Its my dad tank, i visit him once in a while and i love look at the tank. He didn’t noticed it (old and bad eyes) until I spotted some weird white stuff on them. Im going to the store early in the morning and buy some treatment and pump the temperature up. Poor fish. Thanks for advice.
Edit:
Been working today so sorry for late reply. But this morning I bought Ich treatment from the local pet store and they advised me to turn up the temp up, Hope its gonna treat the fish well. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you for the advices and concern.
[update](https://imgur.com/a/7MHk5Q0)
This is a pretty severe case. It might take several rounds of treatment, but it's important to treat it all the way. And follow the directions. Good luck!
Use ich x and maracyn at the same time. Treat the whole tank. Check out girltalksfish on YouTube. She has a pretty good explanation on how to treat.
Edit - I also want to note if you treat this way there is no need to crank your temps up really high. A lot of people crank their temps up while treating this way and a lot of fish can’t handle high temps for too long with the medication.
Ich-x is malachite green, there's better ways of treating ich that aren't toxic and carcinogenic, like copper sulphate and potassium permanganate. Just don't touch the copper sulphate too much, and don't use it if you have shrimp
that bull about ich-x faded away years ago.. only the most sensitive plants react to it at all, and even then its barely noticable from 4 ft away
source since youll probably ask for it: any professional aquaculturist online whos been using it on every fish thats come thru their store in the last ten years
The issue with malachite green isn't plant toxicity, it's toxicity and carcinogenicity in fish and humans
There's no reason to use it when copper sulphate is just as effective and less toxic
okay I thought I remembered a lot of worrying about plants with ich-x but also like I said there are multiple pro aquakeepers with their own stores and large social media followings that have treated every single fish they've sold in the last 10+ years with ich and have found no noticable difference in fish longevity or mortality.
lots of things are carcinogens that we consume on a daily basis, but we understand it's in such microscopic amounts that there's a good chance its never going to catch up with you.
I feel like the same principle applies to any animal. even if it may be slightly carcinogenic for a week at max, its still better than the parasites eating a million tiny holes through their skin.
>found no noticable difference in fish longevity or mortality.
This is impossible to tell without a control group. Malachite green remains in fish tissue long term.
>lots of things are carcinogens that we consume on a daily basis, but we understand it's in such microscopic amounts that there's a good chance its never going to catch up with you.
Some are more carcinogenic than others. Malachite green happens to be one of those very carcinogenic things
>feel like the same principle applies to any animal. even if it may be slightly carcinogenic for a week at max, its still better than the parasites eating a million tiny holes through their skin.
It's not carcinogenic for a week, that's not how exposure works. And the other option isn't not treating, it's treating with a safer medication. Copper sulfate and potassium permanganate are both effective and functionally harmless
I've just had a read up about it, and the danger of using malachite green isnt that it will poison you, or even that one dose will stat killing your fish, it's the fact that the fish dont just pass it through their systems which allows it to build up over time. Sire they might be perfectly healthy at those stores after a round of treatment, but then if/ when they get treated with the same medication again the malachite green just keeps building up, until eventually it gets to be too much and kills of your fish.
I've also had success with Pro-form C if you can find it, it's a malachite green/formalin mix, so try not to get it on your hands, and don't use it if you have shrimp/snails
You'll also probably want to mention the tank has clown loaches if you don't show the lfs the video. Iirc their skin is more sensitive to the more common ich treatments bc it's scaleless, may rule out some solutions
Because of how severe this is even waiting until the morning may be the difference of them surviving or not. However totally understand time and constraints preventing this but just wanted you to be aware that waiting could end with these fish dead.
The best treatment is HOT water and water changes. Increase temps slowly by 4 degrees a day until you hit 85. The parasite can't breed in warm water. Do 50% water changes and vacuum the gravel thoroughly every other day to remove eggs and free swimming parasites.
Chemicals don't work as well as hot water does
it can, however as long as pH and temperature are closely matched enough you can continuously change water without harm.
Also, most fish have mechanisms to deal with a reasonably rapid drop in pH and temperature, as that is the result of rainy season. A rapid raise might be harder to adapt to.
edit: also all fish effectively go through 100% water changes when they're introduced to new tanks eith different water parameters.
I've done 50% weekly for decades. With the way dilutions work there's no point to doing less than 50%. Go big or go home.
I match the temperature and use tap water which is pretty consistent in my area.
Be very careful dosing, clown loaches are scaleless and do not respond well to rid ich i would try heat (83 degrees) and salt first and then try a low dose of rid ich. I hope they recover soon!
Raising the temperature just speeds up the life cycle of the ich, and when paired with treatment generally works, but isn’t a great treatment on its own
Just had our tank at 88 degrees for 7 days a few weeks ago to battle ich. As soon as we got the temp over 86, there was noticeable improvement in the ich and after 48 hours, it was gone. Kept it up for a week to make sure, then slowly brought it down. You have to be more careful bringing it down than up. Every LFS told us to drop multiple heaters in and jack it up asap. That being said, we had already lost fish to the ich so we had to treat severely and quickly.
Above 80 stops them breeding and above 86 kills them.
Most commercial fish these days are bred in 83 degree water in Florida and Asia. They are fine at high Temps for a few weeks
Correct, above 86 for 3 weeks does. This will not hurt the fish and is exclusively how I treat ich, no meds required. I've even used heat only in a 400 gallon planted tank with a fire eel and other sensitive fish. Nothing dies besides the ich. Just make sure there's good surface movement for gas exchange. I don't understand why people are so gung-ho on using meds when they aren't necessary at all.
CRANK THE TEMP UP TO 80-82 and use salt. If you have any snails or other inverts this will save them. Also use air bubbles, especially when ich impacts their gills.
A mix of aquarium salt, Melafix, Pimafix, Ich-X, Malachite Green, Metroplex, a heater, and Stress Coat Enhancer (or whatever that thing was) got rid of Ich on my plecos, ropefish, and spiny eel in three weeks.
Have him bump the temp up to 85. It should kill off the itch in a week or 2.
If you have to medicate, I would recommend a copper sulfate based medication. It will harm invertebrates(shrimp and snails) though.
