ick

hello i was just wondering if anyone could help with something i caought some minnows brought them home put them in a tank that has been up for a long time with other fish in it and after a couple days they got tons of white spots on them which i am sure is ick i was gonna use them as feeder minnows so my first question is can a fish eat another fish with it will it hurt them and number two how did they get ick if my other fish never had it.plus now my fish that where in there first have ick.did i just bring a bunch of sick fish home?

Edited by Warmouth19, 25 January 2010 - 03:32 PM.

IT sure sounds like the new fish had it.
this has happen to me before with feeders from a local creek i used quick cure from AP AQUARIUM PRODUCTS
it worked for me and was fast all fish got over the ick in less then a week then i did a 50% water change and cleaned all filters and gravel.
i did change the water color the blue for a short time and some of the
white rocks are now stained after two treatments.
maybe some one here has a better med.i did not
like the water changing colors or staining of my rocks.
but it worked fast!!!

Edited by CATfishTONY, 25 January 2010 - 04:58 PM.

im using melafix right know hope it works

im using melafix right know hope it works

do a google but i think thats the wrong med. thats a oil from a tree from down under and its for fin rot if a remember right.i also add salt to my sick tanks

Edited by CATfishTONY, 25 January 2010 - 05:50 PM.

Feeders with ich are NOT safe to feed to other fish, though they are fine for turtles.

Melafix is a tea tree hippie, snake oil without many proven effects. I would pour that stuff down the drain, recycle the empty bottle, and try either methylene blue, copper sulfate, malachite green (careful with this stuff - but you probably can't find it anymore anyway), slowly increase your tank temp to 86F for a week, a combination of temp and medical salt, quickcure (which I think is part malachite green), etc

Any of those treatments, when dosed correctly according to the bottle instructions, are decent for treating ich. The temperature treatment method is my favorite, but I haven't had ich in a long time. When I ran the fish system at a shop as a teenager we always used quickcure or malachite green which were both extremely effective.

Feeders with ich are NOT safe to feed to other fish, though they are fine for turtles.

I would tell people this too - always good advice, for obvious reasons.

In practice, it is funny how often this doesn't happen though.