Help with fighting the toughest stain of ick I've seen

[ReneeB]

These spots are embedded in the tail. They don't scrape off

The 3 fish are in a 55g now with the salt at 3ppt. I'm trying to find someone local to look at them.

I have 3 other koi in a seperate area. One of them, a 4-5 inch gin doisu yamabuki had the problem on the tail also. After it cleared up, I moved it into a tank for 3 weeks, and then put it into the indoor pond with the others. It has been clear ever since. If I could just get these three to that point.

The spots really don't look like the pictures of virus, but I'm trying to find someone around here that has better eyes than me.

The dealer reported no other problems with his tanks or with his other clients. He did have a tank that was separate from the one my fish where in that developed ick, but he cleared it up with heat and salt within a week.

[ReneeB]

FOUND A GOOD FISH GUY!!!!

Internal parasites. It is definitely not ich! It is something internal, it is coming out in the fins cuz that is easier than the scales. It is a long lived one. I got PrazioPro and some medicated food. I'm going to bring the salt to 1ppt. I hope this round works.

Now that I think about it, I did everything I could for external and nothing worked, this is a slow life cycled internal one that is not causing to much harm to the fish. The grills are great the they are hungry. I'm so happy to have a better idea of what I'm up against.

Thanks soooooo much for all your help. If you guys didn't keep me searching for something other than ich I would have never figured this out.

Thanks again!!! I'll keep you posted on how treatment goes

[Auntiesue]

Internal? Hmmmmm!!! Did this person actually come out to see the fish? What makes him think it's internal? I've never heard of anything internal that "comes out in the fins". I would ask a whole lot of questions if I were you.

[bekko]

I have never heard of that either.

To check for Lymphocystis you have to scrape or cut off a piece of the nodule tissue. It is not something that sits on the fish, it is part of the fish.

-s

[ReneeB]

I took the fish up to him. He said he had seen it before. He has been in business for salt and fresh water for over 30 years.

The bumps do pop like cysts off of the tail. He said was not carp pox or lymph. The bumps when they form really don't look anything like it. He said he was not ich. They don't have the bumps all the time. When a bump shows up, it grows over night, pops the next day, and the area heals within a day. The white spots are like someone injected a small grain of white rice between in the tail skins, it don't sit on top, it is in the tail, to the touch they are hard lil bumps.

Does it make since thou? All I know is they have pure white spots for sure, bumps now and then that disappear quickly. The gills look great. I could not find anything on the slide that looked like ich after several attempts. He just does fish and reptiles, and has beautiful salt water tanks, his eyes are much better than mine, but I could see it really didn't look or behave like pox or lymph. And come to find out it is not ick, internal is all I have left. The pop behaves like a parasite.

I'v done everything external, the last thing wound be internal??? he said it was harder for the parasite to spread by coming out throu the skin, so it comes out threw the tail. The pop is the life cycle part where it releases.

It kind of explains why the life guard treatment worked the best out of everything I tried. It covers parasites, fungus, and ick. I'v been taken in so many directions. Prazipro will cover everything anyway, and the medicated food can't hurt. I'll see how there spots respond to the new treatment.

If it is for sure not ick, not carp pox, not lymp., then what could it be??? I'm out of answers and willing to try anything. But I think I can rule out those three things. It is not bacterial, not fungal, because that would progressively get worse, and it don't look bacterial or fungal.

I was reading on internal parasites, and some could form cyst anywhere including the tail.

[ReneeB]

One of the fish appears to be responding to treatment! The white spots inside the tail are starting to 'blur' and go way. They use to be very defined white 'grains'. Now they have turned into blurred areas in side the tail, and some spots are starting to clear. Today is day 4 of Prazipro and medicated food.

I have another tank with another 3 koi, one has started flashing, fun fun I'm worried I cross contaminated the tanks, I've started treating that one as well. Hopefully I caught it before it gest to bad.