Possible first battle with Ich?

[DaniV]

Time to consult the experts!  I just came home from work and I see that my male Dalmatian Molly has a few white spots on his tail, and from what I've seen on the forums and in research, it may be Ich.  I've noticed for the past 2 days that he will gladly swim to eat or hang out with his buddies for a bit, but then he'd go hang out near one of the rock caves I made all by his lonesome.  There are 2 other Dalmatian Mollies and 3 Swordtails in the tank, and I don't see anything on them.  I've started the tank a month ago, and these were my starter/cycling fish, so they were not quarantined when I got them.  I just put in 5 Harlequin Rasboras in my quarantine tank yesterday, currently being treated with the Med Trio, so I don't have a designated space to take him out and treat him.  So far I don't see anything funny with the Rasboras, other than 4 of them have taken sanctuary in some pvc pipe.  Should I just go ahead and drop him in with the Rasboras and treat the Ich, or should I leave him and treat the entire tank just in case?

Here are my current parameters:

• pH: 7
• Nitrates: 5 ppm
• Nitrite: 0 ppm
• Ammonia: 0 ppm
• Water Temperature : 80

 

This is the best shot I could get of him.  He did not want his picture taken!

 

 

Edit: Oh jeez, I had no idea Ich could move this quickly!  I now see spots on another of my Dalmatian Mollies and a spot on the top fin of one of the Swordtails.  I'm gonna go treat the whole tank.  Does Ich usually move this quickly, or was I just really slow to see what was going on?

Edited December 5, 2022 by DaniV

[Colu]

What I would do is gradually up the temperature to 82 that will speed up the life cycle of ich treat with ick x for 3 days after you see the last spots I would also add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons that will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes as ich causes massive electrolyte loss @DaniV

Edited December 6, 2022 by Colu

[DaniV]

I've noticed a big difference already after just 1 dose of the Ich-X.  I don't see spots on the other fish, still a couple of small ones on the male Dalmatian Molly's tail.  His energy is coming back and he's not hanging around the cave nearly as much.  I did a 2nd dose and I added Aquarium Salt as per @Colu's advice, so we'll see how that goes!  The meds have dyed the heater and silicone creases a pale blue, and I'm not gonna lie, I actually think it makes the tank look neat!

[nabokovfan87]

Yeah, that's ich. Best of luck.

Temp, salt, ich-x is the best way to fight it.

On 12/4/2022 at 1:54 PM, DaniV said:

Does Ich usually move this quickly, or was I just really slow to see what was going on?

Yes it can move pretty quickly.

[DaniV]

Woke up this morning and see that most of the remaining spots are gone from the Molly!  Wahoo!

I told my dad about it and he was very confused because I hadn't introduced any new fish into the tank recently.  It's been almost 4 weeks since I brought in the Swordtails, haven't introduced any new plants (though I've got some in the ACO cart, gonna wait until this battle with Ich is completely over before I order them) or decor since I set up the tank itself a month ago, and I've got 2 (formerly 5) Harlequin Rasboras in quarantine.  The only live things I've been adding has been frozen foods, which I feed twice a week.  One day it'll be frozen brine shrimp, and another day it will be frozen bloodworms.  That got my dad wondering, is it possible that Ich got carried on the brine shrimp or bloodworms?

[Colu]

Very unlikely for frozen blood worms or brine shrimp to be carrying disease infection or parasites that would infect your fish the freezing process would kill the  parasites 

[bettaballistic]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:03 AM, DaniV said:

Woke up this morning and see that most of the remaining spots are gone from the Molly!  Wahoo!

I told my dad about it and he was very confused because I hadn't introduced any new fish into the tank recently.  It's been almost 4 weeks since I brought in the Swordtails, haven't introduced any new plants (though I've got some in the ACO cart, gonna wait until this battle with Ich is completely over before I order them) or decor since I set up the tank itself a month ago, and I've got 2 (formerly 5) Harlequin Rasboras in quarantine.  The only live things I've been adding has been frozen foods, which I feed twice a week.  One day it'll be frozen brine shrimp, and another day it will be frozen bloodworms.  That got my dad wondering, is it possible that Ich got carried on the brine shrimp or bloodworms?

Ich can sometimes take 8 weeks to show white spots from what I've heard. It still could have been the sword tails, I've had new fish take 3 weeks before spreading ich. Good luck, ich is so annoying to treat!

[DaniV]

The good news is the Dalmatian Molly is now spot free!  I did read that despite this, you should still treat the tank to make sure you get any stragglers, so I'll go and continue the Ich-X treatment for the remainder of the week and observe.