Oh boy, I don't think that's ich!

[Kirsten]

What I thought was an ich infection hasn't really responded to treatment over the last 4 days (30% water change plus and 15ml Ich-X for 30g of water every 20-24 hours), but neither have I seen it grow to more than 1 or 2 spots on fins, so that's concerning.

But what's even more concerning is that I just turned on the tank lights after siesta and I see what almost looks like a slug or flatworm on the tail of one of my platies! 

It could be a damaged section of tail, since she had a pretty bad spot there before and her fin looked a little torn a couple days ago. I'm hoping that's what it is, because otherwise I have no idea what's going on! (Wouldn't be the first time.

What do you think?

And even if it is just a damaged fin, any ideas what I'm looking at if I just have 1 or 2 smudgy spots on some fish fins?

[Colu]

It could be some sort of parasite not 100% sure on that

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Agreed with @Colu, could it possibly be some sort of fungal or bacterial growth on top of the old injury? (Idk though, honestly it might a long shot)

[Kirsten]

1 minute ago, FlyingFishKeeper said:

Agreed with @Colu, could it possibly be some sort of fungal or bacterial growth on top of the old injury? (Idk though, honestly it might a long shot)

Thanks! ugh, I wish I could get a better shot of it but the platy is so camera shy. It's maybe 3-4mm long, tapered and pink-ish(?!) and seems to waggle independently from her fin, which had a pretty large spot on it earlier and was fraying.

Think I should try dosing the whole tank with maracyn and paracleanse just to be safe? I could try to catch her to throw her in the QT with some other livebearers from another tank who I thought also had ich, but I'm afraid of stressing her out.

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Probably, either that or maybe just start out with some aquarium salt? I would just treat the whole tank incase it's infectious. Although I saw a CreativePetKeeping video where they used a clear jar filled with water to "net" the fish and it didn't seem too stressed. It might be a planaria or flat worm too like what @Colu said? Honestly I'm stumped but would probably just treat with Maracyn and Paracleanse to be on the safe side. (Maybe IchX too since it has antifungal properties?). Maybe @JamesB@Colu, @Fish Folk, or @FriendlyLoach would have some ideas? 

Edited March 5, 2021 by FlyingFishKeeper

[Colu]

What your describing could be anchor worms @Kirsten

Edited March 5, 2021 by Colu

[FlyingFishKeeper]

It might be, although it seems to have a bit more of a wider shape than an anchor worm?

Edited March 5, 2021 by FlyingFishKeeper

[Kirsten]

Yeah I did some googling on anchor worms and they look more thread-like.

I have a huge sack of marine salt begging to be used (I was thinking about setting up a brackish paludarium some time ago). But I'm scared for my mystery snail and bamboo shrimp still in the tank. The plants in there are mostly cheap or hardy (though my hornwort has already been decimated by 4 days of ich-x). Maybe I'll try catching those two inverts, put them in a tank that just has inverts in it right now, and then ramp up the salt...the trick will be catching that bamboo shrimp who I swear has a cloaking device.

[FlyingFishKeeper]

That sounds good to me, although you might want to remove a lot of plants, or do a lot of water changes due to the amount of ammonia the decaying plants might cause? Honestly I'm not too sure of anything right now... If nothing changes or it gets worse during the salt maybe add some meds too. (Or start off with them, probably either one will work.)

[Kirsten]

27 minutes ago, FlyingFishKeeper said:

That sounds good to me, although you might want to remove a lot of plants, or do a lot of water changes due to the amount of ammonia the decaying plants might cause? Honestly I'm not too sure of anything right now... If nothing changes or it gets worse during the salt maybe add some meds too. (Or start off with them, probably either one will work.)

Yeah I think I'll start off with the meds since I have them and they're supposedly plant and invert safe. If nothing helps, I might set up a second QT, siphon the 8 million denizens of Livebearer Mosh Pit off into that where I'll try steadly increasing salt. Doing things a little backwards, but work with whatcha got, I guess.

[Kirsten]

Whatever it was fell off last night, leaving behind a few cloudy spots

So now I'm thinking that I actually have a bacterial / body fungus infection because my other affected fish similarly have one or two patchy spots on fins that haven't exploded into salt-grain-like ich all over the body. They've generally lightened slightly, probably a result of my daily water changes more so than the ich-x, but I'm still going to do one more ich-x dose today just in case, then set up a second QT for a saltwater spa treatment, which should be good for them all around.

[Garren]

So happy that your fish are doing better. 🤗 I appreciate you sharing, as I am battling ICH myself. 

[Kirsten]

The platy with the affected tail is already looking a lot better.

Water isn't even very salty yet, about 1 tablespoon salt for every 6 gallons so far, but I'm still seeing some light patches on a few tails, very occasional flashing (though less than before) and one stubborn cyst on this platy tail, so I'm going to keep ramping up until I get to 1 tbs per every 2 gallons or until everything starts clearing up or until my plants visibly start to suffer, whichever comes first.