CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

I have a 2 year old 8" red devil who has recently become ill.

he had some small salt like white bits on him so i have been treating him for ick for about 4 days now.

he used to be the king of the tank and extremely active. now he just hovers at the top of the tank in odd positions.

if i turn on the tank light, he will try and swim for a bit but looks very distorted and crashes into the rocks and tank walls.

he is also not eating.

does this sound like ick? does treatment usually last more than 4 or 5 days? the directions on the medicine were not very helpful.

the tank water is clean and the ph/nitrates/amonia levels are ok.

pictures can be viewed here - http://razorbladeradio.com/rd/

the pictures were taken during feeding time, so thats what the particles are floating in the water.

any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

thanks you!

Ich treatments can take a couple weeks, due to the life cycle of Ich.
What is the name of the med?
Also when you stated the ammo is ok, did you mean it reads 0ppm?
Same question for nitrite?
The pics really didn't help me out, but maybe someone might notice something I didn't.
What size is the tank?
Some Ich meds can disrupt the bio filter.

thanks for the quick response fuzzy

the medicine is "Kordon Rid-Ich"

the nitrate level is 0 and the amonia is between 0 and .25 (closer to zero)

it is a 90 gallon tank

all of the other cichlids in the tank seem to be ok.

In a two year old tank, ammonia should read 0ppm, and nitates, should have a nominal eading between 10ppm to 50ppm.
Nitrites or NO2 should read 0ppm. Is it possible that your kits may be out of date?
As for the tank, 90 gallons is fine for a single RD, and if you have tankmates, can you list them as well, its possible the tank may have to high a bio load.
You mentioned the direction/instructions for the Ich meds were not clear, so here is a link to some, hopefully they will clear up any problems with proper treatment.http://www.novalek.com/kpd38.htm
Just to clarify as well, Ich looks like the fish has been sprinkled with salt. In the other pics I really couldn't tell if your fish had Ich or not.

the tankmates are a 9" jack dempsey, 6" jack dempsey, and four 2" convicts.

From what I can make out in your picture, it looks like a parasite of some sort. That is if those white dots on his side are actually there and it's not just food. Ick is much smaller than the spots that are on your fish. Has there been much fighting lately? The marks also look like bite marks. The picture makes it tough to figure out what exactly we are looking at.

Are you treating with any other meds? Like Melafix.

no, just the rid-ich.

there is a white particle over his eye, but the rest of the white spots are not 3 dimentional.

i took a few more pictures if they help.

http://razorbladeradio.com/rd2/

there has been a little fitting now that he has been sick.

previously none of the other fish would mess with him.

thanks for the help guys.

Again from those pics, I can't see any Ich. A white patch on his eye indicates to me, poor water quality, in most case's. Your tank is pretty much at the limit of its bioload, with all the fish you have.
Are the convicts new to the tank?
You might want to add on another fHOB filter to try and boost you nitrifying bacterail colonies.
IS your ammonia level still above 0ppm?

YOU need to do a 30% water change NOW, (27 to 30 gal of fresh treated water) to get the meds out ASAP. That is not ICH.. Some cichlids do not do well with ICH meds, RD are one of them... ALSO, run FRESH charcoal in the filters to help get the ICH meds out of the tank. ONCE you do the water change, the RD should get better..IN 3 days do another 20% water change. ( OR 20 gal fresh treated water). Clean the filters after the first water change..DO not add in any kind of med for now..

ANT time you see your fish act like this, do a 30% water change right way.. Some meds affect fish in different ways..Getting him in fresh water right way may save him..
I do agreee with Fuzzy, bad water conditions lead to the eye problems. On the coloring problem, feeding the wrong foods that don't contain betta caratines or high protein foods for the orange colors wil do this.

Seems you need to do better tank maintance.. Bigger water changes are in need for the fish you have..Make sure the filters are cleaned at the same time or you just waste you time changing the water as a dirty filter just adds it back into the tank.