FishProfiles.com Message Forums

must be the season for ick or something. I had an outbreak of ick in my nursury about 3 weeks ago. I don't know why because nothing new was introduced, none of the water parameters changed and the tank is kept in tip-top shape. Anyway, I treated the ick with Maracide (I cannot raise the temperature because it is only a 2 gal hex so no heater) and most of the babies recovered though I did lose one. On that particular baby, the spots entirely covered him, he was hardly swimming and was obviously getting weaker so I had to .. So like I said, most of the babies have fully recovered, however, I still have 2 babies with white spots all over them !! ]:| These two are still merrily swimming around and eating normally but I'm concerned because the spots are just not going away. Any suggestions ?

Well, Mom...

It would help if you told us the type of ich med you dosed and what species of fish are infected.

Fry are not born with a natural immunity to the ich parasite and any stress, perhaps from just being born, allows ich to attack.

There's still ich in the tank because the temp was not raised high enough to kick start the proper death cycle or, the med used is not doing the job.

--garyroland.

I treated the ick with Maracide

"This compounded solution has been developed and tested for the treatment of most common tropical freshwater parasites. Use of a quarantine tank is suggested, but not required. FYI, if your activated carbon filter is more than five days old, it may be left in place. Carbon less than five days old may reduce the activity of Maracide, and should be removed. Maintain normal filtration and air. Use one drop per two gallons of water (7.57 liters) and repeat every 24 hours for 5 days. Any sudden change in aquarium conditions can be hazardous. Make changes gradually. In tanks sealed with silicone, some staining may occur. Do not overdose. These concentrated drops are effective against ick, trichodina, chilodinella and related parasites."

I would switch to Rid-Ich+..a milder treatment. It also has no particular suggested end time to cease treatments. The whole point is to have the medication in the water when the cysts drop off the fish, so it can be killed. Rid-ich says to continue use until three days after all visible signs are gone, which makes more sense to me.

[span class="edited"][Edited by jake 2004-07-06 22:06][/span]

Sorry, I missed the Maracide comment...

The rest of the info I'd still like to know.

--garyroland.

I realized after I hit "post" that I hadn't specified the species but I didn't edit my post because I assumed everyone would figure out the species from my sig ... 2 gal - 17 platy fry. My bad.

I have already been treating for over 3 weeks and was told that I could not put a heater in the tank because I would end up with boiled fry. Most of the fry are 6 - 7 weeks old so I can't imagine it could be from the stress of being born at this point and I can't seem to find Rid-Ick (trystianity - maybe you could help with this). I noticed this morning that I only have one fry left with spots. He is the one who is entirely covered yet he was first to the trough for feeding this morning so he doesn't seem to care one little bit about the spots. I've been thinking maybe he doesn't have ick but what else could it be ?

It's the fungus caused by ich that kills fish ultimately and those "spots" could be just that...

Not all fish fight off ich at the same time. It all depends on the health of the fish, condition of the slime coat and related immunity.

You can keep dosing at half strength with small water changes every day of the same temp and wait for results.

If the fish becomes covered with fungus the end is near. Watch for small areas to clear up, an indicator of better days ahead.

--garyroland.

That's what I was wondering - if it was fungus. I will continue with the treatment as suggested. As I said in my previous post, he's really active and eats well so with the other baby that was covered being clear this morning, I'm considering those all good signs ! Thanks for the advice !!

Just a quick update - all spots are gone ! Thanks for all the advice, Gary and everyone.

The sweet smell of success...

--garyroland.