Case of the Disappearing White Spots
or
A Trip Down De Nile
or
A Trip Down De Nile
Time for another sticky. Sorry guys, but I'm really tired reading the same series of posts:
"My fish have spots, is it Marine Ich?"
then a day or two later:
"Guess it wasn't Marine Ich, the spots are gone."
Good grief! - :evileye:
In between those two posts the poster was advised to read about Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) and given good references and links to learning more about the parasite. One such link is this one: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23132-marine-ich-myths-facts.html or are directed to a link on how to cure fish of Marine Ich: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/52236-curing-fish-marine-ich.html which BTW provides info on how to determine if it IS Marine Ich, or not.
But obvious from the later post, the info on Marine Ich wasn't read. Because if the poster had read about this parasite the poster would know that it is normal for the spots to go away/disappear after first seen.
Repeating once again:
Marine Ich has multiple life stages. This means they go through different stages in their life. Like a butterfly egg turns into a caterpillar then into a cocoon, then into a butterfly, these parasites go through stages.
EXCEPT the one thing to know about the Marine Ich parasite is that only ONE of those stages can be seen by the unaided human eye. That stage is only visible as a white dot the size of a grain of sugar or salt IF it appears on the body of the fish. You can't and won't see spots on the gills.
So when the spots 'disappear' it means the parasite has moved on to a different stage in its life cycle. IT HAS NOT GONE AWAY. The fish are still infected -- by the parasite in a stage you can't yet see.
I really don't know how to make this any clearer. The worst denial evolves when the spots go away over night. The parasite doesn't like lights. So they do tend to drop off the fish from this stage and move on to their next stage at night. In fact, as amazing as it may seem, all the parasites in the white spot stage can show up only at night and then drop off the fish moving on to their next stage while it is still night -- never being seen during the day! The hobbyists further believes all is well -- no spots are seen during the day. Some of these hobbyists will now fight for their right to believe all is well against those who try to inform otherwise.
These hobbyists will ignore other signs, like the fish seems irritated/'jumpy,' or flashing/scratching now and then, or visiting a cleaner shrimp more frequently, or flicking their fins, or dashing, or breathing faster, etc.
You see white spots on your fish. The are definitely white and clearly distinct (not fuzzy nor ill defined, but sharp spots, raised up off the skin of the fish (even though that are technically under the mucous coating and at/near the skin surface)). Search the Internet for photos of fish with these spots. Does the spots on your fish look like this?
Start immediately to treat the fish. Even if the spots disappear, proceed to treatment for Marine Ich. If it isn't Marine Ich, no harm done. Waiting though DOES cause harm.
If the spots disappear STILL treat for Marine Ich. The odds are just too great that multiple white spots on your fish is Marine Ich to foolishly go into denial that the fish are healthy. They aren't.
Hopefully at least the poster has read this post, when directed to read it. :smack:
:hallo:
