# White spots on neon tetra's?? Are they sick?



## wellbiz

Sounds like ich :shock: ... I suggest reading this http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml



Jason


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## Lynn

It sure sounds like Ich. Looks like I have my work cut out for me tomorrow. Thanks for the help. The article was very informative.
Another question...
If I do a thorough cleaning, does that mean to remove everything and put all fresh water? I don't have any live plants, I opted against it when I got over run with snails.


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## digger

Make sure you vacuum the gravel. Part of the life cycle of ich is a little cyst that sits on the bottom of your aquarium, the more of these guys you vacuum out the fewer free swimming tomites that reinfect your fish. If you have a UV steralizer or a diatom filter now would be a good time to run it. Add salt, raise the temp, treat with rid-ich. Some people say a blackout may help. After about 6 days of treatment move the fish to a new aquarium if possible and continue treatment there.


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## Kinketsu

Some folks choose to treat with some malachite green formulation (e.g. Maracide). A couple of things to be aware of, should you decide to do that:

1. Tetras are quite sensitive to malachite green. Half of the recommended dose is suggested for them, if you use it at all.

2. Malachite green stains like crazy, specifically the silicone at the joins in the aquarium. If you don't want that to happen, then you could choose to treat ALL THE FISH FROM THAT TANK in a separate hospital container that you either don't care about, or can't stain. (Take the cycled filter along with the fish.) But if you do THAT, then you need to let the original aquarium alone for a while, so that the ich goes through its full lifecycle and dies out for lack of hosts. Since the original aquarium would at that point have no fish, you could help yourself by cranking the temp to around 85F. Any higher might be a risk to your heater. (Also malachite green will stain an Ammonia Alert sensor, if you use one of those, so make sure it's not in the treated tank.) Of course, you also need to complete the full course of treatment in the hospital tank, bearing in mind that at lower temperatures the lifecycle of ich is slower. Disappearance of white spots is not, in itself, an indication that you are done.

Please don't take this message as any whole-hearted endorsement of malachite green ... but rather some things to think about if you resort to that course of action.

Kinketsu


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## jojomichael

Lyn,

I'm treating my cardinal tetras in my quarantine tank with 1 tsp salt per gallon and the white spots disappeared the next day. I did a 50% water change today and added 12 drops of Aquarisol plus 5 more tsp of salt. I couldn't find Had-A-Snail here in Northern California(East Bay)... Temp is at 86 degrees...

If you buy your fish from Connie's Tropical(Castro Valley), Pet Club(Hayward) or Aquariun Concepts(Hayward), QUARANTINE them first. Their tanks are dirty and everytime I go to their stores, I see fishes with ich. Seems like Petsmart and Petco would be a better choice. My favorite LFS is in Albany Aquarium, about 40 miles away...


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## Raul-7

Had-A-Snail is a banned product in California, that's why you can't find it  ! Anyways, is Mardel Maracide a good product? Do you guys trust thoes Mardel medications?


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## Lynn

Well, I have been treating my tank for three days now. My neon's look better and so does the one platy that also had the white spots. I am also doing a 20-30% water change every other day and adding a teaspoon of salt. I know it is not erraticated, but I am happy to say things are looking better. I am planning on keeping this treatment up for about two weeks. Does that sound about right? 
The fish seem to be acting normally, although my female platy isn't eating, but she looks okay. Maybe she is going to have babies. I hope not. I used to have three males in there and I took two of the males out, I think they were wearing her down. (I didn't know there was three males and one female when I bought them, they should have told me at the fish store, but they didn't ) My other tank has no sign of Ich, so it must have come to this tank after I moved them out about a month ago or so. I have been keeping an eye on that tank very closely. 
Any other information I can get is helpful. thanks to all those who responded to my messages!


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