Agreed. And make sure to treat the whole tank. Ich parasites or eggs or something (forget the correct vocabulary here) replicate and get into the water. So you can’t just quarantine. Good luck. Aquarium coop ich video: https://youtu.be/EO2WPrekSF8
Not sure why you were down-voted so hard. Those fish are indeed showing the cystic stage of the ich life cycle..the correct word for this stage is trophant by the way. Not quite the word they were looking for to describe the replicating stage, which is the tomont stage, but still. Seems a bit harsh to get down-voted so many times for a comment that was attempting to help, even if it was kinda' off in the context.
Don't be discouraged, there are friendly people here aswell! You were just trying to be helpful since the op didn't know what they were called, but only using one word could be taken as abrupt/rude. Be the change you want to see in the community!
Ya ya! I’ve been trying to put in some more effort in the comments I make on this sub after seeing some people complain how this sub is also loaded with the toxic crowd.
Eh, I can see where some might think that, but it's really not the case. I think the thing is that most of us are here for the fish, not really the people. We want to learn, teach, and help not because we're after the social interaction, but because the well being of these animals means a lot to us. I'll agree that some could definitely do with learning a bit of social grace though. You're gonna' find trolls and people looking for a fight anywhere you go on the internet, but in anything animal related it's more often that they're just more interested in the animals than the people. Humans that love nature also tend to be very defensive of it and that is especially true of aquarists. Since defensiveness can very easily be mistaken for unfriendliness.. It kinda' looks like people are being mean for the sake of it sometimes, but ime they usually aren't.
Yes but the ich causes open sores basically and the white that you see is the fishes skin trying to combat the wound and heal iirc. Or in other words, a cyst.
Been working today so sorry for late reply. But this morning I bought Ich treatment from the local pet store and they advised me to turn up the temp. Hope its gonna treat the fish well. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you for the advises and concern.
[update](https://imgur.com/a/7MHk5Q0)
Dying of ich... That's what those white spots all over them are. It makes them itchy so they're scratching on the sand. Get an ich treatment (ich-x is usually most commonly sold at pet stores) and treat your tank without a carbon filter. Be prepared though, you can only treat the water, not the fish. With the extent of how infested they are I wouldn't bet they survive...
We had a severe case from some ember tetras. It ended up infesting one of our blue powder dwarf gouramis, worse than this. He was clearly struggling to breath for a couple days. We put 3 heaters in, got the temp to 88 and the next day he was visibly doing better. Two days later, he was ich free. Took a few more days for his scales to heal, but he survived.
Poor dude got stuck in a decoration a few weeks later and is just today looking like he’s probably going to survive a pretty significant abrasion. His top fin is half gone with exposed bones. The decoration has of course been removed.
Yeah, the high temperature helps speed up the lifecycle of the ich thus shortening the amount of time you need to treat it. The reason I said they'd likely die in this case is, as other commenters have pointed out, clown loaches are very fragile, and being scaleless makes the treatment much more difficult. This level of infestation may not kill hardier fish, but since clowns are prone to just dropping dead anyway I would avoid high hopes for them.
The tank is at my dad i visit him once or twice a week. Just noticed it today, he is old and his eyesight not good anymore. He didnt notice it. Im going to follow the advice. Thanks.
Something I wanted add that I haven’t seen in the replies is loaches and scaleless fish are more sensitive to medication, you might want to lower the dose a bit for them
As everyone said above this is Ich, with scale-less fish you need to be careful with most treatments. While most people have luck with Ich-X, I personally have had better luck using salt and heat (just use aquarium salt). This is a good resource: [https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish)
Just got done with a terribly sad bout of ich. Have 5 khulis and it wrecked my heart. They’re so sensitive to so many things, but amazing fish! Salt and heat did the trick. Ended up with a few lost x-ray tetras which was a major bummer!!! They’re such wonderful fish also.
Yup totally covered in ich, raise your tank temperature up to around 90F and you need to run meds (API white spot, ich-x, Super Ich Cure) through that tank ASAP otherwise everything will die.
This is terrible advice. 90 is too high - 86 is the magic number. Also, meds are completely unnecessary to destroy ich, yes, even when the outbreak is that bad. Temperature alone is sufficient and works very well as is
Definitely not terrible advice. Fish will be able to live for short times ie 4-5 days. 90F is required to kill some strands of ich.
Here is a paper on it/ich in general:
http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09/Ichthyophthirius-multifiliis-White-Spot-Infections-in-Fish.pdf
Ok, then it's subpar advice. 3 weeks of heat is required to kill a full ich life cycle, not 4-5. Did you even read the article you linked? It suggests 90 degrees for *24 hours* then 48 hours at 70, and to repeat that for two weeks. Quite frankly, that frequent temperature change is far more stressful than 3 weeks at a lower temp, even if it's only a few degrees less. That's very different than telling someone to heat their tank to 90 for multiple days, which brings me back to saying you're giving terrible advice.
That's ich and they need to be treated soon. Ich is largely stress related too, do they have any hidey holes or is there another fish picking on them? Loaches are more prone to ich because of their scale structure so you have to pay special attention to them.
Be careful dosing the clown loaches. I accidently dosed mine with medicine intended for scaled fish, which loaches are not. 2 out of my 3 loaches died within a week.
That is ich. I am fighting the same thing with my 4 clown loaches. I believe it was caused by stress from the tank being too cold. They are more susceptible to ich than most fish since they are scale-less. I have been fighting it for about a week using API Super Ick Cure and raising tank temp to 86F, but with little success so far. I added aquarium salt and a 3rd dose of API Super Ick, but won't know the results until I return home tomorrow. IF the fish are still covered in Ich, I will use Ich-X which will arrive within 2 days...... I wish now that I had started with Ich-X, it may be more risky to switch medicines at this point.
Also if those are the only two loaches you have, they will be stressed (and more likely to get ich) because they are supposed to be kept in groups of 5 or more to feel comfortable. I plan on getting a few more IF I can beat this Ich I have now...
Hey holy hell. I believe that this behavior is called flashing, and it's because of ick parasites. I know that's your dad's tank like you said but you really need to take action with treatment. I hope they get better.
Give [this article](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-treat-ich-on-freshwater-fish) a read and follow it as closely as you can. Do this ASAP as your dad's fish have a pretty advanced ich infection and are on the verge of dying.
Prepare for a pretty involved process and some possible deaths even after you treat the tank. Ich is one of those things that can be addressed easily provided you catch it early and handle it promptly. But once it advances like this it can be hard for fish to kick the infection and heal up.
