Epistylis Gives Ick A bad Reputation 

I love how that angelfish just sits there and watches you! Such a beauty!

As far as I'm aware You're the only one that differentiating these two diseases in a clear and easy to understand manner 👌👌👌❤

That Angelfish is a stunner.

These little protozoan bastards have been with us forever. I'm shocked that so few people know about them. Very good circulation, a robust bio filter, and good aquarium maintenance habits will keep you from ever having to deal with them.

that Angel fish must feel loved

Great video, thank you! That's why I always caution against just jacking that temp as people love to do, you're just spinning that bacteria out of control lol. And that link is awesome, those guys really know what they're talking about.

Thanks for such an important and clear video of this confusing topic. It was very helpful.

Im going through this now!! This is the second time .. i thout i had ick. Thank you for clearing this up. Now i can treat for the right thing

Great video. Epistylis is a sessile ciliate. I find when I medicate for either ich or epistylis I always use salt as well because it will kill epistylis too.

I'm so glad I found your video. I moved two fish from one tank to another. Made sure to acclimate them properly. One was fine, and the other got 3 spots on the rear fin overnight. Clamped fins, and looked very sickly. I thought for sure it was ick.I was going to get rid of him before he could infect the other fish. Instead, I saw your video, waited, and the spots didn't spread on him or to others. I waited about 5 days, and he is spot free. He looks healthy and doing well. I'm so glad I didn't get rid of him or medicate the whole tank.

Glad I found this video since I was seeing a few of these raised white bumps on two of my flame tetras today--glad to hear that the things I got to start treating it (Ich-X and aquarium salt) will take care of this icky little critter too. I thought it was strange that they looked like they'd come down with Ich but it wasn't spreading and they weren't really having difficulty breathing, swimming, or eating at all.

Fantastic video and top shelf information! Thank you!

You provided a very good explanation on the diferences betwin Ich and Epistylis, well done. Note: while listening to you I search google for info and stumble across the same article you provided the link to :P Is a really good site wordy of being bookmark by fishkeepers.

Interesting, i had 3 of 6 harlequin, 4 out of 12 ember tetra go down with white spot, i used the temperature treatment, 86-89F. 4 days in still white spot, 6/7 days it reduced but one harlequin had a white spot on its eye, i was really confused why the heat treatment wasn't working for me, beginning of week 2 it came back worse i added half a cup of water infused for 2/3 days with a crushed garlic clove and maintained the temperature, the next last days of week 2 it disappeared, i did a 20% water change added more infused garlic water and maintained the temperature for 2 more days until i saw no more white spots reappear. It finally went away after 2 weeks with no loss of fish and no need for chemicals, whether the garlic helped i dont know, whether temperature helped i dont know i presumed it all worked together but watching this and recalling the white spot on the fishes eye i don't think i was treating Ick and would explain why it took 2 weeks to go away when temperature treatment kills of ick, maybe the treatment helped the fish through the process naturally i dont know either but i don't use chemicals for anything i would always go natural for infections salt and garlic, i use chlorine evaporation "seasoned water" for water changes, maybe if i added garlic sooner it wouldn't of taken so long who knows but i never get sick fish only once on this occasion after introducing new fish, thank god the white spot whichever it was just vanished and never came back, i always watch and enjoy all my tanks for many hours everyday so i noticed straight away and caught it early and treated with this method i still don't know if it was this treatment method or what but as i said i lost zero fish and it never came back.

Lost an entire tank of fish thinking it was ich, wish I watched this video.

So well explained!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!

A complex topic, yet explained easily for everyone to understand.🔬 Much appreciated. 👍

I never start bombing my tank with meds. If I see it quickly multiply onto established fish I might start treating. I currently have 2 lamb chop rasboras that are fairly knew and they have specks evenly distributed over their body. They’re eating good and they’re 10 others that don’t have specks and neither do my male guppies. If it spreads at all I’ll heat or medicate the tank but my gut feeling is it’s not ich

I had a case of what I 'google-diagnosed' as Ich. But I've been looking at the photos and I really think I misdiagnosed and because of that, the treatment I gave probably helped to kill my fish. They were Chili Rasbora and they were so small, it was hard to identify, but its still crappy. After watching this I'm now pretty sure it was Epystilis.

