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 @AquariumCoop 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.)

📚 RESOURCES

🦐 EXTRAS

ATTRIBUTION

#shorts #ich #sickfish

[erusdearest]

I love when pets start to worry you and it turns out to be for some ridiculous reason.

"He kept trying to fight himself."

[IMaqua]

Always get it because most of my fish is transported to me (cant buy any local), mostly it goes away in few days with medicine. And they say aquariums and fish keeping is relaxing haha. Few more years and its time to get a job as a fish doctor.

[aidanminnick]

I LOVE when creators document the whole process. So interesting!!

[XIxCaptainKRulLT]

My white Sailfin Molly occasionally chases his reflection in the back/left corner. I can move my Java Fern back there, but that would possibly lead to him chasing his reflection on the front/right corner of the tank, so I'll probably go out and buy a couple plants and cover the two back corners to keep him from chasing his reflection. He doesn't have any spots or signs of stress as far as I can tell, but it probably safer to fix the issue before symptoms arise.

Good tip/guide video for this issue. Simple and short, yet it gives you the exact details needed to resolve it.

Update: It's been a little over a month since I've had him and, since those plants have been added, he's hasn't been chasing his reflection anymore and swims around the tank with the ladies, pecking at plants, watching the snails move about, and just living life.

[spahzinyt]

I love how people always do all this work for their fish, when I first got my cherry barbs I saw one had a single white dot near it’s gills, put it in a cup and made a tornado in the water with the thermometer that came with the tank and it came off, put him back in the tank and all my barbs are still alive!

[charleshughes]

Honestly "remove the source of stress and have patience" is good advice!

[ChromeCobra]

Im happy with the Transformer names, especially 2 of my favorites in Soundwave and Unicron.

[mikaelafox]

Never thought I’d say this, but Unicron is adorable. 😄

[Jupaodebatata]

I've never heard of stress ich, thank you so much for sharing this kind of thing

[hyder-]

I can tell you really love your fish. That's awesome. I love it when people truely care for the animals.

[dayllee]

This actually helped me so much. One or two of my neon tetras have had Ich for almost 3 months, and it didn't seem to affect him, neither was contagious to other fish. Thanks for the info!

[Mdmelastrange]

I love the fact you named your fish Unicron!

[BrokenDharmaForge]

I have two of these boys and they actually get along pretty well. They both swim together and with the blue flame gourami. When they want some peace one goes into his castle and the other to his plant.

[parisgueye]

All I can say is thank you for sharing this video! You have answered so many of my questions 🥰

[poisonpuffadder]

"Flo? Has anybody seen Flo?
^W° Glad Unicorn got spotless in the end and is chilling.💖

[mondraymondo]

Ever thought how cute and intelligent gourami is.. they're like the cichlids of Asia! With added bonus of being able to breathe air

[melaniehooper]

I'm very glad to have seen this, I believe this is what is going on with my opal, she's a goof and gets horrified everytime anything anywhere happens, and meds haven't cleared up here 2 little spots

[dylanmonstrum]

It honestly amazes me that a fish gets stress. Let alone one in such a beautiful environment.

[vickygruber]

I sympathise with your fish. Literally got a stress ick myself (eczema) 😫

[HallowPlaysRoblox]

I would like to see a powder blue dwarf gourami, species spotlight Irene!! Love your videos