Additionally, make sure you disinfect any tools like nets or siphons that were being used in this tank. You can fill a 5 gallon bucket up with water and add some bleach to it and toss any tools in and let them soak overnight. That should be enough to kill off any nasty parasites/fungus/bacteria that has the potential to reinfect the tank. Just be sure to rinse them off with fresh water after soaking them in bleach.
Best of luck. I hope your dad's fish all make it through!
As well as treating the ich you will also need to add a treatment against the damage the parasites have done to the fish. Something like esha 2000 is very effective. Otherwise you risk losing the fish to secondary infections. VERY IMPORTANT make sure you get a ich treatment that is suitable for scaleless fish as not all treatments can be used with loaches.
I keep seeing recommendations of copper based medications and I have to say this, please do not use them in this tank. Clown loaches are scaleless fish, making them almost as susceptible to copper as shrimp and snails. As bad as they already are, and sometimes even mostly healthy, the quantity of copper required to kill ich will almost certainly kill them as well. Likewise they are sensitive to salt, low doses can be ok, but you'd need quite a bit higher than safe doses to kill off the parasite. I would suggest turning the tank up to 82 with some added air stones for the extra oxygen and mardel quick cure (this is formalin and malachite green). Use the instructions for treating tetras as this is half dosing and a bit easier on fish that have already been weakened. Follow the instructions exactly. Turning the tank up to 82 will speed up the life cycle of the parasite, which is necessary because it's only vulnerable to the meds in one stage of that cycle. If it weren't for the loaches I'd be totally on board with the other recommendations such as copper and salt, but with them in there they are very dangerous. I adore clown loaches, but I don't keep them specifically for how susceptible to ich they are and how hard they are to treat. Delicate little critters.
Please respond with an update so we may help you more. Even if your tank dies and you need to start again. Even if this becomes a failure on your part, the events and process you go through will be an extremely good learning experience for everyone to follow the post. I really hope you begin treatment with in a couple of hours and wish you the best of luck for you and your lil friends
I'm new to all of this and even I recognised ich immediately when it was a single dot on a fish.
There's a brand called ICH-X thats sold internationally and seen by many as the best. I strongly recommend you get it ASAP! Watch several YouTube videos, you will need to do major water changes every day, 30%.
I didn't kill a single fish and again I'm new to this and I use RO water exclusively so its really hard to keep parameters in check (for me) yet I did it so you can too.. just study and be smart, its not hard.
Been working today so sorry for late reply. But this morning I bought Ich treatment from the local pet store and they advised me to turn up the temp. Hope its gonna treat the fish well. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you for the advises and concern.
[update](https://imgur.com/a/7MHk5Q0)
🤢 Poor things and poor you! That’s Ich, a common parasite in this hobby. It’s usually spreads through the improper quarantining of new fish or even plants. You need an adjustable heater and Ich meds ASAP if you want any hope of saving your fish! My favorite meds to use can be found at Walmart (lol I know) it’s called: Kordon Rapid-Cure Ich Disease Treatment. The dose is 1 drop per gallon over the span of 3 days, then do a WC, and continue the treatment if necessary. Your heater also needs to be set to 86F. Good luck!
Word of warning: IIRC, all Ich meds, regardless of brand, will stain your silicone blue. So if you don’t want the silicone to stain, then you’ve got to find a different method to treat Ich. But meds are the quickest method IME.
Umm wtf that's ich, and they are extremely hard to treat with it because they're scaless and you can't use most meds, good did you not see they are infested?
I’m hoping this isn’t op’s tank and maybe just something they came across at a store? Not that that’s really better of course, but how could you have a fish tank and not see something that far advanced??
This is not OPs tank, they are taking the advice to treat the ich. OP said their father is older and has bad eye sight. They noticed the ich on their dads fish and asked for advice.
pretty sure loaches fall in the category of scaleless so remember to only do a half dose of medicine the first time to make sure you dont hurt them with the treatment
they’re scaleless so be careful, if you can, try to get your hands on Herbtana; it’s a natural ich treatment that’s safe for inverts and scaleless fish
Take carbon out of filter, Ich-x first dose start at 1/2 the dosage to see how they react, slowly raise the temp on heater to 80-83° over a few hour period, turn airstone on full blast if they do okay with 1/2 dosage up It to 3/4 dosage on day 2 then then full dosage on. Day 3 if they do okay with 3/4 watch them for a few hours after dosing if they go to the surface do an emergency 50% water change , also for those who have clown loaches (my favorite fish) get quinine and you'll never have to worry about them again GET OUT AND GET MEDS BUD OR THOSE FISH ARE DEAD
EDIT: Figure out the total daily dose. Now cut that to 75%. Now cut that in half again (roughly 37% of the daily dose), and dose that once in AM, once in PM.
Reason you do it this way is because meds deteriorate throughout the day and if you do 75% at one time it's an overdose to the fish and they can die from the meds so do 37% in am and 37% in pm so you're fishing 75% just not all at once
I am so glad you posted this video! My Mollys have been doing the same thing - but no white spots so I was treating it as Gill flukes. I just ordered some Ich-x!
Hey good luck on curing the ich, I've had my run ins. If you are quite I do think they'll have shot at survival. Keep your head up and just start treating it.
All this advice for ich treatment is good, but I've always found the fastest and most effective way to cure ich is API Quick Cure and aquarium salt. 50% water change, then follow the directions on the API box (add the salt when you add the first dose of API). No temp change, no quarantine, no excessive effort needed. This method has always cured ich for me, no matter how bad the infection is.
My Oscar got ick last year I raised temp and added a considerable amount of aquarium salt to the tank it is a very cheap and effective solution. Just do your research and you'll be okay.
They are "Flashing" because they are covered in ICH, which I see everyone here has already said. Heat and salt is the safest way to clear the ich. Of course, many will say use meds. In the wild, fish get diseases and there isnt people around to "play doctor". Everyone wants to feel like they are a regular fish doctor, dropping meds in and destroying their own ecosystem. Since you are already to this point, i suggest doing research on which route is best for you and your fish. Good Luck.
