Whats wrong with my fish

[macgyver]

Hi all

last week i started seeing spots on my rams and immediately went out to the pet store to get some ich medecine. now after a week of medicating nothing has changed except only now a few more fish have this disease its like small white spots on the fishes body and fins and now the ram is starting to lose some of his fins. whats wrong? what can i do?

thanks

 

[Smalltank3]

That is probably fin rot.

 

[love_fish]

The losing fins can be fin rot, but the pics look like columnaris.

 

[FroggyFox]

I would agree that it doesn't look like ick...you should do a big water change and try a fungal or bacterial medication (maybe find one that does both?). I'm not sure that it looks like columnaris, thats usually very cottony looking and around the mouth...but I could be wrong.

 

[love_fish]

^^No, i had columnaris, and it started out looking exactly like that.

 

[Lotus]

Are the white spots growing in size or in number? Ich looks like grains of salt sprinkled on the fish, and the size of each one doesn't change, they just increase in number.

 

[macgyver]

so if i do have columnaris what should i do to prevent it from getting worse

you should do a big water change and try a fungal or bacterial medication (maybe find one that does both?).

this method ?

Are the white spots growing in size or in number? Ich looks like grains of salt sprinkled on the fish, and the size of each one doesn't change, they just increase in number.

size is getting bigger

 

[love_fish]

Yea, it columnaris, in which you should lower your temp down to below 75F, but only 2* per day. Then add anti fungal med. Maracyn worked for me.

Good luck.

 

[macgyver]

so what caused this and how could prevent it from happening again

 

[go_dawgs]

here is a site that helped me http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/columnaris.htm

 

[FroggyFox]

Many fish sicknesses can be attributed to poor water quality....not doing enough water changes (usually we reccomend 25-35% water changes once a week). Or a new tank going through the cycling process where there's high levels of ammonia or nitrites. Or new fish bringing something into the tank from the store tanks and spreading it to the other fish.