Fish Get The Itch?

Question

I asked a previous question about my fish and someone answered by telling me i should check if they have the "itch"...Can they get the "itch"? And if so how do u know if they have it and how do u treat it?

How does the ich occur?

Answer 1

First of all - Ich is an Ectoparasite that has 3 different stages. If your fish have very small white spots on them (kind of like someone salted them) then you definitely have Ich. However - buying meds at this point is a waste of money because the parasite is not vulnerable to meds in this stage. Once the white spots have fallen off the fish - they go down into your gravel/substrate and begin an encysted stage where a single Ich parasite multiples up to 2,000 different ones. Once they become free swimming - they are vulnerable to meds/salt, but not before that point.

I just got through treating one of my tanks with Maracide Concentrate by Virbac Animal Health, and Evaporated Sea Salt. All you honestly need though is Salt. If you have a biolocial filter which has carbon in it , and treat with meds, you will need to take them out all together (because if you don't they will just remove your medication from the water). Salt by itself however you don't need to do anything but put it in and raise the water temp.

Salt, and raising the water temp to 85-86 degrees (provided your species of fish can tolerate that temp) is the best way to treat this mess. I wish I would have had the article out on Wiki before I started my treatment. Could have saved a ton of time and money had I done that. I'll post it for you here in my sources. The guy who wrote this truly is the Internet authority on Ectoparasitic treatments. Just use Evaporated Sea Salt, and warmer water and you will be ok. Go to the website in my sources and read the article out there. You will have a full understanding (more than you ever wanted to know) once you read it.

Answer 2

It is actually called ich, and it is the same as a humans that have an itch and want to scratch, the white fluff on them is a fungus, it is not ich, the best is to get youself some medication from the petshop and treat it but also put your temp up so that the fungus can be killed, if that does not help then try excess dose of salt and the temp must be at least 30 degrees celcius. That should sort the problem out

Answer 3

You must mean "ich", it is a small parasite that attaches itself to the body and fins of the fish. It looks just like someone sprinkled salt on the fish.

Medication is one way to treat for the parasite, but the second way is much more effective and will not harm scaleless fish like loaches.

The second approach is to actually destroy the organism with heat, and can be combined with the salt treatment below, but not with meds. The data that was studied (including a report by the Southern Regional Aquaculture Center suggests that most strains of Ich cannot reproduce at temperatures above 85ºF. To use this treatment approach, slowly (no more than 1 or 2 degrees per hour) raise the temperature to 86ºF, while maintaining strong continuous surface agitation to oxygenate the water. This is extremely important because water holds less O2 at higher temperatures. (This is why meds should not be used in conjunction with high temp – most Ich treatment products also reduce oxygen levels. Less available oxygen, combined with the respiration difficulties an infected fish is already faced with, could be fatal.)

The adjusted temperature should be maintained for approximately 10 days, or a minimum of 3 days after all signs of the parasite have disappeared. Do not discontinue treatment when the spots go away. This is critical, because we know that they are visible only as a trophont on the body of the host, and not during the reproductive or free-swimming stage. We also know that trophonts on the gills are impossible to see.

Answer 4

Ich is a parasites that attaches itself to fish. Fish don't usually suffer from ich unless they are being stressed. You may have added a new fish to the tank that caused a increase in the tank's bio load so the water spiked in ammonia a bit. You may be over feeding, have the tank at the wrong temperature, over crowded or not be keeping up with your water changes.
Adding salt for freshwater fish can get rid of the problem. It will kill the parasite, and cause the fish to produce more slime making it harder for them to get it again.
Add one teaspoon for every gallon of tank water, wait two days and add one teaspoon for every gallon, wait two days and change 50% of the water to bring the amount of salt back to the normal dose. After that, you should add salt to all the water you pour in when you change the water, but not when you are simply topping off the tank (salt does not evaporate).
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Answer 5

Itch is something that a fish gets and they would have white stuff on them it is treated using medications that you can probably find in your local pet store.

Answer 6

fish ussually get ick when a sudden change happens in the water (like a temperature change) theire defenses go down and they get a bunch of white dots all over.......

I use "Ick guard" its really good,,, it works...

you can get it in most pet shops..... just make sure that you dont let it fall on anything else...it stains......

take care

Answer 7

"ich" looks like specs of salt all over the fish body lots of treatments for it. i like "nox-ich" the very best. its quite easy to treat

Answer 8

you need to get the med for itch and put it in the tank sothe other fish don't get it