Could my fish have ich or an ich-like disease?

jandpgault

Ok. I used to have a 10 gallon tank for quite a while and everything was fine. I have since upgraded to a 55 gallon tank and now I can't seem to keep my fish alive. I let the tank cycle completely before adding any fish and once I did add fish, for the first week everything was fine. So, after 1 week of healthy fish, I decided to add a few more and they were fine. Then about a week later I added a few more. Am I adding fish too soon? I was told I only had to wait 3 or 4 days between adding fish, but I opted to wait a week in between adding fish.

I do water tests weekly for nitrate, nitrite, hardness, alkalinity, and PH. All of my levels are dead on in the safe zone except for nitrate which always seems to border between safe and unsafe. (I have always struggled with nitrate even when I had my 10 gallon tank) But from what I have been told, higher levels of nitrate are relatively harmless and can lead to excess algae growth (which I don't have), so I'm thinking that is not the problem.

I have been told many conflicting things about my new 55 gallon tank. One pet store told me to do weekly water changes, but another told me that was too often and to do a water change once every two weeks. Which one should I do? Also, as with my 10 gallon tank, I plan on doing a monthly gravel bed cleaning and replacing the filters - is this ok for my 55 gallon tank?

I have some mollies in my tank and the pet store told me that I needed to add salt. So, I was told to add 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. Of course when I do my water changes, I add less salt (ex.) if I do a 10 gallon water change, then I only add 2 tablespoons of salt to the new water). Am I adding too much salt or too little and could this be harming the fish?

My fish do not appear to be stressed. They are active and eating well. They are all peaceful community fish and I have never seen any fish nipping or picking on other ones. They all look great. They can be swimming around and looking all lively one day, then the next day I'll wake up to find one dead.

So far, I have lost 1 Guppy, 1 red wag Platy, and just this morning, my only gourami. (It seems like I am losing one fish every other day now). And, my dalmation molly isn't looking so swell today. Could another fish in my tank be doing this? I have a mix of mollies, neon tetras, glass fish, Platy's, and 2 dwarf frogs (NOT the clawfoot bulgy eyed ones, but the ones that are supposed to be safe and stay small).

Please help! If you have any information that you think might help me save the rest of my fish - then I am all ears. I don't want to lose anymore. Thank you :)

jandpgault

1. 55 gallon aquarium
2. Freshwater
3. Has been set up for about 6 months (used to have aggressive fish, but recently switched to community fish within last 2 months)
4. I have 5 blue neon tetras, 4 black neon tetras, 1 black molly, 1 white lyretail molly, 1 yellow molly, 1 sunburst Platy, 1 mickey mouse Platy, 1 red wag Platy, 2 glass fish, 3 guppies, 2 african dwarf frogs, 1 worm-like loach (don't remember specific name), and of course my dalmation lyretail molly.
5. no live plants
6. 30/60 aquatech power filter
7. No CO2 unit
8. May receive some indirect sunlight (there is a window on the opposite wall, but not much sunlight reaches the tank)
9. Performed a 20% water change this morning (2-22-07)
10. I feed a small amount of flakes and pellets every morning and every evening and a bloodworm cube every other day and a tubifex worm cube about once or twice a week.
11. I use flouescent lighting about 6-8 hours a day
12. Before doing my water change, all levels of nitrite, hardness, alkalinity, and PH were in safe range and nitrate level was borderline safe/unsafe. After water change, all levels were in safe zone.

:( My Dalmation molly isn't looking so good. I have recently lost 3 other fish within the last week (a red wag play, a gourami, and a Guppy) all without warning. I can tell that my dalmation molly isn't feeling well though as was not the case with the others. She is staying close to the surface, not moving around much, and sort of wobbles when she does swim. She did eat a tiny bit this morning, but not much at all. We bought her from the local petstore on 2-17, so we haven't had her for too long. Any advice as to the molly's health or my recent fish loss would be a great help.

Thank You :)

Daz

Hello jandpgault,

I would be asking the question to your supplier of were the fish come from. Secondly whats the temp. And thirdly why the salt? They can survive fine without it. Ok, and what were these "aggresive" fish that were kept before? Did they survive?

:)

lioness501

how about ammonia? u dont state a teat result for that?

jandpgault

Ok. I usually get my fish from Petsmart. There are 3 local suppliers in our area - Petco, Wal-mart and Petsmart. Out of the three, Petsmart's tanks usually have better upkeep and maintenance and the people seem much more knowledgable there. I'll ask them where they get their fish from.

The temp in my tank is 78.

I was told by multiple store employees at Petsmart that the mollies needed salt added to the tank. So, I added salt.

I bought my first fish tank over a year ago and it was a 10 gallon and had semi-aggressive to aggressive fish. I decided to switch to the 55 gallon about 6 months later when my fish got huge and ran out of room in the 10 gallon tank. (I eventually added a few tiger barbs and a silver and Black Shark to my original inhabitants which were a plecostomus, an irridescent shark, and a large red-eyed gold colored fish - I can't remember what it was called) The only problem I can ever remember was having was an outbreak of ich once. Anyway, I liked the look of my neice's community tank - they were just so peaceful and colorful. So, intead of continuing with my semi-aggressives, I found homes for them. I did I good cleaning of my tank (no chemicals or anything) and let it cycle for about 2 weeks before introducing the comminuty fish.

I have had community fish in the tank I guess for a few weeks now and the first few weeks went by great. But here in the last couple of days, 3 of them have just died. They all seemed to be thriving, eating, etc... No signs of disease or infection. My dalmation molly on the other hand is showing signs of stress, but I can't figure out why.

jandpgault

Actually, I have never tested for ammonia. I just always assumed that if my nitrite levels were ok then my ammonia levels were ok as well. Do you think this could be my problem?

jandpgault

ok, I don't know if this means anything, but my dalmation molly has a few small rust colored spots on her (hard to see them). We purchased her that way. They don't seem to be getting larger or spreading. The other dalmation mollies in her tank where we purchased her from looked this way too. Is this normal for her? Could it be some sort of infection? I did notice her sort of scratch against a boat ornamet we have in the tank once. I'll watch her closely to see if she does it again.

I had a bout with ich once so I know that fish can scratch up against things. There are no white spots on any of my fish, so could this be some sort of ich-like infection?

I also just noticed my Guppy starting to scratch against the rocks too. He has done it several times. I want to treat them if this is some sort of infection, but I don't know what kind and how to treat? Do I just use the ich treatment and hope it goes away?

lioness501

im no expert! just thougth id ask, u should test for ammonia, just to b safe. i have a dalmation molly and she has rusty spots, thats just her colour

Lupin

Welcome.

Pls post the exact water parameters including ammonia as suggested by Lioness in your other thread. Ich will not show up until your fish is stressed but I doubt it is ich. There are other diseases associated by flicking. Are your fish breathing rapidly? Any pictures of your mollies?

Lupin

Your threads have been merged. It gets confusing with three threads.:)