# Fish with ich that won't go away



## zazzified (May 19, 2007)

I had a fish die to ich about 2.5 weeks ago. As soon as I realized what it was and that the other fish (an upside down catfish) had it, I began treatment. He has been treated for over two weeks, and still has the white dots. Otherwise he's acting normally. What GIVES? Everything I've read said it should have cleared up in 10 days.


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## tangy (Apr 23, 2007)

may we please have a pic? it could be any number of things. maybe something is stressing the fish out. maybe you treated the tank with a wrong dose of the wrong medecine. maybe its not itch but something else (im thinking velvet).


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## zazzified (May 19, 2007)

Wouldn't he just be dead by now though? The first fish died and this one seemed sick, and then got somewhat better with treatment, but can't shake the spots. 

I'd take a picture, but the only camera I have is on my phone and it'll be terrible really close up. What should I look for?


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## tangy (Apr 23, 2007)

well, look for any other changes in the fish. sometimes it may be difficult, but look close enough and you might find other ailments(look in his eyes,gills, fins, tail) it might help.


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## zazzified (May 19, 2007)

He looks the same otherwise, except that he gets a little pale sometimes


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## tangy (Apr 23, 2007)

there are many fish diseases out there, the only one i could get a hold of was skin slime. it causes a dull coloration of the fish (pale)and a fine white- gray coat of slime, giving the fish an overall dull coloration. fish can twich or scratch. sound like a match? if not im sorry, hope he does better.


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## The-Wolf (Mar 15, 2007)

it is widely accepted that there is a medication resistant strain of ich nowadays, however science has yet to confirm this.

if you truly do have ich and not velvet (which is quite a common mix up) or some other disease, the best treatment for this resistant strain is any copper based medication. My personal choice would be octozin by waterlife products.


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## tangy (Apr 23, 2007)

The-Wolf said:


> the best treatment for this resistant strain is any copper based medication.


 yes that is true , just be shure you have no inverts in there or they will die off.


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## Mirta (Apr 21, 2007)

Well I have to add that I had had a sad experience with something similar in my newly set up 80 gal. The fish got white spots and slight discoloration. At times it seemed to me that the spots also looked like cotton bits (fungus). 

The neon and guppy population all died out. First were the guppies. I think the flock had had the disease before and it flared up in the new environment. Then I applied treatment. The neons died right after the treatment one after another. I thought my husband would kill me. 

I survived but one of my beloved cories also died and two cherry barbs. The saddest part was the loss of baby angel fishes - 3. They struggled to the end but didn't make it. Some fishes survived, however. The golden gouramis had white spots, but they disappeared in a matter of two days. They also survived the treatment. The rest of the cories, surprisingly the younger ones had no signs of disease whatsoever! One of the female cherries was VERY BAD. But she survived and all the spots disappeared. 

It is almost over now. Some fishes have poor fins but we have no more losses. I really do not know what bug caused this plague. It was terrible though. I couldn't function normally at that time, really. I wished we had a fish tank ambulance!


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## zazzified (May 19, 2007)

Aww, that's sad 


I guess I'll look up some more pictures of velvet vs. ich and then try something copper based. Thanks guys.


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## zazzified (May 19, 2007)

Agh, I'm having a really hard time finding good pictures to tell any difference.



Are dots like this normal?


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## Mirta (Apr 21, 2007)

Oh, I'm afraid not normal. One of my cories also currently has such dots. Yesterday there was even one dot on his eye. It is gone now and the fish looks better. 

How do you treat them? Do you put them in solution for some time or do you treat the whole tank?


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## GW (May 25, 2007)

zazzified said:


> Agh, I'm having a really hard time finding good pictures to tell any difference.
> 
> 
> 
> Are dots like this normal?



Here's a few good pictures of ICH:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1394&cat=556


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## zazzified (May 19, 2007)

Thanks! Those are the best I've seen.


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