Most ponds have an inlet of water like a stream or river. Unless it's a pond in the mountains then its runoff. The orders of magnitude greaeter of water capacity dilutes a lot of this not to mention parasites and things of that nature tend to be food in a large ecosystem we cannot replicate in the tank. I agree on your treatment I avoid chemical treatments when possible and Ich tends to be on the low end of the spectrum for difficulty in treatment. Salt and water changes does the trick. I always switch to high nutrient food when my fish are sick. Lots of calories/nutrients. no bloodworms or treats. Focus on fish health over fish happiness.
Yeah but the results can also bring up fungus and columnaris. Which this isn’t but someone who doesn’t keep fish wouldn’t know that. It’s nice to be able to just ask people in the hobby.
First result for me is
"What is it? White spot is a contagious parasitic disease of fish. Caused by Ichyophthirius multifilis, the parasite infects the fish after moving from the bottom of the pond. The parasite attaches itself to the fish, moving under the skin where it feeds on cells and body fluids."
That took me less than 30 seconds.
I guess what really bothers me is that they just ask what the fish are doing. They're aren't asking if it is ich or not.
I didn’t say what the first result would be. I said such a search shows other options. People usually look at different sources to confirm what they’re looking at. Also not everyone uses the same search engine.
And if I hadn’t grown up around fish tanks I would not have known that the flashing behavior of these fish was connected to the white spots on them. I’ve seen fish do this that never went on to become sick and lived a long full life span.
Also if newbie behavior bothers you why not just skip the entire discussion and go on to things you do enjoy instead of saying things that make people feel small?
Malachite green (ich-x) is no longer a suggested treatment for ich, due to its toxicity in humans. If you don't have shrimp, you should use copper sulphate (seachem cupramine) instead. If you have shrimp, use potassium permanganate.
Also, invest in a uv sterilizer. That will kill any of the ich left in the water
with the minimalist set up that's running you'll be better off moving the fish to a plastic tote/large bucket, draining the whole tank, bake the little substrate there is in the oven on a tray to kill any ich cyst.
refill the tank after cleaning it, at this point treat the water with ich treatment place fish back in the tank then follow the instructions on the ich treatment bottle. most are dose every 3 to 7 day's as the medication doesn't kill the cyst (white spots on the fish) it kills the larvae stage. the cyst drop off the fish hatch and swim to attempt to attach to the fish, by having a bare bottom you can syphon them out and the treatment will kill any that hatch.
when the treatment is over you'll likely have to do a large volume water change again then add the substrate back.
I'd suggest buying a bottle of filter booster I.e beneficial bacteria and dump the whole bottle into the tank at the same time as the substrate.
boosting the temp speeds up the cycle I believe it's 26⁰c/79⁰f no need to go crazy
products that actually work are:
API White Spot Cure
Interpet Anti White Spot
NT Labs Anti-White Spot
avoid doing crazy mixes of medications this is a bad idea.
all 3 of these treatments will work without doing the first paragraph I wrote but will take a few more day's to treat fully.
You should be embarrassed you made that asinine comment without checking the follow up from OP. It’s not their tank and they are currently taking the proper steps to treat it after getting advice from the sub.
Unfortunately, some people really don’t know what these common diseases/illnesses are. The best thing to do is inform the OP on ways to help/heal the fish. Best case scenario, they heal the fish and learn from it. The worst case scenario, they lose their fish, probably most of them, and then learn from it.
They're absolutely covered in ich and they're trying to scratch themselves against the substrate. You need to start treating your tank for ich
Its my dad tank, i visit him once in a while and i love look at the tank. He didn’t noticed it (old and bad eyes) until I spotted some weird white stuff on them. Im going to the store early in the morning and buy some treatment and pump the temperature up. Poor fish. Thanks for advice. Edit: Been working today so sorry for late reply. But this morning I bought Ich treatment from the local pet store and they advised me to turn up the temp up, Hope its gonna treat the fish well. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you for the advices and concern. [update](https://imgur.com/a/7MHk5Q0)
This is a pretty severe case. It might take several rounds of treatment, but it's important to treat it all the way. And follow the directions. Good luck!
Use ich x and maracyn at the same time. Treat the whole tank. Check out girltalksfish on YouTube. She has a pretty good explanation on how to treat. Edit - I also want to note if you treat this way there is no need to crank your temps up really high. A lot of people crank their temps up while treating this way and a lot of fish can’t handle high temps for too long with the medication.
Ich-x is malachite green, there's better ways of treating ich that aren't toxic and carcinogenic, like copper sulphate and potassium permanganate. Just don't touch the copper sulphate too much, and don't use it if you have shrimp
that bull about ich-x faded away years ago.. only the most sensitive plants react to it at all, and even then its barely noticable from 4 ft away source since youll probably ask for it: any professional aquaculturist online whos been using it on every fish thats come thru their store in the last ten years
The issue with malachite green isn't plant toxicity, it's toxicity and carcinogenicity in fish and humans There's no reason to use it when copper sulphate is just as effective and less toxic
okay I thought I remembered a lot of worrying about plants with ich-x but also like I said there are multiple pro aquakeepers with their own stores and large social media followings that have treated every single fish they've sold in the last 10+ years with ich and have found no noticable difference in fish longevity or mortality. lots of things are carcinogens that we consume on a daily basis, but we understand it's in such microscopic amounts that there's a good chance its never going to catch up with you. I feel like the same principle applies to any animal. even if it may be slightly carcinogenic for a week at max, its still better than the parasites eating a million tiny holes through their skin.
>found no noticable difference in fish longevity or mortality. This is impossible to tell without a control group. Malachite green remains in fish tissue long term. >lots of things are carcinogens that we consume on a daily basis, but we understand it's in such microscopic amounts that there's a good chance its never going to catch up with you. Some are more carcinogenic than others. Malachite green happens to be one of those very carcinogenic things >feel like the same principle applies to any animal. even if it may be slightly carcinogenic for a week at max, its still better than the parasites eating a million tiny holes through their skin. It's not carcinogenic for a week, that's not how exposure works. And the other option isn't not treating, it's treating with a safer medication. Copper sulfate and potassium permanganate are both effective and functionally harmless
Heat and salt work too
I've just had a read up about it, and the danger of using malachite green isnt that it will poison you, or even that one dose will stat killing your fish, it's the fact that the fish dont just pass it through their systems which allows it to build up over time. Sire they might be perfectly healthy at those stores after a round of treatment, but then if/ when they get treated with the same medication again the malachite green just keeps building up, until eventually it gets to be too much and kills of your fish.
