How does ick look on fish

Written by PetCoach Editorial. Written by. Share Share it Tweet Pin it Share it. What is Ich? Why Fish Get Ich Ich is so widespread that many experts feel that it is present in the environment of most aquariums, especially in larger holding tanks , rearing ponds of breeders, collectors, and wholesalers. Identifying Ich in Fish The symptoms of ich are very evident and usually include characteristic white spots on the body and gills.

The Life Cycle of Ich Trophozoites mature in the skin of the fish. Trophont mature trophozoite leaves the fish. Trophont produces tomites. Trophont bursts and tomites are released. Tomites penetrate the skin of the fish, and the cycle is repeated.

Preventing Ich Ich is a very common disease and if your fish get it, you are going to end up having to treat the entire tank. Therefore, it is a much easier disease to prevent than treat, and the following is a list of suggestions for helping to prevent ich in your tank: Only purchase healthy fish that are free of all signs of disease.

Never buy fish from a tank that contains a dead or a diseased fish. Purchase fish from as direct a source as possible to reduce shipping and handling stress. Remove and treat any fish that begins to show the first signs of ich in a quarantine tank. Maintain excellent water quality and do regular water changes. Check out the most popular related products. Was this article helpful? Let other pet parents know what you think.

Filed under: health nutrition parasite fish disease aquariums water. Ask a Vet for Online now! Ich in Saltwater Fish Saltwater ich ick , or white spot disease is one of the most common diseases that infect marine fish 22 found it helpful. View all articles. Related Questions What i can give my dog for proper nutrition and ots growth and health A good high quality puppy food is recommended for proper growth until Tommy is 1 year of age.

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Could one of my fish have a disease it's a brand tank and 4 new fish with 1 that we already had. Cory, loaches, livebearers and koi, for example, are all well-known for their salt intolerance — the amount of salt needed to kill Ich can also kill these fish. In fact, long-term use of salt can have a negative impact on fish due to the fact that it interferes with osmoregulation, which is how your fish balances minerals in its body. You should only use salt as an Ich cure after heavily researching the salt tolerance of your fish.

If you are confident that your fish will respond positively to a salt treatment, then go right ahead…. This wraps up my section on treatment. If so, stick with what works for you. But if you have never battled Ich before, following the above four steps gives you the best opportunity to beat it on your first try. Fish can catch more than one disease at a time. In fact, by coming down with Ich, your fish is actually more likely to be afflicted with another disease.

Because your fish is already in a weakened state from both stress and Ich, your fish is much more likely to catch other diseases than he normally would. For example, this platy is suffering from columnaris of the mouth, which came on while being treated for Ich…. And let me tell you, battling two or more diseases at once sucks. For you and your fish. It helps reduce the chances of a secondary infection. It is for this reason that you should monitor your water and fish closely during treatment.

It allows you to quickly identify and eliminate any problems that may arise. Even after you have eliminated Ich, your fish are still prone to other bacterial and fungal infections — so watch your fish closely in the weeks after treatment, until your fish have returned to full health.

While this may all sound like doom and gloom, recovery from Ich is very common. If caught early, most fish make a full recovery. Even so, the best way to beat Ich is to stop it from affecting your fish in the first place, which brings me to my next point. In my opinion, the best way to prevent Ich is to quarantine all the fish you buy before adding them to your tank….

Because that fish you just bought has been on one heck of a journey. Many fish we keep in aquariums come from the other side of the world. Even the ones that are bred locally make their way through multiple tanks before coming home with you.

During this journey, your fish will have plenty of opportunities to encounter Ich. While your fish may look good and healthy, she may already be infected with the early stages of Ich. If you are serious about aquariums and plan on keeping fish for years to come, you want to set up a quarantine tank. A quarantine tank is essentially an in-between tank for your fish to hang out in before you add him to your main tank.

Most fish keepers quarantine their fish for 2 to 4 weeks. During this time, the fish is treated for parasites with a copper sulfate solution like this one. Plus, once treatment is finished, it needs to be removed from your tank with chemical filtration. Once your fish has been monitored and treated for a few weeks, you can add her to your main tank without the risk of introducing Ich and other parasites.

It can also be used as a hospital tank when not being used as a quarantine tank. However, if you like to play things risky and skip the quarantine tank, there are other ways to prevent Ich….

Fortunately, keeping your aquarium stress-free is darn simple. In fact, much of it comes down to good housekeeping — things you should already be doing! I know those white spots covering your fish from mouth to tail might look intimidating.

If caught early and with proper treatment, your fish should be on the road to recovery in no time. I know it can be hard, but it may be the only way to stop your fish from suffering.

