# White sparkles?



## Kamee (Aug 29, 2003)

Seems as though my p's ( red bellies ) have small what looks like white sparkles, just on the top section of their backs. If I had to count, maybe like 20 of them per fish. Is this normal, or is this a symptom of ICK? Doenst look like disease, but I'm a noob, so I could be wrong.


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## Kain (Mar 13, 2003)

sounds like ich. Take pix so we can try and identify it.


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## tecknik (Jul 18, 2003)

Yuck.. it does sound like ick







You can either buy ich medicine and follow the instructions on the bottle or use the salt method


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## InSinUAsian (Jan 3, 2003)




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## etalon9100 (Jul 4, 2003)

Do the sparkles look like they're more gold? All of mine have gold sparkles on the top of their backs, by their torso fin.


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## bigb1 (Jul 8, 2003)

pics??


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

If it's ick (post a picture here, or do a websearch for photo's of fish with ick), you should start treatment asap. It's easily curable, and not very dangerous (if not neglected), but it spreads very rapidly.

Raise the water temperature a couple of degrees (I'd say to about 85-87F - depending on your current water temperature, do it in small steps: never raise the temperature more than 2 or 3 degrees at a time), and add about 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of tank water. This should be enough to cure the fish.

You could also get ick-medicines if you want to, but if you do, make sure they are suitable for medicine-sensitive fish, like piranha's!

Good luck :smile:


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

I've never known ick to be "sparkly"... Are you sure it's not just the normal scales of the fish instead of parasites?


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## KingJeff (Jul 22, 2003)

mine has sparkles on the upper back as well. one of my p's had ick before and ick looks diff the the sparkes. The sparkles on my fish are kinda shiny while ick looks like grains of salt that kinda stick out from the fish right?


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## Kamee (Aug 29, 2003)

> The sparkles on my fish are kinda shiny


Exactly.


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## hastatus (Jan 16, 2003)

> Judazzz Posted on Sep 11 2003, 02:25 PM
> If it's ick (post a picture here, or do a websearch for photo's of fish with ick), you should start treatment asap. It's easily curable, and not very dangerous (if not neglected), but it spreads very rapidly.
> 
> Raise the water temperature a couple of degrees (I'd say to about 85-87F - depending on your current water temperature, do it in small steps: never raise the temperature more than 2 or 3 degrees at a time), and add about 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of tank water. This should be enough to cure the fish.
> ...


HOLD IT! Do not start putting anything into your tank until you know what it is. IF it is ick, then from a frontal profile, the ick will look like white pimples sticking out. If it simply reflective scales, do nothing but enjoy fish.


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