Gold Body Kisses
My fish might have a disese called “Ick” or something, does this stuff mean she is sick?
One of my fish, a pink kissing gurami, has been getting bit on by other fish. Her name is Cecilia. She has sugar-like crystals on her fins and body. My Mom says this is probably “ick”, a disease that fishes get easy. I know I can get medicine for the water, we will do that tommorrow. The fish that we have in our tank are a green spotted puffer, catfish, a little orange fish (not gold fish), and a female guppy. I know, I know. Horrible combination. I’ve tried to convince my Mom to seperate them, but she won’t. We did have a male beta but he got his fin ripped by another fish. We put him in a bowl alone, but soon he died. 
What should I do? Does Cecilia have Ick? Should I just get the medicine and forget about it?
Yes….
this is an advanced form of Ick… take your infected fish out of the tank and put him in another bowl… Hopefully the tank and other fish are not as infected yet. However ask the pet store not only for the meds for the sick fish, but also something to treat your water after you clean it.
In most cases taking all the fish out of a tank is not recommended when cleaning, but now you need to, in order to remove all signs of this infectious/spreading disease. It will be very stressfull on your all of your fish to be removed from their living space, and you might loose the little guys like the guppy, and whatever the little orange fish is.. However they are not expensive to replace!
Step 1: Remove infected fish NOW!!!
Step 2: Get anti-ick meds for sick fish, treat it as recommended.
Step 3: Remove all other fish from your tank, and clean tank throughly. DO NOT USE SOAP. You CAN however use 2 parts water with 1 part vinegar, this helps break the fungus in the tank. Rinse properly, Fish are very fragile creatures.
Step 3 a: When cleaning the gravol, you can use a sieve (the thing you use to drain water from pasta!) Run your gravel under the water, flipping or swilling it around to make sure all the gunk is gone! If your plants are plastic, soak them for a few mins in the water and vinegar solution. (if they are live plants, throw them out and buy new ones. Ick can grow on live plants)
Step 4: Refill tank, the pet store might suggest to treat the fish left in the tank as well, anti-ick meds will not hurt the other fish cause most likely the other fish have some degree of ick too.
Step 5: Hope for the best… and Good Luck, I hope this helps!
P.S – the reason your beta had his fins eaten off, is cause puffer fish are extremly aggresive fish. And in no way should be mixed with other fish. However they can be mixed with other aggresive fish. (I once tried to mix puffers with a black ghost knife) turns out the puffers were not aggresive enough!
You need to find a good pet store, one with people who know what they are talking about. I know sometimes hard to find. Stay way from walmarts. They do not hire fish knowlegdeable people!
Your tank should be fine with the catfish, the orange fish (a name would help!) and the guppy if she survives. However keep in mind that your tank should be at least 10 gallons. You need a liter of water for every fish. (10 gallons = 3.8 liters) I wouldnt buy any more personally. Too many fish also leads to aggresive behaviour. (not enough room for all of them!)
if you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me:
chyanne_3@yahoo.ca
Best of LUCK!!!
sting-fields of gold