PLEASE HELP!! I think my fish is sick !?

Question

im sort of suspecting ick!
few days earlier, my fish were twitching and had clamped fins.
i cleaned the tank normally as i would.
this morning they were clamped.
i thought my fish are doing better then right now from the looks of their dorsal fin there are tiny white salt specks, but only on the fins, its not very visible but i thik i see them. is it ick for sure? and whats the best ttreatment?
and if its not ick and they are helthy is it still okay to use medication (just to be sure)? will they be harmed? i do not want my beloved fish to die!! will they die is there any chance??? pleasee hlepp`!

i just read that ick is only from other fish!
i think my new fish had ick ! it was from the carnival!
sigh, anyways what can i do ? please do the step by step stuff ( how to wash tank, how to put medication,)
and wi the fish survive i got the new fish on april 27

im so sorry, its a goldfish a regular goldfish, the orginal one i had is big and i got it from my friend a year ago (community tank) and this new small one was from the carnival heres a picture when they were "healthy" (or at least my orginal one was)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/swtx10v3/karan/042707_1954.jpg

uhm i know goldfish are supposed to live in 30 gallons of water, but mine is in 2 gallon ;[
im going to get a bigger tank this week becasue i was begging to my mom and she fianlly said yes! now how can i treat my GOLDFISH in this small tank? and are you sure ican put aquarium salt in a goldfish`s tank?

Answer 1

What ever you do do no add salt and turn up the temperatures in your goldfish tank/bowl. Goldfish are cold water not warm water and will not fair well when cranking up the heat. Use an ich medicine only. NO it won't hurt your fish even if they don't have ich.

Ich is naturally occuring in the water. When fish get stressed or become sick ich parasites will attack the fish. Usually new fish added to a tank become stressed which makes it LOOK like it came from the pet store when it fact it did not.

Medicate the tank. Leave the salt and high temps out. Salt in goldfish tanks and bowls will cause other problems down the line.

Need more help feel free to email me.

Answer 2

It's ich. The first stages appear on fins then move onto the body and head. Treat it. Here is a description of the whens and stages of the parasite:
Ich has three life stages, which are important to understand for proper diagnosis and treatment.

1. When the parasite is visible to the naked eye, it is a nearly fully developed trophont which has burrowed under the fish’s mucus coating where it is protected from chemicals (medication). It has likely been feeding on the body fluid of the fish for several days and has swelled to many times its original size. At common aquarium temperatures of 75 to 80ºF this feeding stage lasts only a few days, at which point the fully developed cyst drops off the fish as a tomont.


2. The tomont may swim for several hours before settling on and attaching to the substrate, a plant, or some other surface. During that time it is susceptible to chemicals and medication will be effective. Once attached, it begins its reproductive stage. It encysts and begins rapidly dividing. At this point, it is again immune to chemicals. Within a few days, hundreds of new organisms burst from the cyst, sprout cilia and start swimming in search of a host.


3. These are now referred to as thermonts or swarmers, and they must find a host within a few days or they will die. (For this reason, we know that even an aquarium heavily infested with Ich would be “clean” and safe for new fish after only a week or two without fish in the tank.) Medication is effective at this stage. Once the thermont attaches to a host and burrows in, it is referred to as a trophont and the cycle begins again. Unfortunately, with each cycle the number of organisms in the tank increases dramatically.

There are two schools of thought regarding raising the temperature of the water to treat ich.

1. The first approach is used simply to speed up the lifecycle of the parasite, since whatever medication you choose will only be effective on the free-swimming tomonts and thermonts. It is understood that at temps above 75ºF, for example, an entire lifecycle can be complete in less than 4 days. (In contrast, it can take more than 5 weeks at temps below 45ºF, such as you might find in an outdoor pond.) Slowly raising the temperature a few degrees above normal (to approximately 80 - 82ºF) will do the trick, and you can treat accordingly with salt or a medication (see below). Always maintain good surface agitation, especially with a higher temperature.


2. 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 I studied (including a report by the Southern Regional Aquaculture Center, which is currently archived here) 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.) You can angle powerheads up toward the surface, or lower your water level to get a little extra splash from your filter return. As with any treatment, observe your fish closely for signs of stress (labored breathing, erratic behavior) and reduce the temperature slowly if necessary. One article that I read suggests the temperature be raised to 90ºF!

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.
You don't mention what kind of fish you have. Any of the "scaleless" fish do not tolerate medications well and the cure can kill them.

