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    Thread: ichthyophthirius multifiliis - Just one on one fish?

    1. #1
      SimonW's Avatar
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      ichthyophthirius multifiliis - Just one on one fish?

      Hello friends:

      Today I found a single white, protruding spot on the back of a little fry (about 1 inch), and the size is about 1 mm in diameter. It is very difficult to see clearly as the fry is very agile. It does not do flashing or scraping, but swimming around happy and sound.

      None of other some 100 fries have anything like that.

      These fries have been outside without food in ice-cold water (water temperature 3-4 centigrade) for about 1 month. I thought that most parasites would have died. I took them into my garage the day before yesterday, and the water temperature is now about 18 centigrade.

      Earlier in the summer I feeded them with daphnia that I had caught in a river nearby, so I am aware that I may have brought parasites to the fries. I have read quite a lot about fish parasites, and I have observed them closely all the time. Never a problem. The closest I can think of is ichthyophthirius multifiliis. Can it be?

      Thanks for your thoughts. Tomorrow I will catch the fry and try to scrape away the white spot with a pincette or my finger nail.

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    2. #2
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      Ich typically looks like someone sprinkled salt on a koi, so 1mm sounds a little large -- ich also tends to attack the whole herd at once, and can kill them fast. Can you isolate the fry with the spot just in case? Hopefully one of the Committee members with more fry knowledge will chime in.
      Mary

    3. #3
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      Update and more questions

      It seems that that fry has lost its white spot, as I cannot find anyone with a white spot on its back.

      Instead I have some fries flashing occasionally these days (see the video)



      My explanation is water issues. Due to bad water quality I have been doing major (50%) water changes almost daily. The new water is much colder therefore I have been using a thin tube siphoning it into the aquarium, but it may be still too fast. Other possible causes are too fast addition of table salt to 0,15% (due to high nitrite of 0.4-0.8 ppm, no ammonia) and baking soda.

      But I still fear parasites, therefore I would like to ask you some questions about them.

      1. I have tried hard but I cannot see anything abnormal externally on the fries. The most fries are just fine. Since these fries have been living together since they were eggs can I say that it is very unlikely that some of them carry fatal parasites?

      2. Is it possible that fish have been fine for several months, but then by some reason for instance bad water quality parasite diseases just break out? I think that it is very unlikely otherwise quarantine would be useless.

      Thanks for your thoughts again!
      Last edited by SimonW; 11-16-2019 at 06:23 PM.

    4. #4
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      Without stress, most fish are able to fend off parasites. The parasites are always there, just in numbers that do not cause issues. But let stress enter the picture like high ammonia, chlorine, high nitrites, very high nitrates, large pH shifts, major water temperature shifts, or predators, and the fish can weaken and the parasites take advantage of the situation. Not all fish will have the same level of stress so not all will succumb to the parasites. Now, before doing any treatments for parasites, it is always best to rule out water issues. We like to see actual numbers for ammonia, nitrite, pH, KH and temperature. You can in addition, look at the temperature shift during a water change, and if possible to reduce temperature differences, draw a bucket of water right after a water change and allow it to sit next to the aquarium to attain a similar temperature for the next change. If you have ammonia, treat with a dechlorinator that also binds ammonia, like Prime, Safe, or Cloram-X.

      Without the water being pristine, (ammonia=0, nitrites=0, pH stable morning and evening, temperature stable) any treatments for parasites will do little to stop or prevent infections and if the fish has infections of any type, then the healing will be slower.
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    5. #5
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      Hello Rich:

      Thank you so much for your reply. Always informative!

      In the beginning the aquarium had a lot of water plants and green water algae, and the fish (overcrowded) were doing very well, until some days ago when the water turned yellow. I suspect that somehow the green water algae died. Later the water plants also started to die, therefore I had to remove all the water plants.

      I have not figured out why the algae and water plants died, but it is not my main concern anyway.

      The ammonia test gave a very weak greenish color (under 0,1 ppm), but nitrite was quite high (0.6 ppm or more as the color is difficult to precise). Therefore I started the daily big water change. The input tap water has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 0 nitrate as I measured, and its pH is about 7. Since I always add NaHCO3 to 10-15 dKH I did not bother to measure the pH precisely. Instead I have just used pH-stripes which always showed pH of about 8.

      As you tought me last summer I also added table salt to 0.12% to protect the fish against nitrite. The salt does not contain iodine but does contain sodiumferrocyanide, but I read that sodiumferrocyanide normally is harmless for fish at this low concentration.

      As you say I will not treat the fries against parasites until I am sure that it is a parasite issue. First I will try to introduce new water even slower to reduce temperature swings. Maybe the flashing will stop then.
      Last edited by SimonW; 11-17-2019 at 04:37 PM.

    6. #6
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      Update:

      It seems to be caused by too fast temperature swings when I introduced new water which is very cold. After having the new water standing overnight in a barrel they have ceased to flash.

    7. #7
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      Good news, people often underestimate how temps changes can affect them adversely.

      Still learning as I go but y'all can call me Marilyn

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