Ich?

sacred_avarice

my red wag platy is the only surviving fish in my tank. he has developed white spots in the last day, and hes been chasing his reflection it seems like, or is floating with his tail downward.

the little white spots are on his body and fins are just a few, and they kind of look like sugar crystals. is it ich? or what else, im really new to the tank, so how do i treat it?


i only have a 5 gallon tank, and hes the only fish in it now, so it should be easy.

tropical1

yeah it sounds like a good ole case of ich. if it is ich i would just add a tblspoon of salt and gradually raise the temp in the tank to speed up the process. but dont take just my advice, there wil be other more experienced people chime in.

Loman

Tropical is on the money. Take a look in the article section for a more indepth discussion but you have the basic advice

sacred_avarice

well, i added about a tablespoon of salt so far, and the heater has no control for the temp (yeah, it was a cheap one meant for a small tank) but im upping the overall temp of my room to get the temperature above 80, where its hitting at the highest, but at the very least the salt would kill off the ich, right?

Loman

The salt should kill the ich when it is in the free swimming stage of life. Ironically you can not see it at that time (other parasites may be at different stages though). So yes the salt should kill the parasite. Raising the temp actually makes the conditions ideal for the ich and speeds along the life cycle so it gets to the free swimming stage sooner. If you just raised the temp without the salt the ich would spread faster. Also you want to continue treatment for some time after the last visible signs of ich to be sure it is completely eradicated and not just in one of the other life stages.

sacred_avarice

I figured that I would not make a special attempt to erradicate all of the salt from the tank, letting it sit through water changes and such, and at least for a few weeks.

my next problem is though, now that ive done the salt treatment, and i wait a couple of weeks to make sure that it hasnt reappeared, when can i introduce new fish? and i only have a small fish box (like for kids) to use as a quarantine area, which i was planning to fill with tank water, so that when i introduce them to the tank, they are acclimated to the water, but i dont know how long any fish would really do in a rather small box, with no filter and such. i fear they wouldnt survive a 2 week quarantine, so should i cut back? or just put a small amount of salt in the box and keep them there for at least a week just to make sure they are not contaminated?

i'm afraid any new fish would just bring in the ich again.


and i wanted to thank you for all of your help, and tell you you truly are amazing.