Possible Ick spotting?

[cdouglas93]

I recently received my little female about a week or so from my boyfriend who got her at Walmart. Well last night when I was feeding her I noticed that it looked like little white bubbles were at the end of her fins and when I looked closer it looked more like someone salted her with a shaker and they stuck.

Her appetite hasn't lessened and she's pretty active but I'm still worried. Even at this moment she is swimming all over the place in her 5g hex. This morning I haven't noticed any more specks of white and it's only at the end of her back tail but ever so often se gets a dark horizontal strip down her body. Is this ICK? If so how do I help her?

I currently own some Jungle Ick Guard and Aquarium salt. She is the only fish in the aquarium. This is my first time dealing with a sick fishy so all advice is needed.

[shellieca]

Ich can be treated with heat. Turn your temp up to 86F over a 24 hr period of time. Do more frequent, at least every other day, water changes of 50%+ with a good all over vacuuming. Leave the heat up for at least week AFTER you see the last spot. You can add aq salt if you want but it's not mandatory. I used it for the 1st few days & then stopped. This worked for me. My girls was clamped & laying around, after a couple of days of treatment she was happy, eating & active. She had bad ich when I bought her.

[cdouglas93]

Thank you soooo much I'll keep you updated

[LadyVictorian]

OMG, the female I rescued who died had ich and so did ALL the dead and living fish at walmart. Whoever is supplying walmart on a larger lvl CLEARLY has very sick fish

[shellieca]

My girl came from Petco, unfortunately Ich is not uncommon.

Keep an eye on her for signs of anything else, hopefully Ich is the only problem.

[cdouglas93]

I just finished cleaning out everything and even taking out some of her substrate. I think I may have had a little too much sand in there and that probably didn't help her situation. Sh's pretty stressed out right now but I don't blame her. My poor baby. I gave her some treats but she's too stressed to eat atm. I'm waiting for the water to heat up again and I added a teaspoon of aquarium salt also. I love this little girl sooo much. I'll be soo sad to see her pass away.

[callistra]

I'm sorry she's suffering :(
shellieca is right about treatment. Just make sure you acclimate to this higher temp very very slowly.

[cdouglas93]

As of last night I haven't seen any more sighting of ick and my little girl isn't so stressed anymore. In fact she gobbled up all her food and continued to swim all over the place. Should I still keep the heat up or no?

[callistra]

That's great! Yes. You need to keep the heat up at least 2 weeks and one week past the very last sign of ick. So if you don't see any more ick, leave it up two weeks then lower it slowly.