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Goldfish heavily infected with ich! Help!


snapperhead

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My two goldfish are heavily infected with ich :tears: , it started of as red streaks on the tail, scratching the side of the body, twitching fins white spots on fins (everywhere, looks like salt) and on the body and rapid glitchy movement. In m tank I have driftwood, plants, silica sand for substrate, FW mussel, snails, 2 fantails, 2 orandas and 1 minnow. One of the fantails tail looks like it is starting to rot. The end is shrinking and leaving behind a skeleton like structure behind. They are all eating well. The fantails tails are very red and the two orandas tails are starting to turn red and the minnow is just fine. I bought tonic salt from animates.

1) How do I go about treating the whole tank?

2) Can I remove all the fish into one quarantine tank with the treatment? Will the parasite starve to death in the tank with no fish along with treatment in the main tank?

3) Can I use a filter from the old tank in the quarantine tank?

4) How do I treat the plants and wood?

5) Can the mussel and snails carry the disease?

6) Can the disease exist in my main filter?

Any help will be greatly appreciated :)

Pictures will come soon....

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Most important is to work out why they got the infections in the first place to prevent a recurrence too. Have you tested the water for ammonia and nitrites particularly?

1) How do I go about treating the whole tank?

Dose according to instructions on the container.

2) Can I remove all the fish into one quarantine tank with the treatment? Will the parasite starve to death in the tank with no fish along with treatment in the main tank?

If ich only then it will die without a host (about 2 weeks). Don't know about finrot

3) Can I use a filter from the old tank in the quarantine tank?

yes

4) How do I treat the plants and wood?

No need if you are medicating the tank or removing the fish for at least 2 weeks. Siphon up the substrate thoroughly

5) Can the mussel and snails carry the disease?

Not sure but I wonder if they are affecting the water quality therefore causing the outbreak in the first place

6) Can the disease exist in my main filter?

I should think so but will be dealt with if dosing the tank, or removing fish as above

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They are all currently in a quarantine tank. The snails and FW mussel are in a different one.

The two are getting sicker every day, tails getting more red, tail rotting more and more ich. I really hate ich :an!gry

I am doing daily water changes of 25% mainly concentrating at the bottom of the tank and replenishing the salt level.

The main tank is uninhabited except for a few aquatic plants and the I am raising the temperature to 32 degrees celsius.

So does my fish have fin rot, bacterial infection and ich at the same time?!?

I really don't want my goldfish to :dead%fish especially the two white ones, I have had them for 3 years with no problems at all..... until now. :tears: :tears:

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You have itch (whitespot) and finrot (bacterial infection) treat as advised and as per instructions. Salt is not working so move it up a notch. Treat with the least amount of the least toxic medication THAT WORKS. The white spots you see are not what you are treating but the things that the whitespots produce. The red marks on the fins are indicating the early stage of finrot. You have both parasites and bacteria so need to treat for both and either medication will do that.

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good article.

would just like to add that recently there have been reports of an Ich parasite that instead of leaving the fish to develop actually stays in the fishes mucus membrane to reproduce. using many imaginations and years of knowledge they have decided to call this strain "super - ich"

so far all reports are from north america and germany (to my knowledge) where commercial level breeding is widespread

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How long would it be to starve the swarmers in the main tank at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius?

I only have one heater and have been treating the main tank with extra salt and at a tmperature of 32 degrees celsius for 3 days. The heater will be used in the quarantine tank.

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