Tiny white spots on my Gourmis

Question
I'm a novice aquarist with a 10gal tank.  I just bought 2 dwarf gourami's (red) last week.  Now they have tiny white spots on their fins & bodies.   You gave another writer great advice on removing the charcoal from the filter when treating ick. Now I know why!  What medication do you recommend for the treatment of ick.

I just found your site today & I wish I had found it sooner.

Thanks,  Sue

Answer
Hi Sue, welcome to this wonderful hobby! Thank you for your kind comments!
Sorry about the bad luck you've had right off the start!:(

White spots, commonly known as "Ick" on fish is a common occurance when new fish are added. The most affected fish are ones whom have been stressed by enviromental or physical factors lowering their resistance to the parasites. Treatment should include good water quality through many frequent water changes. Because most likely your 10gal has yet to cycle (establish good beneficial bacteria whom convert harmful fish waste into less harmful compounds) adding medication will certainly hamper their colonization if not halt it all-together. But medicating is important for the treatment.

*Quick cure is a good medication for ICK treatment. Quite reliable and easy to use. I have used it with sucess in the past and feel it may be your best bet. There are other meds for Ick out there that I'm pretty sure are good and effective but so far I've had good luck with quick cure.
Because the ICK parasite's lifecycle goes by the white spots disappearing all of the sudden one day (making you think they're cured) but then reappearing the next...This is because the parasites live on the fish enclosed in a protective cover where even medications can't harm them, later they will fall off the fish and begin to multiply in the gravel bed by the thousands. After that the parasites become free-swimming and searching for a host. This is when they are vunerable to medication and going for the full treatment is vital for sucess. I would even recommend treating for 7-14 days to insure every parasite is wiped out by the medicine.
*Slowly Raising the water temperature to at least 80-84F will speed up the Ick's lifecycle and can make treatment faster....

After that you should do 50% water changes about every day to remove the medication and keep carbon back in your filter to further remove any leftover medication. Don't forget when doing water changes to always make the replacement water equal to that in temperature of your aquarium and always dechlorinate it with a good water conditioner.

Your aquarium will likely try to begin cycling after the whole Ick treatment episode. For your beneficial bacteria to get established it takes time and patience. You may get ammonia or nitrite spikes during this time and water test kits are the option for monitering these. Large water changes in the 50% range are in order when these spikes happen as both ammonia and nitrite are very harmful for your fish.

With time your ammonia and nitrite levels will rise and fall and then drop to zero and nitrate will begin to rise. This is when you can consider your aquarium cycled and call it safe to add a couple more fish. But not too many, testing after each new addition insures you haven't overdone it. If you get another spike (which can happen) it's time to pull out your patience and water changes again until this "mini-cycle" completes itself.

Well,  I wish you the best of luck with your Ick treatment. If caught in time and treated,Ick is easy to cure and can be a thing of the past once you get everything straight again.

Let me know if you have anymore questions or concerns....

Best wishes,
Karen~