about these little white dots.......hmmmmm.....this has been my issue since monday and now its friday and my fish have been slowly dying.. I thought it was ich, and can be treated with ich. My fish are very lathargic and dont want to eat, well one out of three will eat......I have a plecko too and he seems great. (So do my snails) But i want them to live, Im at work right now, and since ive just been paid i was heading straight to my local aquarium store to purchase some ich.
My rutsy has been affected since monday and just yesterday (Thursday) one of my cobalts is getting bloated (which i may understand why) but his eyes have started to bog out of his head..... any suggestions, I was thinking (b/c im an idiot and dont have one) of taking a water sample to the fish store and maybe they can see if there is anything wrong.
I remember from a recent post we suggested that you get some test kits. Its impossible for anyone to help without knowing what the water parameters are in your tank. Are you still doing partial water changes? Without knowing what the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph levels are it's difficult to figure out what's going on in your aquarium.
Thanks for that advice, however my pocket book didnt suggest i attend the situation for a few days....
My Nitrates are at 0.5
My ammonia is at .25 I was told that they are roughly in the middle.
I have one fish who is suffering ick (and the others potentially)
and the other with popeye...
I have two apples snails that i have seperated for the first treatment of ick.....due to the copper levels inthe meds.
My tank was started roughly 3 months ago, so it could have a "fresh tank" flu...
I just treated them now. forthe first time. 8pm mountain time.
You may not be able to add the snails back (from what I know) the copper will seep into the sealant in the tank, making it nearly impossible to add inverts.
Tank is at 78 almost 80 for temperature....no they didnt give me a nitrite.
Ya i was doing the 25% change each eve, but the girl at the store said it would be ok once a week......but i would do it every day if it meant saving them....
The ick med is called Maracide............by a company named Virbac,,,,,,
and the pop eye med is called maracyn, but i wont be doing those treatments at the same time.
i started with ick, the store told me that ick is most contagious to my tank at this point.
eeeeeek, since ive moved my snails they have this brown slimy stuff attached to them. eeek
Twistersmom is right about doing a partial water change before adding more meds. Can you post a pic of your sick fish? That would be the best way for anyone to try and id what illness your fish have.
IF your fish has ich, you'll want to raise the temp in the tank but you should first research online if your fish can handle a higher temperature. Plus, some fish have a hard time w/ ich medication, and I don't know if your snails can handle it (I've never had snails and I don't know anything about them). Someone stated above that the medication may not be good for snails, research that before medicating. HOWEVER if its not ich and it's a fungus, making the water temperature warmer would be a very bad thing for a fungus. That's why its important to try and id the disease properly before medicating whenever possible.
Last thing, and this is just my personal advice. There are only 2 fish stores around me that I would ever take advice from and they are not the two "larger chain stores". Just because the person at the petstore said the city water is a good ph for cichlids, it would be a wise idea for you to test it yourself. I'm not saying that the PH is the cause of your fish being sick, but early on in a newer tank, water parameters can fluctuate overnight. Many fish stores offer free water testing, so if possible take advantage of that service.
The store is correct about not mixing the meds and fixing the ick problem first.
However, I do not agree with only doing water changes once a week, not with ammonia being in the tank. Since you do not have a test kit, I would keep doing the daily 25% water changes. This will also help remove some of the ick at the same time.
I am glad that you removed the snails. Not sure why they would be slimy. Where they exposed to any of the ick meds?
If you have any fish sensitive to ick meds, you want to use it 1/2 dose. If your fish can tolerate 82 deg, higher temps will help remove the ick faster. Turn the air up, higher temps and the use of meds will depreciate the available oxygen.
Wonder why you are still getting readings for ammonia after three months. What size tank is this? What filter are you using? What and how many fish in the tank? What is your normal tank and filter maintenance routine?
I am using a 20 gallon high with 4 now 3 cichlids, one sucker fish........5 guppies, and two snails who are removed......My filter is a......."Whisper" it was given to me, ut on the back it says its good for up to 40 gallons...
Well i got the fish in it two weeks ago, and i was cleaning the water 25% every second day.
I would recommend daily 25% water changes, until you can get the test kit and are able to monitor ammonia and nitrite levels.
Continue on with the ick treatment. You will want to keep using it for a few days after all visual signs of ick are gone.
The filter is where most of the good cycle bacteria grows, so be sure not to change out the filter media. If it is dirty, clean it in some of the tank water that was removed during the water change and place it back in the filter. Make the filter media last as long as possible, only change out when it is falling apart.
:-Dthe other three are turning out rather nicley. They seem happy:-D, we are just on the 2nd treatment today. Ill see what i can do here, and post a pic.
as soon as i seperated my snails they started to reproduce.......wowsers. :shock::shock::shock:!
Im wondering now, once i test the levels regularley, how do i lower ammonia and nitrates? if i need to.
Agree with prior advice, would just add that you need to find the source of the ammonia. As one of the previous replys mentioned, after 4 months there should be no ammonia unless there is a significant problem. Have you tested your tap water for ammonia? Some municipal water supplies have ammonia in the tap water (one member had something like 5 or 6 ammonia in the water out of the tap), and if that is the case, a water conditioner like Prime that detoxifies ammonia as well as removing chlorine, etc would solve the problem.
Ya i still am sure that i have great fish personel. They are great, u guys should look them up, just for the sake of it Pisces pet emporium. Fishies are doing GREAT......just trying to figure out this posting a pic stuff, i know how to add them to my profile, just figuring out the "URL" stuff.
ooooo yes......it does help thank you, i was just confused with the URL stuff.
Now that my son has gone to gramma's ive realized that i left my camera in his backpack from a weekend picnic......grrrrr...
Anyways the fish are doing exeptional at the moment:-D, day three of treatment tommorow.;-) My snails have gone crazy laying eggs. in their quarrantine tank. eeeek. :-?
Im just making sure to do my research on the meds, and when its ok to put them back in the community tank.
I wonder???? if i didnt see my cobalt with pop eyes anymore, after the ick treatment, should i still do the pop eye treatment? Probably, im not sure though.
If he looks well, I would not treat him. Keep us posted on how he looks after the ick treatment.
Any meds are stressful to fish and should only be used as a last resort.
Well last day was yesterday.....Looking fantastic so far;-).......i have already put my snails back in. I didnt have a good enough set up for them to live long. They are also doing Great! With baby snails cruisin everywhere........
Little bit of eye problems with mr. cobalt....but its not really popping out, it looks like a wound....so i may give a day or two anyways...and a 25% water change before i decide if i need to treat for pop eye..
Thank you all so much for you expertise...its wonderful to have "real" experience advice.:-D
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