White spots on my rummies

[HanshaSuro]

All the LFS in my area had been having a drought of Rummy Nose tetras. On a random trip, suddenly my closest one was restocked. I brought them home 2 days ago and now they are showing white spots on the tops of their bodies and fins. They're almost shiny looking, like someone sprinked salt over the tops of their backs.

Is this a disease? What should I do?

Thanks

 

[lizwinz]

sounds like ich

what i would do:

treat the whole tank dont q-tank them...if they have ich your better off treating the whole tank because ich can be free-swimming and in the gravel

1tbs of salt per 5gal

freshwater coppersafe by mardel (follow dosage)

gravel vac every/everyother day....during part of its life cycle ich is present in the gravel

there are other meds/treatments that i cant speak for but this has worked wonders for me...never lost a fish to ich

also, sometimes ich can seem worse before its gets better...this is because it can only be killed in the free-swimming stage, meds wont take it off the fish....but it will eventually drop off into the gravel and youll vac it up or the meds will get it when it is free-swimming

good luck and let us know how it goes

--liz

 

[Angelfish]

Yep deffinately sounds like ich. Lizwinz said all, follow her advice and you should be okay =)

 

[HanshaSuro]

Ok, I'll update as it goes along. Luckily the LFS was open today (4th of July), so I happened to buy salt along with the medication before I read this.

Right now one of the rummies that introduced the ich looks pretty bad, so I worry we might lose him. We've named him lucky because we feel it would be unfortunate if he were to pass on without a name.

The ich meds claim that they may discolor the silicone in the tank. Is this likely?

 

[Leopardess]

what medicine is that? something with methylene blue or malachite green? I used some once without it causing any problems, and I believe that if it does stain, that time will fade it away - but I'm not sure. Also, you may want to add some stress coat or melafix to help the fish build up their defenses.



edit: i have read that ick, when hatching out of the gravel, will swim towards the light. SO, turning off the light as much as possible helps keep the ich near the bottom, rather than swimming up through the tank towards the light.

also, because of the higher temperature, and medication, you may need to increase aeration. and remember to remove your carbon.

GOOD LUCK