Is this Ick or oodinium(velvet)?

[Loco]

Hey guys,hopefully you can help me out with a problem. I realized that my 20g aquarium has what looks to be a common(i hate ich) case of ich(whitespot). Everything in the tank has it but i looked at my 3inch plecos to find that they dont have white spots rather they have a bunch of orangeish/brownish spots! This really freaks me out because last time velvet presented itselfs in one of my tanks(i lost 4 bn's) my plecos caught the same colored spots. Its so weird. I can try to get pics tonight but until that,has this happened to anyone else?

[MatsP]

A photo would help a whole lot.

--
Mats

[Farid]

hi there.
spots velvet what ever is it it's not good

rise the temperature to 33°C (calculate in °F ) and add about 2-3 airstones to the tank. after 3 day change water ...as much as possible.
add already preheated water and keep going for 3 days...nother waterchange of 100%

then in the next two days let the temperature cool down to about 28°C ...another 100% waterchange with 28°C ...take tha air out and keep watching the animals in the next few days...

it should be gone!

best is to add a strong powerhead pump incl. a diffusor to get a good circulation and enough oxygene...even with the pump add 2 airstones...!

farid

[apistomaster]

Velvet looks like fine gold dust sprinkled all over the fishes body and fins and each speck is about the size of a grain of sugar. If you see fewer larger spots then it is almost anything other than Ich or Velvet. The same medications are used to treat these other diseases as are recommended for Ich and Velvet but it will typically take up to a month to treat instead of days for Ich or 10 days for Velvet.
A cure which saves the fish is not assured with these other parasites. Plecos are remarkably resistant to common Ich and Velvet.

[Loco]

Thanks for the help guys. Im not planning to raise the temp. though,just let it process on its own time(although it may take longer).Im going to get a pic up here because i dont want to generalize all the advise on something you guys cant see lol. To be honest the specs are somewhat larger than velvet spots but this is how it looked like last time i caught velvet....the other fish were sprinkled down with a velvety powder and the plecos just had these larger orangeish spots on them. Anywho,ill get a pic up asap. Thanks guys

[apistomaster]

It is possible to be dealing with more than one disease.
I don't remember what your temperature is but 84*F is a good temperature for treating most diseases. So many popular species are from warm water and should be kept at 84-86*F so if they are being kept at 80*F or less that can help cause a disease to do better as the fish are not able to fight them well at suboptimal temperatures.

[Farid]

if this would be oodinuim your fish would be in real trouble by now...?

farid

[apistomaster]

if this would be oodinuim your fish would be in real trouble by now...?

farid

Agreed! These other diseases are slower acting just as they take longer to cure.
At least these less well defined skin parasitic diseases allow you more time to work on their elimination although the same medications work but they just take longer to effect a cure.

[Farid]

...as catfishes are quite sensitive i prefer the use of the temperature adjustment as specially with catfishes works very good compare to any other fish.

why use chemicals if it is possible to just hang in two airstones a powerhead and a bit of energy ;)

farid

[apistomaster]

...as catfishes are quite sensitive i prefer the use of the temperature adjustment as specially with catfishes works very good compare to any other fish.

why use chemicals if it is possible to just hang in two airstones a powerhead and a bit of energy ;)

farid

Farid,

I get the feeling you are not used to receiving fish in as bad a condition as many dealers in this country sell or you could not make that statement. Plenty of sellers do not think twice about selling fish already on deaths door.