the disease is back!

Mirta

Just as I thought our nightmare was over (we have lost more than half of our life stock to an ich-like condition in a new tank), the disease is back. I bought three more female cherry barbs - just them, because I was still afraid to buy anything else, I thought cherries would survive as my male cherries did. In a couple of days I noticed that the new cherries have tiny white spots! Moreover, my splendid male golden gourami had an ugly ulcer near his gill. The cherries were taken out. I put them in some medication (only two of them - the ones that looked worse), but they died the next day. One more died today. The fish had a fuzzy look. The gourami feeds well and behaves as a healthy fish. But I am scared. I feel so helpless with this disease.

It is an 80 gal tank with an inner filter and normal water parameters. I do have some apple snails and last time when I treated the whole tank I had to remove the snails. The treatment didn't seem to help at all. The fish just died faster. I felt so guilty when one of my cories died! The cories have somewhat shabby breast fins. But they are doing fine.

I really do not know what to do now.

leifthebunny

The problem with Ich is that depending on your water temperature is how long it takes for the pods to hatch. If you have access to Seachem's Para Guard, I've had great success with it even with invertibrates and plants in the tank. When you dose the tank, keep it up for 2 full weeks, even if the spots disappear. Also, raise your temp to 78-80 degrees to speed up the time it takes for the pods to hatch. At 80, it only takes 4 days. At lower temps such as 72, it takes weeks.

Mirta

Thank you very much!

I'll go to the store to ask about this Seachem. :)

leifthebunny

Good luck with the battle. :)

Steffiweff

Hi Mirta

Look at my post about fish dying.

I'm currently treating my tank for Oodinium (Velvet) which is not as nice as it sounds and my fish are doing better.

Mirta

I have checked in the store for Seachem and as I have expected they do not have it. I have medimor which has been applied once in this tank and I decided not to buy anything else yet because I really do not know what disease that is.

The last three cherries that died all had tiny white dots. I took them out and placed them in the tank with medication. They did not survive. Now only one fish - a male golden gourami - has a sort of an ugly ulcer at his left gill. His overall performance is good. He eats well too. I have read that the ulcer may be due to some worm infection.

If no more fish are dying, maybe I shouldn't treat the whole tank and put my numerous apple snails and plants under a lot of stress. After all such treatment requires multiple 30% water change, and it is very hard to do with an 80 gal tank. On the other hand not treating the whole tank means that the disease will stay permanently there and I won't be able to buy any more fish for this tank. It also means that any fluctuation in temperature or some other parameter could trigger an epidemic among the current survivors.

Another reason why I am so doubtful also the fact that the cories did not enjoy the treatment at all. They were the ones who had been quite healthy before the treatment, and became stressed out after the course.

It is really tough.

Steffiweff

I guess we're both on with the waiting game for now Mirta

I had 8 cherry barbs and all of them were wiped out with the disease in my tank and they were coated in tiny white dots. My lfs told me it WAS white spot and I treated them accordingly - but they still died. The tide only started turning about a week later when a friend told me to treat for velvet.

The difference between the two is ich looks like granulated sugar, velvet looks like grains of salt or icing sugar.

Hope it turns out okay.

Mirta

Thank you Steffiweff for support.

I am afraid I cannot tell the difference between granulated sugar and grains of salt in terms of how it all looks on a tiny fish's body .

My surviving cherries are ok, but I am afraid I won't add anymore fish to this tank.

The medication I have used in this tank is supposed to be sort of universal against bacteria, parasites and viruses. Although, I know for anything to be effective it has to be more precise.

It is interesting to note that after having a couple of baths in the green medication the golden gourami is losing his ugly ulcer though. His gill looks better - not raised up as it used to be, the red colour is gone, now it is whitish and some of the scales fell off. He is still a good eater and socially active :)

Steffiweff

Hi Mirta

I used Protozin, it treats Whitepot, Fungus, Neon Tetra Disease, Velvet and Costiasis (whatever THAT is)!

It appears to be working really well, and although I've had a few losses in the smaller tank, they are doing a lot better than I thought they would, and have been to a lesser extent than my larger one.

No further deaths to report in the large tank. Maybe the culling has come to an end, for me in any case.