What disease is this?

Question
Hello Nicole it's your friend Jonathan, thank you for your time.

My fish have white spots on them. I know that white spots in the tail is ich, but my fish have it on their bodies too. And it is bumpy and only some of trhem have it. What do I do?

Answer
Hi again Jonathan, nice to hear from you, although not under the best circumstances, I am sorry to hear!

White bumpy spots are most likely ich. Ich does not occur just on the tail, ich spreads all over the body of the fish, then drops. Everything will seem fine and dandy, but this is actually when the real trouble begins! At this point, the parasites responsible for ich have left your fish host and multiplied exponentionally on your gravel. What to do?

The good news is that ich is extremely treatable, the bad news is that you must be persistent in treating it, or it will reinfest your system. You can use medication, or not, I'll outline both aspects of treatment for you...

1. The first thing to do is to vacuum the gravel deeply. Use a gravel vac to get all the way to the bottom of your substrate. This will help to remove most of the parasites.

2. Do a 50% water change with dechlorinated tap water. The free swimming parasite population will be reduced by 50%.

3. Evaluate your livestock. Are they sensitive to salt, heat, medication? Your frogs are immune to the parasite that causes ich. They should be removed while treatment is taking place, since they will probably perish in a treated tank.

4. Raise the temperature to 86 degrees slowly, about two degrees per hour. This can be a bit difficult to ascertain, if you don't have a heater that indicates the temperature.

5. Add 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of salt to your tank, either Epsom or aquarium salt will do. Although they are usually not interchangeable in this manner, the parasite responsible for ich is intolerant of both kinds of salt.

6. Continue treatment for 10 days, replacing only the salt that is lost in the course of water changes, as it will not evaporate - it dissolves into the water, making it only necessary to add more when a water change is effected.

This should be enough to rid your tank of the parasite by itself. If you feel the need to medicate, then try Kordon's combination of Malachite Green and Formalin, read the back to make sure you have the right medication. This is a very effective, if very toxic, remedy for ich. Malachite Green by itself is less toxic and still effective.

If you plan on using medication (instead of just the salt) it is highly recommended to treat in a hospital tank. It is very possible (or shall I say highly likely?) that treating in your main tank will disrupt if not destroy your biological filter, to the point that a new cycle will likely have to take place after the medication runs its course.

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Putting together this long link will get you to the wetwebmedia.com site, where you can read about what people have used for hospital tanks in a pinch. You can also just type "hospital tank" in their site's search feature on the home page - make sure you search their site, not the web!

I am really sorry this happened Jonathan, but what is most important to consider is - why did it happen? Skipped water changes (you should be changing about 30% a week, 15% twice a week is best), overfeeding, overcrowding, lack of filter maintenance, a new addition to your tank? A quarantine tank is very easy to set up and will prevent this from happening again, if the reason for the ich was a new addition.

Thankfully, my stocking days are over...I've had the same fish for years, and I didn't quarantine most of them. I finally "saw the light" after two separate outbreaks of ich! I highly recommend you have a sponge filter in your tank running at all times, so you can use 60/40 old/new water and that seeded sponge filter from your main tank, to get that quarantine tank up and running when it is needed. Some people have one up all the time - it's not a bad idea!

Good luck treating this, I am sorry for your hardship, my friend. Let me know if you have any more questions...

Nicole