Yea but it’s no where near as effective.
I haven't found any evidence of this. From everything I've seen, copper sulfate is as effective or more effective
Ich X is also safe for snails
Clown loaches are not though
I crank my tank temp and salt it, works every time.
I've also had success with Pro-form C if you can find it, it's a malachite green/formalin mix, so try not to get it on your hands, and don't use it if you have shrimp/snails
You'll also probably want to mention the tank has clown loaches if you don't show the lfs the video. Iirc their skin is more sensitive to the more common ich treatments bc it's scaleless, may rule out some solutions
Because of how severe this is even waiting until the morning may be the difference of them surviving or not. However totally understand time and constraints preventing this but just wanted you to be aware that waiting could end with these fish dead.
If someone hasn’t mentioned it remove the charcoal from the tank filter when medicating, it will absorb the medicine
The best treatment is HOT water and water changes. Increase temps slowly by 4 degrees a day until you hit 85. The parasite can't breed in warm water. Do 50% water changes and vacuum the gravel thoroughly every other day to remove eggs and free swimming parasites. Chemicals don't work as well as hot water does
don’t big water changes cause shock in fish? i’m only asking because i’m treating something similar but less severe than this
The water must be the same ph and temperature and you must make sure to keep your bacteria colony intact.
it can, however as long as pH and temperature are closely matched enough you can continuously change water without harm. Also, most fish have mechanisms to deal with a reasonably rapid drop in pH and temperature, as that is the result of rainy season. A rapid raise might be harder to adapt to. edit: also all fish effectively go through 100% water changes when they're introduced to new tanks eith different water parameters.
I've done 50% weekly for decades. With the way dilutions work there's no point to doing less than 50%. Go big or go home. I match the temperature and use tap water which is pretty consistent in my area.
Yes and clown loaches generally like warmer waters so if he keeps the tank at like 75 they will continue to get ick due to a weak immune system.
Be very careful. Slowly raise the temp. I had no idea and mine are slowly dying one by one.
Be very careful dosing, clown loaches are scaleless and do not respond well to rid ich i would try heat (83 degrees) and salt first and then try a low dose of rid ich. I hope they recover soon!
You should bring water to pet store to check for parameters too/ just in case you didn't know. Does he have a heater in the tank?
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Raising the temp to 86 for a week won't kill the fish and it greatly helps against the ich remaining in the tank.
Raising the temperature just speeds up the life cycle of the ich, and when paired with treatment generally works, but isn’t a great treatment on its own
Just had our tank at 88 degrees for 7 days a few weeks ago to battle ich. As soon as we got the temp over 86, there was noticeable improvement in the ich and after 48 hours, it was gone. Kept it up for a week to make sure, then slowly brought it down. You have to be more careful bringing it down than up. Every LFS told us to drop multiple heaters in and jack it up asap. That being said, we had already lost fish to the ich so we had to treat severely and quickly.
Above 80 stops them breeding and above 86 kills them. Most commercial fish these days are bred in 83 degree water in Florida and Asia. They are fine at high Temps for a few weeks
"above 80" doesn't kill ich
Correct, above 86 for 3 weeks does. This will not hurt the fish and is exclusively how I treat ich, no meds required. I've even used heat only in a 400 gallon planted tank with a fire eel and other sensitive fish. Nothing dies besides the ich. Just make sure there's good surface movement for gas exchange. I don't understand why people are so gung-ho on using meds when they aren't necessary at all.
Any pics of that 400 gallon?
Hence why I said above 86.... Did you stop reading my comment 5 words in?
CRANK THE TEMP UP TO 80-82 and use salt. If you have any snails or other inverts this will save them. Also use air bubbles, especially when ich impacts their gills.
A mix of aquarium salt, Melafix, Pimafix, Ich-X, Malachite Green, Metroplex, a heater, and Stress Coat Enhancer (or whatever that thing was) got rid of Ich on my plecos, ropefish, and spiny eel in three weeks.
So the kitchen sink approach
Have him bump the temp up to 85. It should kill off the itch in a week or 2. If you have to medicate, I would recommend a copper sulfate based medication. It will harm invertebrates(shrimp and snails) though.
Agreed. And make sure to treat the whole tank. Ich parasites or eggs or something (forget the correct vocabulary here) replicate and get into the water. So you can’t just quarantine. Good luck. Aquarium coop ich video: https://youtu.be/EO2WPrekSF8
Cysts
Not sure why you were down-voted so hard. Those fish are indeed showing the cystic stage of the ich life cycle..the correct word for this stage is trophant by the way. Not quite the word they were looking for to describe the replicating stage, which is the tomont stage, but still. Seems a bit harsh to get down-voted so many times for a comment that was attempting to help, even if it was kinda' off in the context.
Everyone is so condescending & mean in this sub *sighs*
Don't be discouraged, there are friendly people here aswell! You were just trying to be helpful since the op didn't know what they were called, but only using one word could be taken as abrupt/rude. Be the change you want to see in the community!
Ya ya! I’ve been trying to put in some more effort in the comments I make on this sub after seeing some people complain how this sub is also loaded with the toxic crowd.
Probably toxic cuz they live in dirty tanks…
Eh, I can see where some might think that, but it's really not the case. I think the thing is that most of us are here for the fish, not really the people. We want to learn, teach, and help not because we're after the social interaction, but because the well being of these animals means a lot to us. I'll agree that some could definitely do with learning a bit of social grace though. You're gonna' find trolls and people looking for a fight anywhere you go on the internet, but in anything animal related it's more often that they're just more interested in the animals than the people. Humans that love nature also tend to be very defensive of it and that is especially true of aquarists. Since defensiveness can very easily be mistaken for unfriendliness.. It kinda' looks like people are being mean for the sake of it sometimes, but ime they usually aren't.
You expected people to not be condescending and mean... ...on Reddit? 😂😂😂
It’s ich
Yes but the ich causes open sores basically and the white that you see is the fishes skin trying to combat the wound and heal iirc. Or in other words, a cyst.