Many fish keepers consider Ich to be a rite of passage. Yes, This is the best combination against ICH and other bacterial diseases. My concern is this combination malachite green and formalin kills the nitrifying bacteria in Bio-filter and other beneficial bacteria? Is it harmful for biofilter?

Ideally you would want to quarantine your fish and treat the hospital tank. However, in hobby use, Ich-X will not harm the beneficial bacteria in your tank. Just follow the instructions. In my time, I have first hand seen over 10 tanks treated with Ich-X and not once did the cycle crash. If you are asking about use in your wide-scale commercial aquaculture applications, the answer may be different.

Unfortunately, I have no experience using this product for aquaculture. Thanks Ian I think it is better to use separate hospital tank for avoiding the risk of killing nitrifying bacteria. In Indoor large scale commercial system, they normally use formalin malachite green is not allowed in some countries in very light dilution. In that case, they keep the specific infected tank disconnected from the main biofilter system and then treat the whole tank with formalin for 3 days.

After that they add fresh water and drain repeatedly for flushing out the trace of formalin. Then they connect the tank again with main filtration system. It is still unclear that whether formalin or malachite green has any effect on nitrifying bacteria. I got many confusing opinion in different fish blogs and other sources in internet. Since these are anti-bacterial agent, it may harm nitrifying bacterias.

Thanks again for your advise. You treat it for 3 days in the same water, correct? I definitely agree with using a hospital tank to treat it, but I have never seen an ammonia spike in a display tank after dosing, which would normally indicate a beneficial bacteria die off. I appreciate you elaborating on how the process is done in commercial systems, I find it absolutely fascinating!

Dear Ian My goldfishes are now more or less stable. No new mortality. Ammonia level is now between. I think bacterial cycle already started. I want to to add few cheaper feeder goldfish to complete the cycle. I know feeder gold fishes are not good quality and may have disease. What treatment should I do before stock them in to the tank? Kindly advise Thanks Iftekhar. I think the best way to cycle your tank would be to work out how much ammonia your additions will produce and dose manually.

It beats more fish dying, just to finish a cycle. I normally just use ich-X for general treatment, but this is here in the USA.

I also may change treatment if I have a suspicion that fish might have other specific problems. You may be facing different parasites and disease due to your location. Then treat accordingly. Again, I am unfamiliar with doing treatments on such a large scale, for a commercial application. What works for me, might not work for you. Need help got a saltwater gray anglefish was in qt tank with.

There can be a variety of reasons for cloudy eyes, water quality, vitamin a deficiency, bacterial infection or even a symptom of another disease. Now, after 40 days, 45 goldfish in liter water are in very good health , Ammonia is 0. My bio-filter working very nice and tank is fully cycled.

I can now think about my fish growing project in commercial way … high density my target is 1 fish per 2 liter of water , faster growth and good health.. The key is biofilter. Thanks for your advises. Hi, been treating ick for 5 days with another product. I skipped one day. Two angels have died, and the other seems to be getting more spots. She is eating but the others did too. I ordered the meds you recommend. Is it too late to save my angel? Unfortunately, I cannot say whether or not your angel can be saved.

I have my fingers crossed they pull through! I have been battling Ich for 3 weeks with Cupermine in my display tank since it was impractical fo me to catch all my fishes instead of just moving one coral and an anemone into another tank which I cycled.

So it has been 3 weeks now with cupermine in a very stable level of. However, I find most of my fished are well but it seems the Ich is still there even with Cupermine.

It seems I see white spots then a few day it come back. I am planning to continue cupermine for aother 2 weeks and see what happen. I will also does Prazipro.. I see it is a good product that can be mixed with Cupermnine. Ian Please help! Im battling through an ich outbreak and high nitrite levels at the same time my bad since my tank is borderline overcrowded.

Will medicate right after a do a hefty water change. My question is …how often and to what percent should I perform water changes while medicating and treating ich? Your help will be greatly appreciated! I feel so bad and foremost guilty for putting my fish through this, its so sad and the feeling of impotence is nerve wrecking! I have outlined my directions for water changes for Ich-X in this guide. I have an unheated freshwater tank that stays at 78 degrees.

Do you think 7 days was long enough to treat the tank at 78 degrees? More active, eating again. I think I may have had ich for a long time but it was hard to identify in the cories. Unfortunately you will have to use your best judgement here. My fish shows no sign of white spots except a few on the wen which I believe is wen growth but he is flashing, darting occasionally with some tears on tail and sits at the bottom of the tank in the evening.

No bullying that I have seen. Active in the day and eating well. The only other symptom I can see is hes gradually developing black areas on his wen and tail but they very much look like natural color change since he is a red and black Oranda.

