HEALTHY KOI DR JOHNSON ON ICH - Ichthyophthirius White Spot

Most cases of Ich will show up within a few days after the hobbyist has added new fish to their collection without quarantine. Ich is one of the most common parasites of aquarium fish. There is probably not a ‘close-second place’ fish in terms of prevalence. Affected fish will isolate and develop symptoms of lethargy, clamped fins, and in many instances, a peppering of white spots from head to tail. In other cases, the fish will develop difficulty breathing, with a reddish color suffusing the skin. This is particularly common in colder water.

Microscopically, one can scrape some mucus from the fishes’ skin and look at it under the microscope and witness the organisms. At even 100x combined power, you may see the free-swimming ‘swarmers’, or you may see the large, sub-epithelial organisms. The free-swimming ‘swarmer’ appears as a teardrop shaped highly active organism with a green or tan granular interior. The larger, sub-epithelial organism is indeed large, round, and covered with very fine cilia, which rotate the organism on its axis. The sub-epithelial organism is usually not translucent but you can see the horseshoe shaped nucleus inside.

The life cycle of Ich is relevant to its control. The organism enters the system as a free swimming ‘swarmer’ in contaminated water, or it may come in on a fish in the sub-epithelial form. The organism under the skin will swell, and develop into a packet which excysts, and falls to the bottom of the aquarium. There, it swells and then erupts, liberating thousands of free-swimming swarmers that swim up into the water in search of a new host. They penetrate the epidermis and the cycle begins again. The speed with which the organism proceeds through its life cycle is dependent upon the water temperature. The organism may remain under the skin for over a week if the temperatures are very cool, (i.e. under sixty ^oF). It is also clinically relevant that the Ich organism is impervious to any water borne treatment while they are sequestered under the skin of the fish. Indeed, our window of opportunity to kill this pathogen is during its free-swimming phase. The most efficacious treatment in this application is salt at 0.3% [zero-point-three percent]. This is discussed in detail later.

<>Ich is remedied with salt by removing all live plants from the aquarium. You would do a partial water change and ensure that all water quality parameters are optimal for fish health. This would mean a check on Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate, as well as pH. Once your environment is ‘perfect’ you would begin to apply salt at the rate of one teaspoon per gallon of water, every twelve hours for three applications.

Here is a sample regimen for a twenty-gallon aquarium:

1.      Pull out your aquatic plants so the salt does not ruin them.

2.      Test the existing water quality and correct any derangement with a water change

3.      Apply twenty teaspoons of non iodized salt which does not contain YPS (Yellow Prussiate of Soda) at the noon hour.

4.      At midnight (twelve hours after treatment number one) you would apply twenty more teaspoons of the fish-safe salt.

5.      At noon the next day you would apply the third and final dose of salt.

6.      Salt would remain in the system for fourteen days and be removed at the conclusion of the treatment by a substantial water change.