Answer 3

definite, if one fish is ill they'll all get sick. the in hassle-free words sickness i have ever considered take over a tank (and it occurred after I presented a clean fish) became little white spots began performing on him a pair days later. Then the different fish were given it and died too.

Answer 4

Treatment of Freshwater Ich, Ichthyophthirius.
It is believed that ich is present in all aquariums. Fish that have the disease exhibit small white dots about this size of a grain of salt. It is very contagious and it is fatal.
The best protection is a healthy tank with water changes done weekly or every other week with a gravel vac in the amount of 20-25% of the tank volume. A sound practice in fish keeping is to keep new fish in quarantine 4-7 days before adding them to your tank. The stress from being shipped from the wholesale to the retailer, the stress of living in the retailers tanks which may be overcrowded and poorly maintained and the stress of being bagged up and taken to your home can weaken a fish and make it most vulnerable to ich and other ailments. Rather than introduce a sick fish to your aquarium, it is better to quarantine it until you know it is healthy.

When sound fish keeping practices are not enough, fortunately ich is also very easy to cure. Freshwater ich should not be confused with marine ich, Cryptocaryon irritans. Salt will weaken freshwater ich, obviously marine ich, being in salt water already, this is obviously not the same treatment.

First step:
20-25% water change with gravel vac. Most likely your poor water conditions contributed to the outbreak of ich.
Second step:
Raise temperature (no more than 1° per hour) to 85°.
Third step:
Add aquarium salt (not table salt) in the amount of one rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons. If you have scaleless fish such as loaches, catfish and "algae eaters", reduce that to one rounded teaspoon per 5 gallons, as they don't tolerate salt well.
http://www.aquariumpharm.com/en_us/productCategory.asp?categoryname=WaterConditioners
Fourth step:
After 24 hours, a second 20-25% water change. Add more salt. If you took 5 gallons out in the change, put another rounded tablespoon in.
Adjust for your situation.
Fifth step:
Wait 24 hours.
Sixth Step:
A third water change of 20-25% and replace salt removed.

If this does not cure the fish, and no signs of improvement show up yet, you may want to use a commercial ich curative, all of which require removal of the carbon from your filter, or the carbon will filter out the medication. You can continue with the cleaning process and maintain salt levels. Brackish water fish such as mollies need to have some salt in order to maintain good health. Most other fish benefit from a little aquarium salt as well.

One of the most common is copper sulfate medications like Aquarasol http://www.aq-products.com/APpro/aquarisol.htm
In more extreme cases, Malachite Green is very popular.
http://www.aq-products.com/APpro/quickcure.htm
In the case of scaleless fish such as loaches and catfish, a formaldehyde based Formalin
http://www.aq-products.com/APpro/formalin.htm
Be extremely careful with Formalin doses, many are super concentrated containing 37% formaldehyde, as 1 teaspoon treats 90 gallons.
Some are pre-diluted like Formalin-3, where the dosage is 1-2 teaspoons per 10 gallons. Formalin will kill the bacteria in your filter that break down the waste,
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/formalin/index.htm
Some products contain a combination of these medications. Read the labels and know what you are putting in your tank.

Good Luck

Answer 5

Try this website

http://www.nosickfish.com/gclid=CMXE05Ka_YsCFSgRGgod2jqSbQ

I do not know a whole lot about ick or fish for that matter so i rather just give you a RELIABLE website LOL. and since i dont know the symptoms you can type them in on this website and it will tell you what and how to solve what is making your fish sick
And if this website doesnt work for you than call PETSMART they allways help me with my betta fish
Hope fishys gets better

Answer 6

What you need to do is go to petsmart and ask them what exactly you need to do. they will give you a salt mixture that you put in the fish water everyday and your fish should get better. My fish was sick and we had to go there and ask them for help. Our new carnival fish had made our other fish too.

Answer 7

Ditto to something_fishy's answer except I would recommend the temperature be 3 degrees higher at 88 or more. That temperature kills even more of the ich even more rapidly.

MM

Answer 8

itch. mmm... buy salt for your tank and add a teaspoonful for every gallon. i dont know what its called in english but in spanish its called Azul De Metileno. you can find it in a farmacy. make the water slightly blue with it.

Answer 9

You need to let us know what kind of fish it is first.

Answer 10

go to the pet shop and buy some liquid drops (like vitamins) and see how they go