ick??

[calla]

My 55 gallon has 3 bala sharks and 3 swordtails. One of the female swords I think is pregnant, and I've been trying to get a good picture of her. Today I noticed she has the tiniest little white spot on her fin... only one, and no other fish have any. The sharks are not missing any scales, or scrathching themselves on anything. Should I wait to treat the tank for ick since the sharks are sensitive, or do a half strength dose just in case it is ick?

I tried really hard to get a picture of the spot.. but my camera isn't that great at getting close-ups of the fish..

you can just BARELY (not really I guess)see it, on her dorsal fin.

[cocoa_pleco]

i would treat it. in my 55g i had a hi-fin shark. he was cramped at petsmart and stressed and eventually a week later i noticed a tiny white spot on him and watched it. a couple of days later he had 10 spots and i treated him with melafix and pimafix and he turned out fine, but sadly after all the work of treating him my severum had a issue with him and killed him.

definitely treat it early.

[calla]

I have melafix and primafix, as well as this stuff RidIch+

which would be the best?

[MeganL3985]

I would say since you may have a pregnant fish and others who don't have the ick, I would go with the melafix and pimafix, since they're natural treatments. It may be less stressful for them all.

[*Sarah*]

I had a breakout of Ick a while ago, and I used the mela/pimafix combo and although I lost one Platy and one Neon, everyone else that had spots survived and are doing great now :)

[Mark Lathrop]

I just had a NASTY case of ICK in my tank 2 days ago. One day, I had a cory die that had pop eye. The next day, I had a cory that was overwhelmed with ICK. He died in less than 24 hrs. even after treating with Melafix/pimafix. Poor little guy. I had to do a 70% water change and some cleaning in the big tank where he was to insure none of my other fish would get it.

[calla]

well I went with the ridich+ (before anyone had replied with advice to use the others, go figure) but I only used half the recommended dosage, 1 tsp for every 20 gallons instead of every 10. I planned on doing a water change tomorrow before treating again... do you think it would be safe to switch to the prima/melafix, and when using the combo, how do you dose?

[MeganL3985]

You should be fine with the ridich+, I wouldn't worry about switching since you've already got it in there. :)