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My small ancistrus (he's about 3cm) started to stand in a corner of the aquarium trembling, I see some little with spots but i don't know if they are the "regular" spots one can see on the ancistrus. The strangest thing is that he dosen't hide, he just stand there witch he never did before..

Is it white spot?

should i treat just him or all the aqua? (100 litres with a couple of apistos)

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Last edited by sirbooks at 24-Oct-2005 21:11

That looks a lot like ich. HAve you had him very long? Have you switched him to a different tank reacently? You DEFINITELY need to treat the whole tank because if he has it the others will get it very soon as well. It a pretty contagious thing. Treat it as soon as possible. If you have any scaleless fihs, invertebrates or crustacea remove them first. Ich meds will kill them. If you have these guys also make sure the ich meds you use do not have copper in them because it will leach on to the plants and such in the tank... assuming that you have plastic plants. Anyone else who knows any other way to fix it please chime in!!!
Ich is easily treated if you take care of it soon. If not it can cause some problems.



Christina

Definitely looks like ich, treat the whole tank, hes badly infected and probably really contagious.

Raise your tank temperature up, do it over the course of a day or so to about 88 degrees. This will speed up the lifecycle of the parasite and make it drop off the fish. Once they drop off and they're free-floating in the water you can kill them using medicine. I've heard good things about a product called Rid-Ich +.

The most important thing right now is to get that temperature up. He has it really bad, I can't say if he'll make it or not, but if you work on this now your other fish probably will be just fine.

---

Back in the saddle!

GOOD LUCK! I HOPE HE DOES OK!!!!! LET US KNOW!!!!

i WILL CHEER HIM ON FOR YA!!! /:'

Raise your tank temperature up, do it over the course of a day or so to about 88 degrees. This will speed up the lifecycle of the parasite and make it drop off the fish. Once they drop off and they're free-floating in the water you can kill them using medicine. I've heard good things about a product called Rid-Ich +.

Don't raise the temperature that high if you're treating with Rid Ich + (or any other ich med containing formalin). Formalin displaces some dissolved oxygen in the water, at high temperatures you already have lower dissolved oxygen, combine the two of them and it could be fatal.

Depending on what fish you have, ich can be treated effectively with high temperature alone (over 86F). This is ONLY if your fish can take that much heat. If not, you can expect to see some losses. For heat treatment, you want to raise the temperature in the tank up over 86F slowly and leave it there for a few weeks. High temperatures interfere with the parasite's ability to reproduce and speed up the life cycle at the same time. You can add a small amount of aquarium salt to the tank during treatment, again that depends on what fish you have and their tolerance to salt.

I usually just treat with some kind of preparation of Formalin and Malachite Green. Check the labels of various ich medications available to you for those ingredients, follow the package instructions of what you buy but continue to treat the fish for about 4-7 days (depends on temperature) after the last spot is gone to make sure you've killed it completely. You may want to halve the recommended dose if you have sensitive fish.

Also give your substrate a good cleaning to get rid of any excess waste. Find out what may have caused the infection (usually stress, overcrowding, etc.) and correct it.

You may not be able to save that one, he looks really badly infected.