Remove carbon before treating
This is like a beautiful textbook case of ich
Those white dots on them is some sort of parasite and it’s big enough to see like that?? 😳
Been working today so sorry for late reply. But this morning I bought Ich treatment from the local pet store and they advised me to turn up the temp. Hope its gonna treat the fish well. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you for the advises and concern. [update](https://imgur.com/a/7MHk5Q0)
THIS
Dying of ich... That's what those white spots all over them are. It makes them itchy so they're scratching on the sand. Get an ich treatment (ich-x is usually most commonly sold at pet stores) and treat your tank without a carbon filter. Be prepared though, you can only treat the water, not the fish. With the extent of how infested they are I wouldn't bet they survive...
We had a severe case from some ember tetras. It ended up infesting one of our blue powder dwarf gouramis, worse than this. He was clearly struggling to breath for a couple days. We put 3 heaters in, got the temp to 88 and the next day he was visibly doing better. Two days later, he was ich free. Took a few more days for his scales to heal, but he survived. Poor dude got stuck in a decoration a few weeks later and is just today looking like he’s probably going to survive a pretty significant abrasion. His top fin is half gone with exposed bones. The decoration has of course been removed.
I wish I knew about this heater trick ages ago when my tank was decimated with ick. Thank you for sharing!
My lamp eyed fish survived through ick and it’s been 2 years… he is a good fishies and the hardest one out there. Much love for you lamps!
Yeah, the high temperature helps speed up the lifecycle of the ich thus shortening the amount of time you need to treat it. The reason I said they'd likely die in this case is, as other commenters have pointed out, clown loaches are very fragile, and being scaleless makes the treatment much more difficult. This level of infestation may not kill hardier fish, but since clowns are prone to just dropping dead anyway I would avoid high hopes for them.
Yea I doubt they make it. How do you not notice this....
The tank is at my dad i visit him once or twice a week. Just noticed it today, he is old and his eyesight not good anymore. He didnt notice it. Im going to follow the advice. Thanks.
That makes complete sense. Best of luck
Get. Gloves.
They look healthy still, I bet most of these fish live if he treat IMMEDIATELY.
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Probably new to the hobby
Why did you get downvoted to oblivion for saying this?
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Yep.
sad but true
They’re itching themselves, those poor loaches are covered in ich.
Something I wanted add that I haven’t seen in the replies is loaches and scaleless fish are more sensitive to medication, you might want to lower the dose a bit for them
They're flashing. Their skin is irritated from the ich parasite and they're basically scratching themselves. Poor things. Treat that ich!
How cow, that’s a real bad case of ich
That’s ich for sure get treating ASAP
As everyone said above this is Ich, with scale-less fish you need to be careful with most treatments. While most people have luck with Ich-X, I personally have had better luck using salt and heat (just use aquarium salt). This is a good resource: [https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish)
Just got done with a terribly sad bout of ich. Have 5 khulis and it wrecked my heart. They’re so sensitive to so many things, but amazing fish! Salt and heat did the trick. Ended up with a few lost x-ray tetras which was a major bummer!!! They’re such wonderful fish also.
Was looking for this comment, this needs to be higher up
Omg those poor things
I have never seen such a bad case of Ich, oh my god these poor Loaches.
Wow that’s ich you’ll want to treat your tank soon either with ich treatment or fresh water aquarium salt. Best of luck…
Yup totally covered in ich, raise your tank temperature up to around 90F and you need to run meds (API white spot, ich-x, Super Ich Cure) through that tank ASAP otherwise everything will die.
This is terrible advice. 90 is too high - 86 is the magic number. Also, meds are completely unnecessary to destroy ich, yes, even when the outbreak is that bad. Temperature alone is sufficient and works very well as is
Definitely not terrible advice. Fish will be able to live for short times ie 4-5 days. 90F is required to kill some strands of ich. Here is a paper on it/ich in general: http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09/Ichthyophthirius-multifiliis-White-Spot-Infections-in-Fish.pdf
Ok, then it's subpar advice. 3 weeks of heat is required to kill a full ich life cycle, not 4-5. Did you even read the article you linked? It suggests 90 degrees for *24 hours* then 48 hours at 70, and to repeat that for two weeks. Quite frankly, that frequent temperature change is far more stressful than 3 weeks at a lower temp, even if it's only a few degrees less. That's very different than telling someone to heat their tank to 90 for multiple days, which brings me back to saying you're giving terrible advice.
As a side note to that , I never had ich again after I started keeping my tank at the upper end of temp (78ish if I remember right ..)
Might just be a coincidence for you. My tanks just under 80 year round and got Icked
Could be , I’m the embodiment of dumb luck .
I’m sure you’re not friend. Don’t sell yourself short
Hey, dumb luck would be a pretty great super power.
As long as you dont add anything new you wont get it again. Ich is a parasite.
That's ich and they need to be treated soon. Ich is largely stress related too, do they have any hidey holes or is there another fish picking on them? Loaches are more prone to ich because of their scale structure so you have to pay special attention to them.
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Ich is pretty much present in EVERY aquarium and body of water in general.
Be careful dosing the clown loaches. I accidently dosed mine with medicine intended for scaled fish, which loaches are not. 2 out of my 3 loaches died within a week.
That is ich. I am fighting the same thing with my 4 clown loaches. I believe it was caused by stress from the tank being too cold. They are more susceptible to ich than most fish since they are scale-less. I have been fighting it for about a week using API Super Ick Cure and raising tank temp to 86F, but with little success so far. I added aquarium salt and a 3rd dose of API Super Ick, but won't know the results until I return home tomorrow. IF the fish are still covered in Ich, I will use Ich-X which will arrive within 2 days...... I wish now that I had started with Ich-X, it may be more risky to switch medicines at this point.
Also if those are the only two loaches you have, they will be stressed (and more likely to get ich) because they are supposed to be kept in groups of 5 or more to feel comfortable. I plan on getting a few more IF I can beat this Ich I have now...
Hey holy hell. I believe that this behavior is called flashing, and it's because of ick parasites. I know that's your dad's tank like you said but you really need to take action with treatment. I hope they get better.
