[CatFisher]

Alright ladies and gents, First let me explain what ive all done so far......

Got my 20g tank all set up with a good power filter, I first put in something that said it would put the right germs and whatnot for a new tank, after that I proceeded to get a albino cory catfish, Then a few days later i got 3 Dalmatian(Spelling? also 2 died overnight) Mollys, and another cory catfish(Green i believe), At this point everything is running smooth and looking great, So i did what i thought was a good idea, a week later i got 3 more catfish(total 5), 3 red wag platies then went to a different fish store and got 2 Sunburst platies(I think thats what they are), Ok now here comes my problem. Soon after getting the last few fish a few hours after i put them in the tank i noticed white spots showing up all over my Red wag platies, now im new to the fish game so right away i was on the net looking it up only to find out i most likely have ICH/ICK, then i notice the fins on my red wags are rotted away(Pretty bad speaking from noobisum) so I then traveled the 55 miles to the nearest pet store just to get some meds for the fish(Tetra-Lifeguard all-in-one treatment) the clerk at the store said It would be my best choice since i was not 100% it was just ICH, I also picked up some API Stress Coat+(Says it helps make tap water safe, true?). Ok now that your all caught up to were im at hopefully someone can help me out. SOooo lets recap real quick

1, 20 gallon tank/3 weeks running tops.
Only enough marbles on bottom to barly cover glass(Not good i know)
I have 5 catfish, 3 red wags, 2 dwarf frogs, 2 sun burst platys, and 1 molly left
Ive been useing Lifeguard for 3 days now(Just found out its the same as chemo on a human)
My tank water temp is set to 86(But says 82) to speed up the parasite
TAP water with API stress coat+

So i guess what im trying to figure out is....what am i doing wrong here? First i had a bunch of fuzzy floating things all over, i then used a siphon to gather up as much as i could.

Will my catfish be aright at water temps of 86+ at least untill the ich is gone?

Im on a very short budget here so i cannot afford to buy 20 gallons of nice and ready water from the store, so will this API stress coat do the trick? Or is there something else i need.

Any help/tips would bee great, like i said this is my 1st tank and im really likeing it even tho ive encountered problem after problem so far.:-D

P.S. After the ICH meds have done there job, if they do, is it safe to put in the filters i was useing before? Or are they contaminated with the ICH? I bout the filters when i 1st set up the tank.

 

[Austin]

The ready water at the store is pointless. If the API is a water conditioner too it is fine. However, if you are using this "ready water" you may want to be careful changing the water since the parameters may be way off. Also if you don't know what it is, please look up the nitrogen cycle. If your tank isn't cycled it will stress the fish, which will cause them to succumb easier to the ich. No clue if the catfish will be okay. I think the platies and mollies probably would. I'd almost say you have no choice but to see what happens since the ich will kill them if the heat treatment doesn't. There may be other methods you can use that I'm unaware of that others may be able to help with.


Also if it is fin rot, pristinely clean water will cure it, or so I'm told.

 

[CatFisher]

The ready water at the store is pointless. If the API is a water conditioner too it is fine. However, if you are using this "ready water" you may want to be careful changing the water since the parameters may be way off. Also if you don't know what it is, please look up the nitrogen cycle. If your tank isn't cycled it will stress the fish, which will cause them to succumb easier to the ich. No clue if the catfish will be okay. I think the platies and mollies probably would. I'd almost say you have no choice but to see what happens since the ich will kill them if the heat treatment doesn't. There may be other methods you can use that I'm unaware of that others may be able to help with.


Also if it is fin rot, pristinely clean water will cure it, or so I'm told.

Im not using the ready water, just regular tap. Is there some kind of renewable filter i can get to help keep the ph levels and etc. were they should be?

Also, i have looked into the underwater gages that tells me the levels of the nitrate and ammonia levels but they are really expensive for something that only works for "Up to" 2 months, at my petsmart store each one of those tools are $15.

 

[Austin]

Depends what fish you're keeping and your tap water pH. I would bet money that your unaltered tap water pH is acceptable to the fish. Fish need consistency more than water with the "proper" pH. Products that stores sell tend to cause pH swings that are hard for the fish to handle.

I don't know how well those meter things work. In much of my reasearch and experience with fish-keeping I have never heard of anyone using them so I assume they are fairly useless. I suggest investing in an API liquid test kit. It's great. You get quite a lot of tests for your money. For example, there is over 125 pH tests I believe in one kit.

Is your tank cycled?

Edit: Just saw that its been running for 3 weeks. I doubt it cycled, so you may have nitrite and ammonia. It is probably not stable yet. I suggest getting a liquid test kit... It's a good investment. If money is really an issue though, a water conditioner and 50% daily or every other day water changes will help immensely. I don't have experience because I've been told to stay away from them, but the cheapef test STRIPS are apparently useless- just throwing that out there. (And you mentioned problem after problem... To look on the bright side, don't give up yet, the cycling process should complete soon and things will get easier...)

As another note, if it were me I'd probably stop medicating and just raise the temp slowly to 86 and see if the fish are stressed. Coincidently I bought an ich infested fish recently... It is a german blue ram and it is completely covered with ich now. I have had success with the simple heat treatment in the past but never to this extreme so I'll let you know how it goes too...

 

[jaysee]

I've cured infested fish before with just the heat, but once the fish is to that point there is the risk that the ich will finish off the fish before the treatment has a chance to have an impact. It generally takes about 3 days to see any improvement and the spots should be gone or almost gone after about 5 days.