... one say garlic and the other one say no .... very confusing.
I have been reading up on Itch on this forum, it is very confusing because so many people are contradicting each other on how to treat this.
One say FWD, the other one say no .... one say garlic and the other one say no .... very confusing.
I hate to say this, but there is a LOT of ignorance floating around on these forums.
Check this article (and the second part that it links to), read it all the way through, and follow it. There are only a few methods that are PROVEN to work. Choose one. To me, low salinity in a QT tank (1.009 - 1.010) is the easiest, and involves no chemicals, although some may disagree.
Check this article (and the second part that it links to), read it all the way through, and follow it. There are only a few methods that are PROVEN to work. Choose one. To me, low salinity in a QT tank (1.009 - 1.010) is the easiest, and involves no chemicals, although some may disagree.
paulamrein
New member
It doesn't eat them til they die, they use the nutrients to get strong enough to reproduce. They voluntarily fall off of the fish in order to reproduce. One ich organism jumps off of their host to create 200+ more just like them, considering your fish was peppered with them, multiply those by hundreds, than those by hundreds etc. It needs to be taken care of. FWD do nothing to the cysts because they are on the body with a protective coating. When they leave the body they fall and create a protective coating, the only time they are vulnerable is the short time they are swimming to find another host. The second part to FWD is that if you don't have temp and PH just as it is in the tank, you can kill the fish.
Their cycle is why there is so many myths about treating ich. If you took what you did today as a cure, than there will be threads all over saying the new way to cure ich is to chase them with a net under a rock in 10 minutes they are CURED!! As silly as that sounds the same happens everyday. Hobbyist get so frustrated with ich that they try anything. Add a little garlic to the system, (at the same time the ich that is on the fish go through a cycle and fall off.) the hobbyist sees that the fish have no visible spots, garlic becomes a cure. Only way is to net ALL fish, put them into a seperate tank, and a copper or Hypo for 6-8 weeks, there is a lot more detail that is covered on those threads about treatment. At the same time your display tank is being cured by not having any fish host. NOTE: only fish get ich, anything else can stay in the tank. After 6-8 weeks of treatment. It should be completely ich free 99.5% guarantee.
Anything wet going into the tank after treatment needs to stay in the QT for atleast a month, Inverts, rock, sand. even water that has been in a system with fish. Not treating it with hypo or copper, just separate unless it's a fish and it shows signs of ich. At that point you treat counting the 6-8 week period from the day you notice the spots are gone.
Their cycle is why there is so many myths about treating ich. If you took what you did today as a cure, than there will be threads all over saying the new way to cure ich is to chase them with a net under a rock in 10 minutes they are CURED!! As silly as that sounds the same happens everyday. Hobbyist get so frustrated with ich that they try anything. Add a little garlic to the system, (at the same time the ich that is on the fish go through a cycle and fall off.) the hobbyist sees that the fish have no visible spots, garlic becomes a cure. Only way is to net ALL fish, put them into a seperate tank, and a copper or Hypo for 6-8 weeks, there is a lot more detail that is covered on those threads about treatment. At the same time your display tank is being cured by not having any fish host. NOTE: only fish get ich, anything else can stay in the tank. After 6-8 weeks of treatment. It should be completely ich free 99.5% guarantee.
Anything wet going into the tank after treatment needs to stay in the QT for atleast a month, Inverts, rock, sand. even water that has been in a system with fish. Not treating it with hypo or copper, just separate unless it's a fish and it shows signs of ich. At that point you treat counting the 6-8 week period from the day you notice the spots are gone.
paulamrein
New member
A quick side note. Ich usually starts in the gills so most of the time you wont notice that they have spots for a while. Consequently that is also how most fish die, ich can't kill them by infestation alone. It's that their numbers are so great that they infest the gills so much that the exfixiate and die.
paulamrein
New member
it may have been bubbles. It may have been a few different things. Most commonly it is ich. have been in the gills/ hard to really say, something isn't right though and I wouldn't want to leave it to chance.
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