Very informative! Excellent video!

Ty!!! You just saved me so much time and my fish!

Things get out of hand quickly when the fish are stressed and or the water quality is bad

For real people always mix them up.. and I’ve never been successful with dealing with epistylis

I just tried kanaplex, cause the ich treatment is just not working, n now I think it's because it was epistylis not ich

Thank you so much! This was so helpful!!

Well i dunno if its ich too but i put my temperature around 87f for few days then turn slowly to 80.. ich hate warm water

Can you make a video about naturally treating anchor worms. Thank you.

Love that Angel fish very attentive to you, lol thank you for info

Thankyou for sharing

My goldfish are in a small outside pond. They winter over and are really happy & healthy. We have one large goldfish that looks like it has white barnacles on it. I noticed it last year, it was small and almost looked like a snake tried to swallow him but let him go. It's what we assumed happened as we had been fighting a losing battle with a Northern water snake that is determined to live in this pond. The snake has the option of a larger pond just yards away with small minnows but he's just not giving up on the goldfish pond. In the last 2 days I've noticed the white clumpy spots are larger and he has become listless, staying by himself, not eating, hiding under a lily. After watching your video, I'm certain it's epistylis and not Ick but how do I handle this in an outdoor pond, with other fish, frogs, water lilies? I hope you can help me. He's a big boy/girl(?) and a beauty. Our goldfish all started out as feeder fish, are 3 or 4 yrs old and are stunning. When I add cool water from the hose, they actually leap up into the sprinkling water, come when I go out to feed them etc. Happy fish all around so this will be a sad loss if we lose this big guy.

This was extremely informative, thank you, Dan! 🙂👍 I think i may be dealing with this in one of my tanks. I treat with ich-x, but after about a month, it comes back. (No new fish in that tank for over a year.) Question: if you treat the tank with erithromycin, how long should you treat for, and would you wait to treat with the erithromycin after the ich-x gets rid of the symptoms on the fish or can you do both at the same time?

great info! Thanks!

Very useful info, thanks.

It is a ciliate which is in the protozoa Phylum. They look interesting under a microscope.

Thank you I’ve lose 8 so far 8 left know I know I was treating the wrong thing I change the water ,got the temp down got the right medicine fish when from swimming on there side to schooling almost in minutes your awesome dude!

Thanks For Sharing ✍

im doing like 7 table spoon of salt in my tank for 14 dayfor my 10 gallon till the ick dyhydrate and then ill slowly water chaange the salt out over time

Thank you for pointing this out. I will definitely know to look out for this the next time my fishes get white dots 🙂

Fantastic video quality 👍

Its cool how you teach people this stuff. You should talk about ammonia burns.

Lost half my 85 gallon tank thinking it was ich wish I saw this earlier still in the middle of the battle gonna get ich x

Thank you so much for your video, you haved saved to all my 16 african cichilds

Thank you

Well, this is a real life horror story how depressing

I haven't taken a close look yet at the white spots I have on my Angelfish, but I will in a few minutes to determine which problem I have. My question is this, will Ich-x harm my Cory Catfish? I have read many articles. Some say it will not, then others say it can. I really want to know for sure before I treat my tank. Thank you all.

Wow had no idea 😮

my betta has a white patch around her eye and it spred to the other eye. it is only around the eyes.do you know anything about this.it kinda just came really fast.

New subscriber here, very interesting this as I've never heard of epistylist thanks for sharing

Awesome video. Very informative.

Hey everybody!

Sounds like just use ich x for either

Thanks for the info! I picked up a goldfish from Petsmart this week that I thought had ick. Treated with meds and warm water for 2 days and it got worse. Watched this video and immediately took out the heater from the tank. I’ll go to the store tomorrow and get salt and malachite green. Unrelated: I’ve never seen an angelfish be so still in the water. She/he is beautiful!

