love how you hold up your hands and say "always" it's rare anything ever happens "always" great video....we keep out tanks pretty hot and have little issues ever and never really have....thanks for going over Epistylis and sharing your 4 cents hahaha....great video Dan and we hope you have a great day!
Man I'm glad you have these videos. Unfortunately i believe my fish have epistylis, and have been treating for ich for a week and a half with high temps, perfect storm like you said. How did you get rid of epistylis?
Right now I have about a tablespoon per 5g as per the directions on API Aquarium Salt. Doesn't seem like quite enough. Should I up it to a teaspoon per gallon?
Title of the video was misleading. I was hoping you would talk more about Epistylis, which I’m not familiar with, and not just Ich. But thank you for the information. I’ll have to do more research.
It lives in your aquarium and feeds on bacteria. If you have excessive amounts of bacteria in the water, the epistylis will have a growth explosion. It can start living on the glass, woodwork, rocks, and the fish.
I don't know if people still do this, but I learned this a long long time ago and use it to this day in my quarantine tanks, The Ol Black Molly, I just pull one from the brackish tank a plop it right in there, if there is ich, you'll know it, plop the ol girl back in her brackish tank and boom, don't worry, she'll be fine. as well as anything else, like the ever popular columnaris, I'm rambling again... Yeah, ich... silly stuff
Excellent dialog for all to learn from. I will continue to add replacement water during water changes that is +/- 2 degrees Fahrenheit to minimize stress on my fish for whatever disease may raise it's ugly head when my fish are weakened.
I don't think brief, and minor temp changes stress the fish very much. Keeping a fish at the low end of it's range or even below it's normal range over time is more problematic.
Here’s my thought. The Ick organism is in dormant stealth mode and uses the solo fish as a Trojan horse into the unsuspecting tank. It waits for placement with a larger population of fish. Then it goes into super spreader mode, just like Covid. Why would it do this? Survival. The organism has honed its skills over millions or billions of years of evolution. It knows that if it’s too obvious it will be recognized straight off and deselected and culled from the other fish. It’s nothing to scoff at, it’s a clever bugger.
Do you think Mystery Snails can carry/transmit this and other diseases? I just lost nearly all of my fish in my display tank and all I have left are my snails. I want to relocate them in order to bleach my tank, but I don't want to contaminate my other tanks.
I recently had my cichlid treated for hole in the head disease but after treatment a few days later these little white spots emerge on his face near the hole. I thought it was maybe ick but maybe its epilytis. can someone please help me figure this out. I can send pictures. BTW- really learn a lot from your channel so thanks
I dan. I had 1 old fish that appeared to have ich spots all over him. No one else in the tank just the old guy. I was told to turn the temp to 82 and after a few days all the spots fell off him. It's been all clear for about 3 weeks now. Was that really ich? You think it's gone now?
So many questions to be asked here, But the biggest one is, How do you expect anyone to tell you what your fish has/had if they can't/didn't see it? You say you were told, by who? Was this person a vet? Did they see the fish? Do you feed it live food? is it freshwater, saltwater or brackish water? How many "Other" tanks do you have? .... This could go on forever ... So the fish is old, When did you get this old fish? Was it in an outdoor pond? ... Lots of questions ... But to touch on your question, If it's as cut and dry as you make it look, no... but that is a huge assumption not knowing more about it. But 82 wont kill ich, so if it somehow is ich, no, it's not gone.
That doesn't sound like Ick. If one fish had it and you turned the temp to 82, every fish in the tank would have been covered in spots within days. Ick doesn't die off from heat until mid 90's.
I believe I have this in my tank. I just lost 12 fish in 4 days. I don’t even know what to do anymore. I tried API Ich Super Cure and switched to SeaChem ParaGuard, hopefully it’ll save my last 4 survivors. 😢
If the fish are dying like that, it probably a bacterial infection. Try using an antibiotic like Kanaplex. The Epistylis feeds on bacteria, but isn't really harmful to your fish. It doesn't kill fish very fast. It could be that your fish are infected, and the Epistylis is feeding on the bacteria. It's probably the bacterial infection doing the damage.
