Ich (Fish Disease)?

Question

Is is possible for just one fish in your tank to be affected bye it? Because I have 3 total. And only one is displaying signs of it. I've had been seeing the spots for about a week now. Any advice? Possible other causes?

Thanks, for all your help! I have been doing the salt and heat method. I think that has helped more than anything. It looks to be clearing up. But I'm going to wait another week, and see where it gets me, then I'm going to go to the fish store, or ebay (seen as how i'm in Japan and can't read Japanese) and see about medicines. Thanks again so much.

Answer 1

I do not in any way mean to be insulting, but based on the question you are askin, I am assuming that you are a novice aquariust. Because of that, DO NOT use the meth blue. It is a bit too strong for a novice to be playing around with.

Ich is inherent to all fish fresh and salt. When they get stressed, the ich is able to surface and infest.

I am assuming that your tank is fresh water. If it is, then I would recommend that you use Melafix or Paragaurd. If you are sure that it is Ich, then Melafix will be a great treatment. Paragaurd is a "shotgun" type of treatment which covers many different fish afflictions in one dose. It is best to be used when you are not sure what you are dealing with. Make sure to take the filter out of your tank when you use either of these chemicals, and follow the directions on the bottle exactly as they are written.

If your tank is salt water, use copper sulfate provided that you do not have any corals. Copper will kill corals. the chemicals that kill snails will kill ich in saltwater fish. Though, my preferred method for dealing with it is a freshwater bath. You put the fish in som RO water for about 5-10 minutes and keep the fish moving with a pump or something. They will be fine, but the ich will implode. Following that, RidIch is an effective treatment following a freshwater bath.

Answer 2

It will most likely spread.
First of all, how is your water? Do you test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? The first two should be zero, the third under forty, preferably under twenty. If not, bad water conditions is most likely why your fish came down with ich.
If you don't have test kits, go ahead and do a water change, of about fifty percent just to be sure. Be sure to match the temperature of the new water to the tank water and to dechlorinate it. (I suppose you already know all this, but I just want to cover all the bases.)
To treat the ich, raise the tank temp slowly to about 86 degrees F and leave it there until all spots are gone and for about a week thereafter. You can also add aquarium salt, about a tablespoon to every five gallons, as well; as long as you don't have fish that are sensitive to salt, or snails. Don't add the salt all at once; add it in three doses so the fish can adjust to it. During the treatment time, be sure that when you do a water change you add the right amount of salt to keep the salinity of the water up.
After you have eradicated the ich (it's been gone for at least a week), begin to lower the tank temp gradually and to do a series of partial water changes to lower the salinity of the water.

I find that ich meds are very hard on fish and invariably lose one or two when I use one. I don't use them anymore because I have had great success with the heat and salt method.

Answer 3

Some fish get ich more easily than others, but if one fish has it then it's in your water and gravel and will eventually affect the others too, even if you separate the sick one.

My advice is to get rid of it pronto! There's a great article on treating ich with heat at http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php
-- I cured my tank of ich completely without losing any fish and they even seemed happy and playful through the whole thing. All I did was raise the temperature and do the daily water changes for 10 days. I didn't use special filters, add salt to my tank, or do salt baths.

This method doesn't use any medications, which are stressful for fish. It's a little more elbow grease, but better in the long run for your fish.

Answer 4

anything with metheylene blue or malachite green will work. most ich meds are malachite green with formaldahide. it is very possible for just one to show signs of ich. in general it is thought a fish has to have a lowered immune system to have ich.

you should separate the sick fish and treat it asap. it is better if you treat it in a heated tank -- at 70 degrees ich has a life cycle of about 20 days. at 85 degrees it is only 4 days. ich runs in stages. one where it is attached to your fish -- two when it falls off the fish 3 it fissures and sends 1000s of little ichs back up looking for a host. so if you can do it in 4 days it is obviously a lot easier. i keep mine separated and change the water in the separated fish daily so all the falling off stuff is down the drain. it does need to be treated though. i will kill your fish. if the rest of the tank starts showing ich you probably want to treat the whole tank and do gravel vacuums frequently.

Answer 5

Treat them all. They will eventually get it, the first fish was probably just the weakest. Causes of ich are usually warm or dirtier water. Could be the size of your tank or the filtration. Three goldfish take up much more water than three other fish, because goldfish are the biggest waste producers and maybe you're just crowding them. Treat all your fish and then completely clean and water change your tank.

Answer 6

It's ich and your other fish will get is soon if you don't get medication & do a 30% water change. Pet stores have a booklet you can look at with visuals of different fish with different diseases so that your sure you diagnose the problem correctly.

Answer 7

ick is normally caused by stress in a fish. you have to treat it right away or it will spread it to the others and ick is a deadly disease. get some ick away from a petstore asap.

Answer 8

Metheline Blue (Sp?) get it at any pet store... The others will likely get it eventually, and it will kill them all eventually if you dont do something about it...