My tank parameters are genrally good; ammonia 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates between 30 and 40 tap water is I complete a wc every days and only have 2 small fish in a 40 gallon tank. Any ideas? I would paste a pic but I dont see a way to do that.

Thank you in advance for your response. Unfortunately, I am not a veterinarian and am unqualified to individually diagnose fish. It could also be a disease, but based on the information provided, it would be difficult to point you in a particular direction for further reading.

I would suggest posting your picture to an aquarium forum, where other fishkeepers will be able to help! I see I could have worded this better, when used in conjunction with heat, it can help treat ich. I suggest using medication instead. Thanks for pointing this out! Hello Ian. I have read several of your articles and have learned a great deal from them. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion for fish. I believe I have diagnosed an outbreak of Ich in my fairly new tank.

It is in the early stage, only a few white spots at this point , but they are beginning to pop up on a couple of my other fish.

I think maybe spots over 3 or 4 fish at this point. It was introduced by a recently added group of fish, particularly an Blue Gourami. I know, I need a quarantine tank. This is not my first encounter with Ich being introduced by adding fish to my tank. I have been treating a female Molly that has a fungal infection. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thank you! My thoughts behind this are two:.

Firstly, ich is often more dangerous than a fungal infection, especially if it gets to the gills. Then there is the fact that ich-x will treat certain fungal issues.

Hi Ian I have a tank dedicated to African Clawed Frogs and it has feeder guppies, ghost shrimp, and a mystery snail. I believe most if not all of my guppies have ich. I am unable to find any suitable sources to know if I should let the ich run its course or attempt to treat it, as I know a lot of ich medications can harm my frogs.

I do have aquarium salt though and was wondering if I should remove my snail to another tank during treatment to keep him safe? I am primarily a fish kinda guy and am not overly experienced with ACFs. If possible, your best bet would be to isolate your frogs and snail and treat the entire tank separately. More bumps in the road for me!

My water chemistry settled down almost right away, but then I awoke this morning to a few of the dreaded white spots on the molly. So I was sort of expecting it to return one day…. I already have some Ich-X on the shelf. Usually it stays at a nice constant with no effort on my part, though. I also ripped the carbon out of my filter cartridge.

If there is anything else I can do for the fish while I wait for the water conditioner, please let me know. I highly recommend adding a heater regardless, so this was a good investment. Just be mindful that given the terrible conditions these fish have been through, even if you do everything right, there is still a possibility that they succumb to the disease.

This is perhaps the most frustrating thing about playing fish doctor. Good time to walk my dog, too. Thanks man. It sounds like you might have caught it just in time. Let me know if you need any more pointers or advice! How many times at minimum should I dose the Ich-X? I should be able to start treating them today.

My fish have been tolerating degrees without any complaints. All of the existing ich cysts fell off overnight once I raised the temperature. Advice from someone who has treated their fish with Ich-X before would be very much appreciated.

Good question. I dose according to the temperature setting. Since ich have different life cycles at different temperatures, you want to dose for a full life cycle. At your temp, the life cycle will be days.

So dosing for 6 days should do the trick. Hello again already. I have a bit of a judgement call to make. I have dosed the Ich-X twice now at the recommended amount of 1 tsp. They are looking more opaque and one of them is about as milk-colored from stress as when I first bought him. They never displayed any ich.

How much would you cut it by, if you were to cut it? Desist all together and hope the heat finishes it off? Power through at full dosage for the sake of the rest of the tank?

This is a really tricky one. Is it possible the catfishes are negatively responding to the raised temperature? But this is only a judgement call you can make.

Only you know how your catfish are behaving and responding. They seemed to become a bit stressed immediately after the 1st dose and very stressed after the 2nd dose. I think that info was was based on a single study, though. At 85 and below everyone seems to agree that you are only speeding it up, not killing it. I guess I will just have to decide what to do based on observing the fish.

Thanks Ian. There might be something about my particular tap water that makes it… less than adequately effective. Unfortunately I did not figure this out until half my glass catfish had died. Ultimately, the more water changes I did trying to get the Ich-X out and help the catfish, the faster they faded away. I dosed the tank with the water conditioner I had been using before the Ich-X and the surviving catfish improved a ton and became translucent again, almost immediately.

The other fish got perkier as well. I always just use my normal water conditioner seachem prime when I dose with ich-x. I have never used the Hikari one alongside it. I am back to using Aqueon water conditioner. Maybe it was chemically damaged in some way during shipping. Or maybe it required more preparation — the Aqueon conditioner did fine being added almost right away the first few days I had the fish, though I started letting newly conditioned water sit in buckets for minutes and giving it a good stirring as soon as I learned that was prudent.

