parasite or disease?

Question
Hi i have a question, i bought three playtis and three swordtails a couple weeks ago and today i noticed that all my fish are obtaining a wierd disease or somthing. Heres the description that speaks for all fish. The fishes have like these small dots all over thier body that are coloured white, some have the white dots with like white strings coming out from those dots. Those dots are also in the water as well. what are they and how can they be treated?? THanks!!

Answer
Hi

Without being able to see it, it's hard to diagnose. It could be ICH/whitespot which can be fatal or it could be a fungal disease.

If it's ICH, I'd suggest adding some salt to your tank, if you google "dosage rate of salt in an aquarium" it should throw up some dosage rates. Also if it's ICH I'd turn your heater up to around 28deg this will make the life cycle of the ICH speed up.

If it's a fungal disease, I'd look at adding some Pimafix to your tank AFTER you've done a water change and continue with treatment for 7 continuous days and then perform another water change.

HTH