A couple of weeks ago I found a what looked like a big white head pimple on the top of my butterfly koi fin just one spot I had no idea what it was so I decided not to jump into treating something without knowing more so all I did was a 80% water change and add about a cup of salt to the tank and now I can still see where it was but it has shrunk to almost gone

So if I have one goldfish that had a few white sand looking spots on its body, that did not spread to any other fish, it’s probably Epistylis? It’s been a week or more, so far no other fish are sick, I did separate the sick goldfish after a few days but it was definitely in the tank with the other fish for a while. The fish itself is a Ranchu that’s never been very active, but doesn’t seem any different then normal. Still eats.

So to be safe is it best just to treat with ich x so you will be treating one or the other either way?

Thanks!

Pretty sure you just helped me

Very helpful!!!

Thanks

what is the name of the giant green plant in the center behind you?

Epistylis and ich are both caused by ciliates, little creatures that live in water; there are thousands of species. As others have suggsted a clean tank with good media, and adequate circulation are important. Also, salt kills them, but remember the salt you put in your tank does not go away without water changes to dilute it. These kind of maladies usually infect fish through the gills, because that is their most sensitive spot, similar to human nostrils. A poorly maintained tank will often have high nitrate levels, and that harms the fish's respiratory system, and when weakened they are much more susceptible to the various kinds of cilia.

Any opinion on raising the temperature of the tank to kill ick?

Epistylis I think is a Bacterial Parasite because it does use a host

Soooo if I'm not sure should I use Ich X since it works on both?

Epistylus… copper sulphate

Marble veil tail angel fish ❤😊

😭 I have my temp. raised to 84°f

Will salt harm my plants?

Very helpful dan . I luckily have only faced ick a couple of times. In 45 years of keeping fish . I seem to be suffering from Aquarium fatigue at the moment where I just can not be bothered, it’s almost like fish keeping depression where the motivation just goes. I do think when you are in the hobby years you go through ups and down . But you clearly can’t just get rid of lots of established tanks . I’m hoping my enthusiasm will return watching some of your vids. 👍 Do you ever get fed up with it or stay enthusiastic?

Necesito ayuda. En mi pais no se consigue verde de malaquita y tengo una camada de Ancistrus con Epistylis. Entiendo que los Ancistrus y plecos no toleran la sal ... Tengo la posibilidad de agregar varios antibióticos. Me podrías decir si alguno de estos me servirá. Metronidazol ERITROMICINA Praziquantel Ciprofloxacina. Por favor espero tu respuesta.

I was wondering if you could maybe give some help on what I might be dealing with, I think 2 of my fish died in this tank from bad amonia burns, luckily I noticed and didna good water change and vacuumed the gravel to clear out the amonia but I noticed 2 of the other fish have these white dots only on the outside of their gills and nothing else but this other fish has none but 2 spots about the same area only both sides are missing scales and are this reddish color. I'm treating for ich right now but the white dots just seem too big but they arent sticking out like the other thing so it's weird, I'm not sure if it is ich and it's really confusing me. The fish with no white dots i was talking about with the missing scales is also starting to kind of slow down and sit at the bottom of the tank but then would go up and almost gasp for air at the top (the others arent doing it). But smothering this is too, before the 2 fish died they had swim bladder and one had this bulge that grew on the last day it was alive

i wonder if epistylis is the same as what is know as “stress ick”

I think I have Epistylis I they have small white spots on their tails please let me know what is going on

When you say heavy salt bath how much salt are ya talking about mate

What is this medicated fish food?

#HeyEverybody

We should do a live stream video chat

USE ROCKSALT ...PERIOD

I see epistylis as "pre-columnaris" they happen in almost the same water conditions, I have heard people say it can be an early sign of columnaris I lost a whole colony of black bar endlers due to secondary infections

Salt actually will help cure epistylis says so in the Fish Disease Diagnosis & Treatment book. Page 155-156. Also says formalin is good for if it is resisting treatment.

Sir while you're talking my fish is dying. PLEASE just get to what I need to do

There's a lot of misinformation in this video.

Great info, but why are you yelling?

Oh my God people love making these videos. It’s like words, words, words, but like if Jesus was gonna do it in three words or less it be like salt folks does body good too many words fucked up but then again, I’m the wrong carpenter.

Get to the point