Goldfish and ICh

[85miles]

Hello all,

I need urgent opinions n help.

Tuesday morning I found white cotton-type patches on my 4 Gold Sarasa Goldfish - Ich!!
My tank is 60gallon, with one cave type ornament, 2 luck bamboos, couple of anacharis plants.
The goldfish are 6-9inches long. Been with me for 2 years without any disease or illness (they were 1inch or so back then). I had an emotional attachment with them since I have seen them grow into these beautiful, elegant Goldfish.
I treated the water with API Ich control. Added salt according to the size of the tank and raised the temp to 80. I have stopped running both the filters. The air is on though.
One of them died Wednesday morning. The other 3 are still floating in a corner, occassional swimming, and not eating.

Is there anything else I should try? How long will it take the Ich to be removed? what are my next steps? will this come back and will this affect the fish if they survived.

Thanks,

[fishmommie]

I'm so sorry about you ill fish and your loss. but why on earth did you stop running the filter? Turn it back on asap - that's the first move. The second is to do a large - probably 50 - 75% water change immediately.

Before we can advise further please tell us more about your tank.
How many gallons? is this the 45 in your signature?
what is your stock, how many and how large?
what are you using for filtration?
what is your water change schedule? (how much to you change out and how often?)

What are your latest ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings and what do you use to test your water - an API liquid test kit or strips?

Without photos it's difficult to tell what you are dealing with but what you are describing - white cottony patches - sound more like fungus than ich. Ich looks like the fish are covered in salt granules. Fungus is generally caused by poor water quality. No matter what it is, a water change is in order as I said above.

Get back to us with those answers and if you can get a photo and post it (or even a video), that would be great.

[imma24]

Tuesday morning I found white cotton-type patches on my 4 Gold Sarasa Goldfish - Ich!!
My tank is 60gallon, with one cave type ornament, 2 luck bamboos, couple of anacharis plants.
The goldfish are 6-9inches long. Been with me for 2 years without any disease or illness (they were 1inch or so back then). I had an emotional attachment with them since I have seen them grow into these beautiful, elegant Goldfish.
What are your current water parameters (readings for ammonia, nitrites & nitrates) - how often do you change your water and how much at a time?
I treated the water with API Ich control. Added salt according to the size of the tank and raised the temp to 80. I have stopped running both the filters. The air is on though.
There is no need to turn off your filters! Please turn them back on - otherwise, ammonia will build up in your tank!Filters should never be turned off unless you are cleaning them. Fishmommie is correct - ich looks like grains on salt on fish - it's not going to help treating your tank if that's not what your fish have
One of them died Wednesday morning. The other 3 are still floating in a corner, occassional swimming, and not eating.
Is there anything else I should try? How long will it take the Ich to be removed? what are my next steps? will this come back and will this affect the fish if they survived.
Thanks,

Please see my responses in red - sometimes it's difficult to diagnose if you're not used to seeing something wrong.

[85miles]

too late guys. they're all gone :( :(
thanks for the feedback though.

[fishmommie]

Don't know if you'll be back but if you do check in, I'm very sorry you lost them.
Were I to hazzard a guess at what happened, I'm thinking it was poor water quality. For those large goldfish in that size tank you should be doing a minimum of 50% water change weekly other wise the water quality will degrade and the chance of a fungal infection is pretty likely. It's not always the case but that's the best guess without knowing more information.
again, so sorry.

[~firefly~]

Also - cotton like patches is more likely to be a fungal infection. Ich is just white spots (no fluffiness).

If you're planning on re-stocking, I wouldn't recommend goldfish - they're too big, even for a 60 gal. If you have a cold water set-up, why not try white cloud minnows? You could have a decent sized school of them in a 60.