funky black parasites

Question
I have a 10 gallon tank full of breeding guppies.  I feed them to a freshwater baracuda I have.  Everything has been fine since we set it up about a year ago.  This morning I awoke to a pregnant female lying dead on the gravel.  She was covered in dark brown/black spots.  I scooped her out put her into a jar and added a little water.  I then let it set for about 5 minutes and when I came back to it all the spots had moved off of her and were actually moving around by themselves.  I plan on doing an entire water replacement (including clean gravel) because when I got to looking they were EVERYWHERE.  Not really swimming through the water but hanging out on the top layer of gravel.  I had called my local pet store and their fish 'expert' said it was ick.  Do you agree?  I don't really want to treat for ick if that is not what it is.  Please help me!  The closest thing I could come up with was fish lice.  Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Shalimar,
 It is definitely not ick.  The "ick" that you see are the cysts of a mobile parasite, i.e. the cysts can't move and they are white.  What you have are, as you think, likely some form of fish lice.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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