Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum. I live in Canada, Ontario and I have 9 fish and 2 little crap eaters I call them lol . Anyway. Yesterday I had 5 fish with white pockadots all over them. This morning.....they're almost gone. Weird.
My PH level last night was between 7.0 &7.2, hard to tell
I have a big filter , AquaClear 300...um...amonia and nitrite, can't tell, dont have a tester, sorry.
I added no medication to the tank since the pet store was closed yesterday. I feed my fish all kinds of food: "goldfish color enhancing pellets (floating-i soak them so dont feed that very often ), "goldfish flakes", "Spirulina Algae Flake food"because the pet store lady said it would help with constipation, "Blood worms-freeze dried treat, and rarely algae discs as a treat.
I've had my tank for about 6 months now, its about 40 gallons, no new fish since ending of september since my aunt let me babysit her two ponds goldfish, 2 times bigger than all the other ones....I've had goldfish for 2 years now...
Also, I have algae in my tank, not too much but enough to get it cleaned up by my crap eaters.....and last week, the one I had since last year , i found him dead! what could possibly be the reason forthat/?? is it possible he was attacked by the two pond fish??? anyway, I'm confused and what should I do with the ick thing??? wait some more?

ps> BellyJack stands for my first goldfish I had for about a year. He died of ick, fungus and his scales were sticking out and he was swollen. I think he got everything you could think of. Actually, that is when I transfered him into the new tank. Everyone else was doing fine though.

ok thats all.

Ick won't cure itself, it needs medication to kill it, even when the "white spots" disappear, they actually drop off and multiply and then re-infect the fishes.


ps> BellyJack stands for my first goldfish I had for about a year. He died of ick, fungus and his scales were sticking out and he was swollen. I think he got everything you could think of. Actually, that is when I transfered him into the new tank. Everyone else was doing fine though.

I think when the scales stick out, that is a sign of dropsy..

What types/size of fish do you have, because your tank sounds a little overcrowded which can cause problems. Ick generally is caused by stress, which causes the immune system to be low, and with finding a fish dead, that could well be the result of ich. You need to find/decide if its ich and get medication, did the white spots look like grains of salt, and were you fish agitated.
Also how often do you change your water, and how much??

Hi. Ok you guys are right. Ick is back, I guess like you said, it just fell off and came back. I really don't know what to do. My fish were staying at the bottom, well for three days now, no one is dead. My 2 pond fish that are in there have red streaks on their tales, my one black moore has white cloudy spots....

anyway....I have to go to the pet store to get some medication tomorrow

Thanks for the help everyone
Very much appreciated

Agathe aka BellyJack :crp

Hi!

It sounds like your water quality is off.

Tomorrow when you go to the store, take a sample of your tank water with you.

Have them test if for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Most pet stores (everyone I've ever been to) will test this for free! Do not take their word for it that your water is ok though, write down the numbers and come back and tell us.

The problem with adding meds imo, is that if your water quality is off, the meds won't work properly, because the bad water is compounding the problem. In addition to this adding meds into a tank with fish that are living in water that has ammonia and nitrite, can irritate their gills, and sometimes even kill them. The ammonia and nitrite can burn their gills, sort of making them raw in lay terms, then the med really hurts.

I'm not saying NOT to add meds, I think you should get some, but I wouldn't add them until you know for certain what your ammonia levels and nitrite levels are. If you can find that out, people here can help you get your tank on track, so the meds will work like they are supposed to.

That said, I always use salt for ich. You would need aquarium or coarse salt though, because you need salt without anti-caking agents like most table salt has.

If it is a really bad case of ich, like the fish are covered, you will probably want to go with the meds.

Good luck



Jessica

Thanks for the help, they only have a little bit of ich. I added meds but it doesnt seem to get better. Good idea about bringing a water sample to the pet store...I will do that!
My two big fish have more "redness......It's stressing me right out!!! :crp
anyway....
I have a ph tester kit.....thats all, what other kit should I buy and what are they made of? ex: nitrite kit i think? what should I get in a nitrite kit?

anyway....oh ya, I added salt tonight....they seem to be swimming more around....my two big fish are more affected by that "THING"that is wrong with my tank/water.....


Also, I'd like to have a picture with my name too, you all have nice pictures, can't I just choose one from my computer???

bye!