ick or injury?

[preggoguppo]

my tank had ick last week, i have been still treating my tank ever since because i heard your sopose to because the ick spots fall off an reproduce, so you are to make sure it is killed for sure, and not that you "think" its gone because it is no longer on your fish... i heard your not sopose to treat cat fish.. is this true? my cat fish never had ick spots on it, but now its starting to swim in the middle of the tank, and not just sit on the bottom like he always did... i saw him scraping his sides on the gravel and now i think his one side looks funny... i cant determin if its ICK, or maby its from him rubbing on the gravel... could his skin just be getting irritated from the chemicals in the water? or whats the deal.. and could it even be ick spots if i just had it last week?

 

[discus4everGrl]

Did you increase the temp with treatment? Increasing the temp while treating will speed up the life cycle of ick forcing all the spores that are in the gravel to hatch much more quickly so that you can get the ick because the medications are only effective while ick is in the "swarming" stage, ie hatched and looking for a host. It is possible that the catfish maybe getting ick. If he is scratching it may mean that ick parasites are about to rupture through the skin and fall to the gravel and lay eggs. When this happens, the white spots appear where the ick breaks through - so if he's scratching be on the look out for the white spots. Ick is highly contagious amoung fish. Alot of medications recommend a half dosage for scaleless fish and tetras.