Hi all, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me identify if my goldfish Potato has ich.
For context, I moved him into a new tank on October 31 (a little over two weeks ago) without doing the proper cycling (I wasn't aware of the need to cycle at the time and had previously moved him into a new tank without cycling with no problems). I started to notice odd behavior probably sometime late last week. Behavior included lethargy, "gulping" for air at the top of the tank/hanging out by the bottom of the air exchange at the filter, clamped fins, darting, and an occasional white sheen on his body that he would shed after a water change. I began doing some research and thought these problems might be due to an combination of stress and low oxygenation/poor water quality in the new tank, partly because it's smaller than what I wanted for him and I don't know that I trust the filter's capabilities. Each time he has exhibited some of these strange traits, I have done a partial water change and he has begun acting like himself again.
I decided to order him a new, higher quality, larger tank that I wanted to move him into today to hopefully alleviate these water quality/size issues, but I wanted to do my research this time and in the process found out about cycling tanks. This made me think that perhaps the issue in his current tank is a high build up of ammonia due to not having cycled it prior to putting him in there. I've ordered a water quality test kit that is supposed to arrive later today, so I should be able to get those results soon.
While I am waiting for the kit to arrive, I've been monitoring him by sight, and I just noticed these white spots on him for the first time. Are these ich? I have been careful to monitor him by sight for the last week or so and have not previously identified white spots like these, hence my previous diagnosis of possible ammonia problems. I haven't found the most helpful photos of goldfish with ich online so am hoping someone on this forum might be able to take a look at these photos of Potato and help me identify if the problem is indeed ich.
Thank you so much!