You're right that ich doesn't just magically appear, but there is 1 more scenario that might happen. The ich might "reappear" if you don't treat the tank long enough, as the cysts are unaffected by the medications/salt or temperature. So if you stop treating it when the visual symptoms disappear there are still cysts in the tank that will "hatch" and reinfect the fish. But of course, ich can't survive without a host and wouldn't go dormant even if it could as it doesn't make sense for it to do so as long as there are hosts available to it. Pretty simple logic.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly yes that's what I meant. The first sentence and last paragraph should explain that a month or a year later will never happen unless you introduce it back yourself. (Just like you said).
If you're medicating for Ick, turning the heat up speeds it through the cycle and kills it off faster. Lower temps may leave some cysts "unhatched" until after the treatment. Just be sure to add an air stone.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly "unhatched"? I thought you said ich doesn't have a dormant state. Regardless of what you claimed in a previous video it DOES stress fish out to increase water temperature especially as much as you'd need to to accelerate ich's life cycle. So you have fish already stressed from a disease then stress them further. No
Strange, I have always cure ich succesfully by raising the temperature, w/o losses. I guess that acording to your, no doubt, experienced and documented opinion, I did not cure it "correctly"....
I had never heard of Epistylis until you mentioned it, so thanks for that. Interesting information.
Thank you for sharing this information! I had no idea that there was a "look alike" to ick. You just helped me to save my fish.
Great info Dan. Thanks!
6:45 *laughs in trout*
love how you hold up your hands and say "always" it's rare anything ever happens "always" great video....we keep out tanks pretty hot and have little issues ever and never really have....thanks for going over Epistylis and sharing your 4 cents hahaha....great video Dan and we hope you have a great day!
Thank you, keep thinking my established pond (in wintertime) has a fish with ick....nope, after listening to this.... Epistylis must be what it is...
I agree with this, I've experienced it myself.
Thank you for these two videos. Helps with our fish induced stess!!
Wow I have never heard of this... Excellent video, thank you.
I love these Scientific talks!!!
i love 💝 the colors of that tank
Man I'm glad you have these videos. Unfortunately i believe my fish have epistylis, and have been treating for ich for a week and a half with high temps, perfect storm like you said. How did you get rid of epistylis?
I used an ick medication that contains malachite green. The malachite green kills it. Lower temps, and do plenty of water changes. Salt the tank too.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly thanks man! I've been treating with ich x. It doesn't have formelin but it has malachite green. How much salt should i add?
Right now I have about a tablespoon per 5g as per the directions on API Aquarium Salt. Doesn't seem like quite enough. Should I up it to a teaspoon per gallon?
@@Mr.DyeTheFishGuy It depends on the fish. Some fish can't tolerate much salt, but most can go up to a tablespoon (3 tsp) per gallon.
@@Mr.DyeTheFishGuy A tsp per gallon is the minimum I'd do. I'd start with a well rounded tsp per gallon.
Title of the video was misleading. I was hoping you would talk more about Epistylis, which I’m not familiar with, and not just Ich. But thank you for the information. I’ll have to do more research.
aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-2-4-epistylis/
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly Thank you! Very helpful! I appreciate the follow up!
Can you explain how epi comes to be ?
It lives in your aquarium and feeds on bacteria. If you have excessive amounts of bacteria in the water, the epistylis will have a growth explosion. It can start living on the glass, woodwork, rocks, and the fish.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly could it have happened from to much starter bacteria?
@@1LiViNgGOD1970 thats a great question and I wish I knew the answer. If I had to guess, I'd say it could
Does that ich attack kill your bio ?
Not at all.
I don't know if people still do this, but I learned this a long long time ago and use it to this day in my quarantine tanks, The Ol Black Molly, I just pull one from the brackish tank a plop it right in there, if there is ich, you'll know it, plop the ol girl back in her brackish tank and boom, don't worry, she'll be fine. as well as anything else, like the ever popular columnaris, I'm rambling again... Yeah, ich... silly stuff
Excellent dialog for all to learn from. I will continue to add replacement water during water changes that is +/- 2 degrees Fahrenheit to minimize stress on my fish for whatever disease may raise it's ugly head when my fish are weakened.
I don't think brief, and minor temp changes stress the fish very much. Keeping a fish at the low end of it's range or even below it's normal range over time is more problematic.
