First case of ich? help pls

Psychmajor

Well, I am battling what i believe is my first case of Ich. I have a 75 gallon freshwater tank, that is still cycling, unfortunatly I had to put all my fish from my old tank in this 75 gallon one during this process becuase my old tank is leaking :(. ANyway, like i said, im pretty sure this is Ich, but would like to make sure. MY tank currently houses 4 Albino Paradise Gourami, 4 Blue Gourami, 4 Fire Red Gourami (one of which is the sick one), 4 small tiger barbs, 1 Swordtail, a pleco, 3 smalll marble angelfish, 1 Platy, 4 small shibunkin, and 8-ish ghost and algea eating shrimp. None of my other fish appear to be affected, just my poor red fire gourami. My tank is currently steady at 78 degrees, and just did a water test my levels are ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0, and finally ph at 7.2 to 7.6 (not happy about this and am doing frequent 20 to 25% water changes). I am running a 30 to 60 aqua tech filter (which is working great) and am going to be adding another filter soon. i have no idea what the heater is so, dont ask. there are no live plants, just fake, and there is an air bubbler (again dont know the make). Anyway, my poor gourami has about half a dozen white, puffyish looking spots on him, 3 pin dot size on his fin, two pencil dot size on his side, near his dorsel fin, and one large one on his 'forehead'. the one on his forehead is the worst, it almost looks like his head is rotting away, which i originally thought was hole in the head. but then i discovered the other spots.the one of his forehead appears to almost be like sugar crystals that has gouged a hole in his head. he spends his time on the bottom of the tank, almost, laying down,(but not on his side) and barely moves. every once in a while he will swim to the surface, but it is a very slow, methodical swim, then he goes and hides in a cave on the gravel bottom. The stringy thing that hangs down from his 'chin appears to be split as well, it has split into two pieces and then it has a small portion that split from the top and curls around the rest of it. I did a 20% water change this morning, and then this afternoon i bought quICK gone to treat the ich. any advice on this issue would be great.

Psychmajor

OK, so the pictures I attached are of my fire red gourami. sorry bout the quality but it was the best i could do. any suggestions as to whether this is really ich or not would be great.

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Busgod

If It was my fish I would pull him out and put him into a fish bowl and treat for the ich, see if he gets better or not, if it works then treat main tank for ich also, If one fish has ich then I would bet that there will be others. If its not ich then the rest of the tank might be safe if you pull it out.
thats the best i can do for you but in any case you need to get the sick fish out of main tank!!

Psychmajor

I will have to buy a new tank tomorrow to be able to pull hm out. Ive already treated the main tank with one treatment of ich stuff, and ive xamined all the others and they all seem to be fine. he seems pretty weak, he cant even really swim against or sideways to the current created by the filter.

jeaninel

That does not look like ich. Ich looks like the fish has been sprinkled with sugar or salt. It looks like maybe columnaris or some kind of body fungus.

Busgod

Do the spots look like ulcerations? if so get him out now put him in a bowl and float it in the tank to keep him warm, till you can get a qt tank. 50% tank water 50% fresh water.

1077

I would remove the fish and dispose of it asap.Your other fish will thank you.

Psychmajor

Well, im sorry to report that he died last night. :( yea, i thught it didnt seem like ich, and after doing some research realized it probably was columnaris. My question now is since he died and was removed, should i treat the rest of the tank with meds for columnaris, even if no one else is showing signs. does it normally kill this fast? i have only had him since saturday, and i noticed the spots yesterday evening, a few hours later, he died.

1077

Were it me, I would perform a series of 30 percent water changes,one each day for next three days and then back to normal weekly water changes. I would monitor the fish during this time for any other fish that may be affected by what may have been bacterial infection or fungus. Being as how you don't have a quarantine or hospital tank,you will need to remove the fish if they too display symptoms to try and keep all from contracting it. But maintaining the water quality will help loads in preventing this. I would also add another filter of same size to this tank. The one you have in my view,, is not enough .I do hope no more fish are affected.

Psychmajor

I believe that one of my Blue Gourami may be getting sick. I cant seem him completly as he likes to hide and the 'spots' if they are, are small, like pencil dot sized. im also not sure if hehad these spots before, or if they are the beginning signs of columnaris. My question here is aside from doing 30% water changes daily, should i treat the tank for columnaris, just in case?