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Hello! My goldfish appears to have ick, but I am not totally sure because I do not see the common white spots on him... but he does have 2 strange looking white spots that I've never seen. I'm wondering if it's safe to give medicine for ick (which seems to be medicine for many other fish illnesses,) even though he may not really have it... Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Does your fish look like he has little grains of rice on him, or do the white spots look like a fungus? Are the spots from missing scales?
Also, what kind of a fish is it? That will affect the dosing requirements for any of the medications for hte ich parasite. If you have other fish in the tank, are they showing signs of this white spot as well?
I just brought the fish home from the store on Friday and have him quarantined in a seperate tank. To be quite honest with you, I have no idea what the spots look like because he moves around too much. I will have to take him out and look closer. They aren't like rice and they aren't large at all... they are not missing scales. The spots look like salt/sugar - that's why I suspect ich, but he only has two on his fins. Oh, It's a medium to large sized black oranda goldfish.
I'm actually going to bring him back to the store I purchased him from tonight to see if they can help... just to be safe.
If it looks like grains of salt or sugar, it sounds a lot like ich. Pretty common on new fish, and always a great idea to quarantine first. Any medication with an active ingredent of Victoria Green is good -- i've been happy with the Jungle brand ich meds, and Aquaium Pham makes one too thats pretty good.
It sounds like ick to me as well. Not much of an outbreak though. A little PLAIN salt in the water will help. Make sure its non-iodized and has no prussate ingredients. The parasites are vulnerable to medications and salt only after they drop off the fish so don't expect to see the spots go away immediately.
Thanks for your replies... I spoke to one of the guys at the pet store and believe it to be mild ick or a small case of fin/tail rot (he didn't see the fish and the white specks are on the fins only.) He recommended I due daily water changes and add some salt. So, I will try this and if it's not working I suppose I'll get some medicine. Thank you again for all your help!