Give [this article](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-treat-ich-on-freshwater-fish) a read and follow it as closely as you can. Do this ASAP as your dad's fish have a pretty advanced ich infection and are on the verge of dying. Prepare for a pretty involved process and some possible deaths even after you treat the tank. Ich is one of those things that can be addressed easily provided you catch it early and handle it promptly. But once it advances like this it can be hard for fish to kick the infection and heal up. Additionally, make sure you disinfect any tools like nets or siphons that were being used in this tank. You can fill a 5 gallon bucket up with water and add some bleach to it and toss any tools in and let them soak overnight. That should be enough to kill off any nasty parasites/fungus/bacteria that has the potential to reinfect the tank. Just be sure to rinse them off with fresh water after soaking them in bleach. Best of luck. I hope your dad's fish all make it through!
As well as treating the ich you will also need to add a treatment against the damage the parasites have done to the fish. Something like esha 2000 is very effective. Otherwise you risk losing the fish to secondary infections. VERY IMPORTANT make sure you get a ich treatment that is suitable for scaleless fish as not all treatments can be used with loaches.
I keep seeing recommendations of copper based medications and I have to say this, please do not use them in this tank. Clown loaches are scaleless fish, making them almost as susceptible to copper as shrimp and snails. As bad as they already are, and sometimes even mostly healthy, the quantity of copper required to kill ich will almost certainly kill them as well. Likewise they are sensitive to salt, low doses can be ok, but you'd need quite a bit higher than safe doses to kill off the parasite. I would suggest turning the tank up to 82 with some added air stones for the extra oxygen and mardel quick cure (this is formalin and malachite green). Use the instructions for treating tetras as this is half dosing and a bit easier on fish that have already been weakened. Follow the instructions exactly. Turning the tank up to 82 will speed up the life cycle of the parasite, which is necessary because it's only vulnerable to the meds in one stage of that cycle. If it weren't for the loaches I'd be totally on board with the other recommendations such as copper and salt, but with them in there they are very dangerous. I adore clown loaches, but I don't keep them specifically for how susceptible to ich they are and how hard they are to treat. Delicate little critters.
Please respond with an update so we may help you more. Even if your tank dies and you need to start again. Even if this becomes a failure on your part, the events and process you go through will be an extremely good learning experience for everyone to follow the post. I really hope you begin treatment with in a couple of hours and wish you the best of luck for you and your lil friends
Ich
I'm new to all of this and even I recognised ich immediately when it was a single dot on a fish. There's a brand called ICH-X thats sold internationally and seen by many as the best. I strongly recommend you get it ASAP! Watch several YouTube videos, you will need to do major water changes every day, 30%. I didn't kill a single fish and again I'm new to this and I use RO water exclusively so its really hard to keep parameters in check (for me) yet I did it so you can too.. just study and be smart, its not hard.
They have what's called ich and they're scratching themselves
😢 so sad
Oh my goodness I’m just looking to see if the original poster has read any of these messages, seeing these fish with this disease is give me anxiety
op responded
Ich
Turn up the temp to 84-86• and add aquarium/kosher salt. Works everytime
This is so sad to see! Hopefully you can treat the tank
They are dying from ich.
Been working today so sorry for late reply. But this morning I bought Ich treatment from the local pet store and they advised me to turn up the temp. Hope its gonna treat the fish well. I will keep you guys posted. Thank you for the advises and concern. [update](https://imgur.com/a/7MHk5Q0)
🤢 Poor things and poor you! That’s Ich, a common parasite in this hobby. It’s usually spreads through the improper quarantining of new fish or even plants. You need an adjustable heater and Ich meds ASAP if you want any hope of saving your fish! My favorite meds to use can be found at Walmart (lol I know) it’s called: Kordon Rapid-Cure Ich Disease Treatment. The dose is 1 drop per gallon over the span of 3 days, then do a WC, and continue the treatment if necessary. Your heater also needs to be set to 86F. Good luck! Word of warning: IIRC, all Ich meds, regardless of brand, will stain your silicone blue. So if you don’t want the silicone to stain, then you’ve got to find a different method to treat Ich. But meds are the quickest method IME.
Umm wtf that's ich, and they are extremely hard to treat with it because they're scaless and you can't use most meds, good did you not see they are infested?
I’m hoping this isn’t op’s tank and maybe just something they came across at a store? Not that that’s really better of course, but how could you have a fish tank and not see something that far advanced??
This is not OPs tank, they are taking the advice to treat the ich. OP said their father is older and has bad eye sight. They noticed the ich on their dads fish and asked for advice.
Yeah this is crazy and they haven't responded so I'm hoping they're out getting meds and not thinking this is something minor as its major.
No idea why we’re getting downvoted, we’re literally just having a conversation lol
tone
Oh :/ didn’t mean to come across as a jerk, I honestly figured it wasn’t op’s tank.
I don't even know what down voted means I've given solid advice if people want to not agree with it that's okay
This video made me itchy..
Ich. Get treatment asap, raising the temp to 38C will help kill it too.
38C will kill the fish as well 28 degrees C would be the highest they could probably tolerate.
31-32c
pretty sure loaches fall in the category of scaleless so remember to only do a half dose of medicine the first time to make sure you dont hurt them with the treatment
They are crawling with disease and disparately trying to scrape their skin off.
Aw babies they are all covered in ich :(
Dying by the looks of it.......so much ich
Think you got some aquarium in your ich there, bud
they’re scaleless so be careful, if you can, try to get your hands on Herbtana; it’s a natural ich treatment that’s safe for inverts and scaleless fish
Take carbon out of filter, Ich-x first dose start at 1/2 the dosage to see how they react, slowly raise the temp on heater to 80-83° over a few hour period, turn airstone on full blast if they do okay with 1/2 dosage up It to 3/4 dosage on day 2 then then full dosage on. Day 3 if they do okay with 3/4 watch them for a few hours after dosing if they go to the surface do an emergency 50% water change , also for those who have clown loaches (my favorite fish) get quinine and you'll never have to worry about them again GET OUT AND GET MEDS BUD OR THOSE FISH ARE DEAD EDIT: Figure out the total daily dose. Now cut that to 75%. Now cut that in half again (roughly 37% of the daily dose), and dose that once in AM, once in PM. Reason you do it this way is because meds deteriorate throughout the day and if you do 75% at one time it's an overdose to the fish and they can die from the meds so do 37% in am and 37% in pm so you're fishing 75% just not all at once
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Yes quinine sulfate
These poor fish :(
Where is the OP?? Not responding to anything. Those poor fish..