I also add water to the tank through a colander to hopefully swish it around and aerate it a bit more. Perhaps that was not enough for the Hikari conditioner to function properly and I needed to let it sit for hours with airstones in it or something. I know many people dump the conditioner into the tank and then hose water in directly from the sink, so I figured I was being extra safe with my roomful of buckets!

I dumped some extra Aqueon conditioner in there to put my mind at ease. At least, the death of these fragile fish alerted me to the problem before all my fish perished. And if you amend your article perhaps a lot of people can learn from my mistake! Either this water conditioner needs more involved preparation from the typical stuff on pet store shelves and I did it wrong out of ignorance, or I got a bad batch, or it is unsuited to whatever comes out of the tap in the Phoenix area.

Hopefully this will be the last of my fish drama for a long time! I did have a chuckle at Aqueon allowing you to be sloppy with your measurements. I had never considered that to be an advantage. But here is me with my measuring pipette painstakingly dosing prime to the exact ml, so you might be onto something there! I hope this is the last of your fish drama too.

Good luck! The world may never know for sure what truly happened the day of the catfish massacre. Better to be cautious. I do half dose with good results…I have Corys so they do say to half dose..

I have only lost one fish to ich.. I get stess ich on very old fish.. I use Ich guard.. Hi Ian! How are you? He was absolutely fine all the while, water parameters great, and then within a space of about days he suddenly deteriorated and died. He just stopped eating, and began sinking and gradually fading. No visible fin rot or other obvious things. Nothing new introduced into his tank.

Then I suddenly remembered one day when we observed this single light-coloured spot on his body. And then the next day it was gone, so we thought it might have been some random floating crap. That was at least a week or more before the sudden deterioration.

You write that it starts out as a single spot, but then progresses to more — so ich ALWAYS progresses to more and more spots? Diagnosing why a fish died, without visible symptoms is an incredibly difficult task.

He could have suffered shock and stress months ago and it slowly got the better of him and only now given up the ghost or could have just been an unhealthy fish. Unfortunately, this is part of the game. Betta in particular are bred in shocking conditions, and are often not given the best start in life as it is.

Thanks so much Ian. White spot disease is a very common problem in freshwater aquarium fish. The disease is caused by the ciliate protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, commonly called ich or ick. If the infection is restricted to the gills, however, no white spots will be seen. Ich infects almost all freshwater fish and has a high mortality rate.

All the fish in a tank could be easily killed in a short period. Some aquarium fish may be more sensitive to ich infection than other species, but no fish species has complete natural resistance to ich. Ich is a ciliate parasite that has three developmental stages, a parasitic trophont, a reproductive tomont, and an infective theront. The host provides the parasite with food and other necessary substances for growth.

The mature trophont leaves the fish, attaches to the sides and bottom of the aquarium, and secretes a cyst wall to become a reproductive tomont. Each tomont divides from one cell to two cells and then undergoes multiple divisions to produce to 1, theronts within a single cyst. Infective theronts then bore their way out of the cyst and swim actively in the water in search of fish to attack.

Theronts can swim in the water for two to three days and will die if they cannot find a fish to attack. However, once they find a fish to attack and burrow into its epithelium, the theronts become trophonts and feed on surrounding host tissue until they reach mature size.

Whenever any white spots are seen on the skin and fins, fish are most likely infected by the parasite ich. Immediate treatment is required in order to save the infected fish. The best time to treat infective theronts and reproductive tomonts is when they are still in the water and before they penetrate the fish as trophonts.

Most of the anti-ich chemicals contain formaldehyde, malachite green, copper sulfate, a combination of formaldehyde and malachite green, or a combination of copper sulfate and malachite green.

Also, if Ich-X is not available in your country, salt is another good method for treating ich. We often use it with cichlids both African and South American and goldfish, but catfish and loach species can be more sensitive to salinity changes. For more details on using salt to treat ich, read our blog post on aquarium salt. This is a hotly debated question among fish keepers, but regardless of the answer, the key is to always run your aquariums as if it is there. The disease is opportunistic and commonly appears when fish are weak or stressed, so try to identify why your fish got ich in the first place.

Did you introduce new fish to your aquarium without quarantining them first? Was the fish tank poorly maintained, or were there rapid changes in parameters such as pH and temperature? By keeping the water quality high and minimizing sources of stress, you can easily avoid any future outbreaks of ich.

Fortunately, ich is one of the easiest diseases to treat, and fish generally will not die immediately from it unless they already have a compromised immune system. With the right medication and a bit of patience, your fish should be cleared up in no time from those pesky white spots. Shop Menu.

What is Ich?