How I Treat “Stress Ich” on My Fish

Despite quarantining my new powder blue dwarf gourami Unicron for 8 weeks, I noticed he had white spots soon after moving to the 20-gallon community tank. I thought it was ich, or white spot disease, and tried treating it with Ich-X medication followed by high concentrations of salt. However, the spots stayed exactly the same; they neither decreased nor increased in number or size.

I do not believe Unicron had “regular ich” caused by stress because it did not act like any case of ich I’ve ever encountered before. Regular ich tends to attack the thinnest membranes on the fish first, the number of spots multiplies quickly, and other fish often catch it as well. Instead, I believe it may have been “stress ich,” which is like stress acne for fish and is not contagious. Once I found the source of Unicron’s stress, I took care of it and the spots slowly disappeared one by one over the course of 2 months.

(Thank you to Cory from @Aquarium Co-Op for his useful analogy of comparing ich to chicken pox and stress ich to stress acne!)

???? MATERIALS I USED
(I work for Aquarium Co-Op but do not receive commissions from their links.)
▶ Ich-X medication (to treat regular ich): https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/aquarium-solutions-ich-x

???? RESOURCES
▶ How to treat ich or white spot disease: https://youtu.be/TpOC-yEAfVM
▶ How to treat stress ich: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/how-to-treat-stress-ich

???? EXTRAS
▶ Instagram: https://instagram.com/girltalksfish
▶ Merch store: https://girltalksfish.creator-spring.com

ATTRIBUTION
Music from Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/2earpi/ (if you use my referral link, I get 1 month free ????)

#shorts #ich #sickfish