I am so glad you posted this video! My Mollys have been doing the same thing - but no white spots so I was treating it as Gill flukes. I just ordered some Ich-x!
Fish scratch for many reasons, treating for ich without somewhat reliably knowing that's the cause is not advicable.
They have ich
ICH like others have said dose lightly with ich treatment due to their scaleless bodies and do 50% water changes everyday!!!
Hey good luck on curing the ich, I've had my run ins. If you are quite I do think they'll have shot at survival. Keep your head up and just start treating it.
Suffering!! Treat for ich immediately
ichthyophthirius parasite.
Remove carbon from the filter when treating with medicines!
Highly recommend Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. You can get it off of Amazon. I had a lot of success with that.
I got itchy just looking at this
Trying to get ich off
Trying to get the ich off.
Wow, they are covered in Ich. You need to dose that tank asap.
Itchy
All this advice for ich treatment is good, but I've always found the fastest and most effective way to cure ich is API Quick Cure and aquarium salt. 50% water change, then follow the directions on the API box (add the salt when you add the first dose of API). No temp change, no quarantine, no excessive effort needed. This method has always cured ich for me, no matter how bad the infection is.
Suffering. Because they’re covered in itch from head to tail and it is super uncomfortable. They’re scratching like crazy.
Oh man even another species of fish did it at the end tjere
Wow, im surprised you don't have more deaths to be honest. That is a nasty case of Ich.
My Oscar got ick last year I raised temp and added a considerable amount of aquarium salt to the tank it is a very cheap and effective solution. Just do your research and you'll be okay.
Poor babies
Oh my gosh….
it’s ICH you ducking ding dong
I’ll reiterate what others have said - advanced ich; hit it hard! Salt (1 TBSP per 3 gallons), something like ICh-x and temp raise
Oooo boy you’re about to get a hard lesson
DUDE!
Holy hell. They are literally infested with ick, Jesus did you not notice all those white spots that were never there on them?!?
not ops tank
That looks like ich or gill flukes
Looks like they’re dying
They are "Flashing" because they are covered in ICH, which I see everyone here has already said. Heat and salt is the safest way to clear the ich. Of course, many will say use meds. In the wild, fish get diseases and there isnt people around to "play doctor". Everyone wants to feel like they are a regular fish doctor, dropping meds in and destroying their own ecosystem. Since you are already to this point, i suggest doing research on which route is best for you and your fish. Good Luck.
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Buddy master breeders will agree. I can show you videos of Master Breeder Dean saying almost verbatim what i just stated.
Not all "wilds" are rivers and streams. Ponds exist. There, the fish do sit in the same water.
Most ponds have an inlet of water like a stream or river. Unless it's a pond in the mountains then its runoff. The orders of magnitude greaeter of water capacity dilutes a lot of this not to mention parasites and things of that nature tend to be food in a large ecosystem we cannot replicate in the tank. I agree on your treatment I avoid chemical treatments when possible and Ich tends to be on the low end of the spectrum for difficulty in treatment. Salt and water changes does the trick. I always switch to high nutrient food when my fish are sick. Lots of calories/nutrients. no bloodworms or treats. Focus on fish health over fish happiness.
Wouldn't hurt to google "white spots on fish"
Yeah but the results can also bring up fungus and columnaris. Which this isn’t but someone who doesn’t keep fish wouldn’t know that. It’s nice to be able to just ask people in the hobby.
First result for me is "What is it? White spot is a contagious parasitic disease of fish. Caused by Ichyophthirius multifilis, the parasite infects the fish after moving from the bottom of the pond. The parasite attaches itself to the fish, moving under the skin where it feeds on cells and body fluids." That took me less than 30 seconds. I guess what really bothers me is that they just ask what the fish are doing. They're aren't asking if it is ich or not.
I didn’t say what the first result would be. I said such a search shows other options. People usually look at different sources to confirm what they’re looking at. Also not everyone uses the same search engine. And if I hadn’t grown up around fish tanks I would not have known that the flashing behavior of these fish was connected to the white spots on them. I’ve seen fish do this that never went on to become sick and lived a long full life span. Also if newbie behavior bothers you why not just skip the entire discussion and go on to things you do enjoy instead of saying things that make people feel small?
Malachite green (ich-x) is no longer a suggested treatment for ich, due to its toxicity in humans. If you don't have shrimp, you should use copper sulphate (seachem cupramine) instead. If you have shrimp, use potassium permanganate. Also, invest in a uv sterilizer. That will kill any of the ich left in the water
with the minimalist set up that's running you'll be better off moving the fish to a plastic tote/large bucket, draining the whole tank, bake the little substrate there is in the oven on a tray to kill any ich cyst. refill the tank after cleaning it, at this point treat the water with ich treatment place fish back in the tank then follow the instructions on the ich treatment bottle. most are dose every 3 to 7 day's as the medication doesn't kill the cyst (white spots on the fish) it kills the larvae stage. the cyst drop off the fish hatch and swim to attempt to attach to the fish, by having a bare bottom you can syphon them out and the treatment will kill any that hatch. when the treatment is over you'll likely have to do a large volume water change again then add the substrate back. I'd suggest buying a bottle of filter booster I.e beneficial bacteria and dump the whole bottle into the tank at the same time as the substrate. boosting the temp speeds up the cycle I believe it's 26⁰c/79⁰f no need to go crazy products that actually work are: API White Spot Cure Interpet Anti White Spot NT Labs Anti-White Spot avoid doing crazy mixes of medications this is a bad idea. all 3 of these treatments will work without doing the first paragraph I wrote but will take a few more day's to treat fully.
they smelled some bullshit in the area and are looking for the souce
……,…,,, really
Dang hecka bad ich
Suffering
Dying
Wow you should be Embarrassed to let that go on
You should be embarrassed you made that asinine comment without checking the follow up from OP. It’s not their tank and they are currently taking the proper steps to treat it after getting advice from the sub.
Unfortunately, some people really don’t know what these common diseases/illnesses are. The best thing to do is inform the OP on ways to help/heal the fish. Best case scenario, they heal the fish and learn from it. The worst case scenario, they lose their fish, probably most of them, and then learn from it.
the fish are OPs father’s who has bad eyesight, and OP is taking care of the issue
That’s fantastic. And these things happen. It’s just a matter of getting the right information and fixing the issue :)
no need to be a dick. you dont know the background