I have a potter's angel that I got yesterday, looked ok to me but was shy and hard to inspect. It did eat. Today it seems to be having trouble staying upright and definitely has either ich or velvet I think. What's the best course of options here. Obviously I should start copper but do I do a dip too?
Ich or velvet on QT'd angel
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Areseebee
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I did a 4 minute freshwater dip, he's been getting worse and worse, just floating around usually upside down. I worry the 1/4 dose cupramine is what he's reacting to but I'm really not sure. I also worry I'm misdiagnosing because when I look at him straight on it's hard to see the spots.
Areseebee
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I considered that but without any obvious outword marks I didn't. At this point he's totally lost the ability to stay righted, laying around a lot and is breathing fast. These are the same obvious symptoms I've seen since I woke up, I THINK I see the signs of ich/velvet so I started the copper and did the bath. Not sure what else could be the cause.
melypr1985
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I think velvet is a safe assumption. The freshwater dip was the best thing you could do for him if that's the case. He is simply suffocating to death. Lots of O2 in the water and start getting the copper up. he may be past saving at this point, but it's worth a try for sure.
Areseebee
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Sure enough he seems to have just died. This is what the FW dip looks like after dip. I thought at first this was in the plastic or just bubbles but I washed it out and I don't see any of these dots. Also none of these dots are visible when I started the dip in the third picture above.
@Areseebee Those white specks look like flukes to me. This would also explain why you no longer saw spots on his body after you started the FW dip.
Areseebee
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Dang ok. It was pretty shocking, she seemed fine I tried to inspect it from a distance to avoid stressing it any more than necessary. It ate frozen mysis but I did notice it was pretty timid about eating it. The morning it looked fine still but as I was walking out the door I noticed it was tilting and breathing heavy. Hour later it was dead.
I agree, looks like it could be flukes. The white specks on the bottom don't appear to be flukes though. They are too small. They look like surface parasites consistent with Velvet that were knocked off from the freshwater dip. You don't see them on the fish though. I'm thinking these were in the gills. What I see on the fish is much larger like flukes, although I do see a few smaller spots too. Hard to tell from the pics.
I actually had this happen (same white specs) a long time ago and didn't understand what it was. At the time, I thought it was ICH because the fish was completely covered with tiny white spots. Now i'm pretty sure it was (Velvet). It was way too small for ICH and the fish was extremely covered. He died in less than 24 hours from severe respiratory distress. However, the next morning after I treated...There were hundreds of those same white dots I saw on the fish covering the bottom of the QT. The QT had a spotlessly clean "black" painted bottom. They were very visible. I'm assuming it was all the surface parasites that fell off with treatment.
The good thing now is that I have an awesome Microscope and there will be no more guessing games. Yes, I will be posting HD pics and live video very soon with my next batch of fish if any have parasites.
I actually had this happen (same white specs) a long time ago and didn't understand what it was. At the time, I thought it was ICH because the fish was completely covered with tiny white spots. Now i'm pretty sure it was (Velvet). It was way too small for ICH and the fish was extremely covered. He died in less than 24 hours from severe respiratory distress. However, the next morning after I treated...There were hundreds of those same white dots I saw on the fish covering the bottom of the QT. The QT had a spotlessly clean "black" painted bottom. They were very visible. I'm assuming it was all the surface parasites that fell off with treatment.
The good thing now is that I have an awesome Microscope and there will be no more guessing games. Yes, I will be posting HD pics and live video very soon with my next batch of fish if any have parasites.
Just take a slide and scrape the fish lightly and collect your sample. You scrape with the scales (not against) and you can do it multiple times "lightly" to get a really good sample. You can add a drop of water or air dry it. ICH is larger than velvet and appears more round and will have a horse-shoe shaped nucleus. No more than 40x magnification will be fine to identify.
