Ichthyophthyroidism (ichthyk, semolina) is one of the most common diseases in aquarium fish. The causative agent is the ciliate Jchthyophthirius multifilus. If not properly treated, the disease will kill the fish.
Before proceeding with the treatment of fish, of course, you should make sure that they have picked up exactly ichthyophthyroidism. Treatment of other similar diseases in the manner described below will, of course, be ineffective.
White specks on the scales and tails of aquarium inhabitants can appear for a variety of reasons. With ichthyophthyriosis, there are usually a lot of such marks on the body of fish. Each such speck becomes brighter and more pronounced over time. Also, the fish begin to rise to the upper layers of the water and capture air. This is explained by the fact that with such a disease, their gills are also damaged.
If the fish are still ill with ichthyk, the first thing to do is to go to the pet store and purchase a heater. You don't have to buy a too expensive model. In this case, the usual "Aquael" or even the even cheaper "Barbus" will do just fine.
In addition to the heater, you will also need to purchase the medicine "Kastopur" or "ContraIc" at the pet store. In small towns it sometimes happens that there are simply no such drugs on sale. If you can't buy "ContraIk" or "Kastopur", you need to ask the seller for the medicine "Malachite Green". This simple remedy costs only about 60 rubles for a 50 mg bottle (10 mg of active substance), designed for 100 liters of aquarium water.
The substance malachite green is the main component of most other medicines designed to treat diseases such as ichthyophthyroidism in fish. Branded preparations most often differ from the Malachite Green remedy only in the presence of additional wound-healing components and substances that support the general condition of the fish organism.
Before you start treating fish, you should make sure that they all tolerate malachite greens well. This substance does not have any particular negative effect on most varieties of fish bred by hobbyists. It does not harm the plants and does not disturb the biobalance in the aquarium. But, unfortunately, some of the rarer fish do not tolerate it. This applies, for example, to catfish or fish devoid of scales. Malachite greens and fry of most types of aquarium fish do not tolerate too well.
If there are animals in the jar that do not tolerate this substance, the dose of the medicine should be reduced. Also funds "Malachite Green" or containing the same active ingredient "Kostpur" or "KostaIk" can be replaced with something more gentle. For example, sometimes aquarium fish are treated with the human medicine Delagil.
Actually, for treatment, the first thing in the aquarium with the help of the purchased heater should be to raise the water temperature to 30-33 C. Beforehand, of course, you need to make sure that all fish living in the aquarium can tolerate such conditions.
At elevated water temperatures, the parasites that attack the aquarium inhabitants cannot live and die within 24 hours. The only exceptions are some varieties of tropical ciliates. Such parasites at elevated temperatures can even begin to develop and multiply even faster. However, fortunately, such ciliates are quite rare in amateur aquariums.
In any case, not every aquarist has a microscope for determining the specific type of parasite that caused ichthyophthyroidism. Therefore, you will most likely have to act in this situation at your own peril and risk.
After the temperature of the water in the aquarium rises to the desired level, the selected medicine should be added to the water. Malachite green, like other preparations based on it, decomposes very quickly in water. Therefore, in the future, the agent will have to be introduced into the aquarium several times.
The frequency of supplementation of this medication is usually once every two days. In this case, it is desirable to increase the dose gradually. Ichthyophthyroidism is treated in an aquarium with malachite green most often within 2 weeks. In any case, the drug should be applied until the semolina completely disappears from the fish. After the specks disappear, the malachite greens need to be added to the water a couple more times. This is required in order to kill the new parasites hatched from the cysts.
