ICH on my goldfish?

Question

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if anything can be mistaken for ICH. I recently bought a new fan tail 3 days ago and put him in quarentine. After the 1st day I noticed several white spots on his body and fins so I put about 20 teaspoons of salt in the tank. (its a 20 gallon tank) So anyways, this morning I noticed the spots were gone. I was under the impression that the life cycle of ICH was around at least a week. How could the spots be gone after 1 day?

It's definately ICH. I just went to the pet store and saw that there are other fish with ICH in that tank.

Answer 1

Congrats on using a quarantine tank! Feels good that disease didn't go in your main tank huh? Let this be a lesson and testimonial to all the readers of this question!

You are right, salt can kill ich, but it takes more than you put in to get the job done. There are other parasites that can look like ich as well, but they too would require more salt than you added to the tank. It take a tablespoon of salt per gallon to reach a 1% ratio and that is the minimum to be effective against ich.

The life cycle of ich is about a week at typical trpoical temperatures, but over a month in the lower 60's to upper 50's and it's less than 48 hours at 84F. At 85F it stop reproducing effectively and at 87.5F it begins to die from the heat.

It still could be ich you saw on your fish and if reasonably warm it's quite possible they all feel off the fish in the 24 hours or so since you added the salt. If that's the case you will be seeing a huge outbreak in a few days. I would suggest daily 50% water changes while cleaning the bottom of the tank very well with a gravel siphon. This will remove much of the ich in it's current stage and help prevent such a large outbreak in the near future. If you have a heater available, you can also begin to raise the temperature of the tank to at least 85F to speed the cycle and damage the ich as well. Continue to use the salt at the current level and if you see an additional outbreak, raise the salt to a tablespoon (3 teaspoons) per gallon. The salt will not hurt the goldfish at all in a limited time exposure and in such a small amount. If you see no ich in 4-5 days, you can assume it's cleared up or that the original spots were something other than ich and that has been killed as well.

If you need additional information or if I can help feel free to email me.

MM

Answer 2

Yay salt kills ick. Ick came about due to the stress of the move. Wait 2 weeks though. You can add another teaspoon of salt per gallon. If you have a heater raise to 83. Awesome you quarintine!! Good job friend. Aren't you glad all your other fish in the main tank don't have ick? Good luck. Thats what the quarintine tank is for.
The spots can be gone in one day, you nipped it in the butt before it was totally out of control. Yes the life cycle of the ick is 2 weeks, that's why you must keep the fish there a little longer to be certain.

Answer 3

you did an excellent job. i would say to do partial water change (about 10-15% everyday) until the ick has completely cleared. Since the white spots were gone, i think you should cut down the amount of salt.

Ick should be resolved in 7-10 days and is brought on by stress, so whenever you do the weekly water changes, add some more stress coat to the water.

Answer 4

While it might not have been ICK, it could have been any number of fungal or bacterial infections. Mine get the strangest stuff every time the weather/water heats up.

You did the correct thing in using the salt...excellent and cost effective way to battle goldfish diseases.

Answer 5

well you could have just caught the ich once it attached to your fish
or it could have just been your imagination and there was no ich from the start

Answer 6

Maybe its fast.