Here’s my thought. The Ick organism is in dormant stealth mode and uses the solo fish as a Trojan horse into the unsuspecting tank. It waits for placement with a larger population of fish. Then it goes into super spreader mode, just like Covid. Why would it do this? Survival. The organism has honed its skills over millions or billions of years of evolution. It knows that if it’s too obvious it will be recognized straight off and deselected and culled from the other fish. It’s nothing to scoff at, it’s a clever bugger.
Do you think Mystery Snails can carry/transmit this and other diseases? I just lost nearly all of my fish in my display tank and all I have left are my snails. I want to relocate them in order to bleach my tank, but I don't want to contaminate my other tanks.
I'd isolate the snails for a couple of weeks before putting them in a new tank.
Good video. 👍📺😎
I recently had my cichlid treated for hole in the head disease but after treatment a few days later these little white spots emerge on his face near the hole. I thought it was maybe ick but maybe its epilytis. can someone please help me figure this out. I can send pictures. BTW- really learn a lot from your channel so thanks
Treat with malachite green or ick-X. If it's epitsylis, that'll kill it. Do plenty of water changes too.
I dan. I had 1 old fish that appeared to have ich spots all over him. No one else in the tank just the old guy. I was told to turn the temp to 82 and after a few days all the spots fell off him. It's been all clear for about 3 weeks now. Was that really ich? You think it's gone now?
Was it a goldfish? Just curious.
So many questions to be asked here, But the biggest one is, How do you expect anyone to tell you what your fish has/had if they can't/didn't see it? You say you were told, by who? Was this person a vet? Did they see the fish? Do you feed it live food? is it freshwater, saltwater or brackish water? How many "Other" tanks do you have? .... This could go on forever ... So the fish is old, When did you get this old fish? Was it in an outdoor pond? ... Lots of questions ... But to touch on your question, If it's as cut and dry as you make it look, no... but that is a huge assumption not knowing more about it. But 82 wont kill ich, so if it somehow is ich, no, it's not gone.
That doesn't sound like Ick. If one fish had it and you turned the temp to 82, every fish in the tank would have been covered in spots within days. Ick doesn't die off from heat until mid 90's.
Thanks I killed dozens of clown loaches thinking it was the ich over the years and it was this stuff
I believe I have this in my tank. I just lost 12 fish in 4 days. I don’t even know what to do anymore. I tried API Ich Super Cure and switched to SeaChem ParaGuard, hopefully it’ll save my last 4 survivors. 😢
If the fish are dying like that, it probably a bacterial infection. Try using an antibiotic like Kanaplex. The Epistylis feeds on bacteria, but isn't really harmful to your fish. It doesn't kill fish very fast. It could be that your fish are infected, and the Epistylis is feeding on the bacteria. It's probably the bacterial infection doing the damage.
This has killed half my clown loaches and I think it might finish the whole job soon
You sound like Nick Offerman 🧐
You're right that ich doesn't just magically appear, but there is 1 more scenario that might happen. The ich might "reappear" if you don't treat the tank long enough, as the cysts are unaffected by the medications/salt or temperature. So if you stop treating it when the visual symptoms disappear there are still cysts in the tank that will "hatch" and reinfect the fish.
But of course, ich can't survive without a host and wouldn't go dormant even if it could as it doesn't make sense for it to do so as long as there are hosts available to it. Pretty simple logic.
Yes, but in your scenario, the spots would return within days, not a year later.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly yes that's what I meant. The first sentence and last paragraph should explain that a month or a year later will never happen unless you introduce it back yourself. (Just like you said).
Turning up the temp is also one of the worst things you can do for ich or any other disease.
Why?
If you're medicating for Ick, turning the heat up speeds it through the cycle and kills it off faster. Lower temps may leave some cysts "unhatched" until after the treatment. Just be sure to add an air stone.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly "unhatched"? I thought you said ich doesn't have a dormant state. Regardless of what you claimed in a previous video it DOES stress fish out to increase water temperature especially as much as you'd need to to accelerate ich's life cycle. So you have fish already stressed from a disease then stress them further.
No
@@MrHominid2U You can do it however you want. But if you want the meds to work properly, you should follow the instructions.
Strange, I have always cure ich succesfully by raising the temperature, w/o losses. I guess that acording to your, no doubt, experienced and documented opinion, I did not cure it "correctly"....
I lost 15 fish in a couple days because of this 🫠
Noticed that some of the fish weren't even touched by this