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A gold fish of mine, has a lot of small white spots on its dorsal fin. Its acting very depressed. I believe it might be ich, but I am not completely sure.

Good chance it is ich if it looks like a salt dusting. What else is in the tank with him in terms of other fish and plants.

What size tank is it and have you check for ammonia, nitrites and your nitrate and pH levels.

Stress brings on ich. Temperature stress is one way, aside from parameters being out of whack. All it takes is a 3-4 degree drop or more for them to get chilled.

Rid Ich Plus is one of the best ich meds on the market but it will kill plants. If you have any scaleless fish, any ich med could be harmful to them. Never increase temp with any product containing formalin as it is a gas and depletes o2. So does heat. Combine the two and it could be disastrous.

With ich can come body fungus. It's wise to dose the tank with melafix and/or pimafix at the same time and be prepared for something more aggressive like Maracyn.

But, before you medicate ammonia and nitrite should read zero and nitrates should be below 40ppm. pH should be not be in the basement (close to six).

Before you replied to my post, I had put some ich medication into my aquarium. It said that it was safe for plants but it didn't say anything about scale-less fish. It's called Aquari-Sol and it contains Zycosin. I have 3 sword tails, two otocinclus, and a bunch of plants whose names I do not remember. My ammonia levels seem okay, I'm not sure about my nitrate levels though, and my PH is a little below 7.

Last edited by Kingyo at 28-Jan-2005 18:18

Watch the otos for signs of stress. If in doubt, only use half strength. You can always do a partial water change too if you feel it may affect the otos.

Don't let your guard down with ich. It falls from the fish leaving a false impression that the attack is done. However, a new attack is forming on the bottom of the aquarium where those spots fell to the substrate and are about to release hundreds, if not thousands like themselves into the water column. It is only at this stage that ich medicine kills the parasite - the free swimming stage when they are searching for a host, before they get onto the fish. So, this is when you want to make sure meds are in the tank.

Best wishes.