Ammonia went back to 0 about three hours after the water change.

New problem though. I watch my babies quite closely, earlier today Ash (black tiger oscar) was fine, now it almost seems he has developed ich all over his body. He had no signs of ich before the water change today. His color is ideal, best I have seen it in ages, but the white spots... The kinda look like ich, kinda don't. They are all over his body. Snow, the albino oscar is just fine, and has no signs of ich anywhere, nor do the loaches.

Is it possible it is something other than ich, or is it ich? I have introduced nothing new into the tank since I got Snow and the Loaches two weeks ago.

I have no idea why he would have ick, but to be on the safe side, if you turn your temp up to 85 degrees and oxygenate the tank well, the warm temps should kill the ick.

Can you provide a photo?

jcannonb wrote:

please clarify: what is the ammonia level prior to water change?
if it is sky high, your fish is probably suffering from ammonia burn...that slimy
white stuff is a self defense against any toxic exposure. just keep the water in
good condition and it will disappear gradually.

Thanks for all the help here.

Ammonia was between 0.02 and 0.05
Nitrite was at about 1.5 prior to water change.

Cheers,

Joshua

okey, thank for the info. my first notion might be correct...
is the fish still eating? if so...just do the daily water change
to make sure it won't aggravate and will heal accordingly.

i assume the fish does not have any wound craters, just a white
slimy covering in the body.

Its not slimy its dots *like* ich, I just don't see how he could go from having 0 spots to like 20-30 spots in under three hours, and it be ich. In the past when I have encountered ich, it starts as 1 or 2 or 3 spots, and gradually increases until treatment starts to take effect.


Cheers,

Joshua

Additionally, he is still eating like a champ. He is as hungry as ever, and his energy level is still as high as ever. He ate 5 Hikari Cichlid Pellets tonight in < 2 minutes. When I saw the spots, his appetite was the first thing I checked.

that is good sign... those white stuff is just a defense mechanism against
previous toxic.... just keep an eye on water...."pristine water and varied
foods is the first line of defense against any fish illnesses".

Thanks for all your advice Paul. I have still gone ahead and adjust the thermostat to 85, I had been keeping the temp at a constant 79. They seem to like that. The thermometer is staggering it slightly, then goes off for a while, temp is currently it 80.6. I figure I should run it at 85ish for a few days at least just to make sure.

As far as oxygenation goes, I have a 100 gallon airpump + bubble-pad, 2 Marineland C-360 canisters + 2 HOB Merineland 350 filters. I do have filtration out the yin-yang I hope that will keep the oxygen up.

If there is anything else that I can do proactively, please, let me know, and again, thanks for everyone's advice so far.

So, I got to doing something... Last Saturday (not this past one but the previous one) I did feed them some live brine shrimp as a treat. I got it from the LFS which I trust, but maybe there was ich in there. Brine Shrimp is the only thing I have fed them live. I won't be doing it again.

He is still happy, strong, healthy today. He ate a couple of pellets and some frozen brine shrimp (Hikari) this morning, and he is swmming around in the bubbles currently. He is darker than he has ever been, his color is phenomenal.

Temperature over night climbed slowly from 80.6 to 83.3 degrees just in case.

I am hopeful.

Thanks again,

Joshua

in my own opinion, 80 deg F is the ideal temp... but if you have experience
higher than that...i will not contest it. good luck.. and keep us posted pls