Crank the temp in the tank to 84-86 adn add salt to the concentration of 1tbsp per 5gal of water.
urgent!
I recently moved 3 black skirt tetras into a 20 gallon bare tank cause i thought they might have ich. i just got home from work.i see little white balls everywhere on the bottom. and it looks like some have a lil black dot on the top.what shall i do? i wanna try and save as many as possible. thanks.
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should i leave mama and papa in there or put a divider. and temp is 84 will add salt though.
I don't think you have fry. Most tetras eat their own eggs, they are not the best parents. Even if they had laid eggs in the tank and not eaten them it takes days (4-6 depending on the species of fish) for the fry of egg bearers to grow their eyes- eyes are complicated pieces of machinery. They don't show up magically on day one. What ever the dots on the bottom are, its almost 100% not fry.
If you moved the fish because they are sick, leave them where they are, don't move them any more. Bump up the temps to 82 minimum. when the tetras are healthy you can research how to breed them successfully.
If you moved the fish because they are sick, leave them where they are, don't move them any more. Bump up the temps to 82 minimum. when the tetras are healthy you can research how to breed them successfully.
The other problem is that the tank you moved them out of has ich in it as well. Ich is a parasite with a 3 stage life. What you are seeing is the cyst form. At this point they are quite safe from any medicative action you take. The increased heat will speed up the life of the ich. The orhter 2 stages are the cocoon stage and the free swimming stage. When we see the cyst stage of the parasite it is already in it's second stage. That means the first stage (cocoon) is still in the tank you removed them from. If the skirt tetras have shown the ich it is quite likely you will see more cysts in the main tank. The cyst stage is the only stage harmful to the fish, under that cyst the parasite is feeding on the flesh of the fish. Once that cyst lets go and releases the free swimming stage your fish will have tiny open wounds that will be subject to a secondary bacterial infection. For this reason it is a very very good idea to add Melafix to the tank (20gal) as well. Melafix will prevent the bacterial infections from starting. Do not discontinue treatment just because you do not see anymore spots though, this merely means that all the cysts are gone, the ich is still present in the tank. The salt is quite deadly to the ich in its free swimming stage. You only add the salt once and enough to make up for what you take out in water changes every 7 days due to the Melafix treatment which is added daily. Using this method I have killed Ich 2 times and due to the temp being 84-86 the entire process took only 2 weeks.
I doubt they are ich as well. From what I understand, even the stage where they drop and fall to the substrate is very small. Unless you have some mutated form of ich, then watch out. I'm not familiar with black skirt eggs, but white balls with black dots kind of sounds like an egg though. I would be cautious about cranking the temp and adding salt. You need to dissolve the salt completely and slowly add it to the water.
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