[solchitlins]

I've been really fustrated trying to get fish through quarantine without dying. I have been losing black ruby barbs in one tank, diamond tetras in another and columbian tetras in a third tank.

I have fished out and tossed about 6 fish the last couple days from my basement quarantine tanks.

So after cleaning up down there I did a water change in my 100 gal planted display tank. I went ahead and rinsed out my two hob filters, but left my canisters alone.

Afterwards I was viewing the tank and discovered that one of my rainbow fish appeared to have a bent spine and looked like it had TB. I didn't want to mess around with it so I went and got a net and removed the fish and euthanized it.

Went out to dinner and came home to my Electric Blue Acaras infected with what appears to be ich....

How can this all gone wrong in a matter of hours???

All I can think is maybe the net was infected? But I did dip it in a weak bleach water solution beforehand.

I'm freaking out now because my tank is heavily planted and there's no way to remove the fish without really tearing down the tank. Super high temps aren't going to work either.

:-(
I feel like someone kicked me in the gut

Here's one of my sick Acaras, sick pic from today, not sick pic from yesterday

 

[Betta132]

Ich. I'd say probably contaminated equipment, water, or invertebrates. Has anything been added lately?
Most likely it's been killing your other fish, hiding in their gills out of sight, and this guy is the first one tough enough to have it show up elsewhere.

 

[Diana]

Ditto Betta:
You may have contaminated the main tank from the fish in quarantine.
Get separate equipment, do not depend on dipping to sterilize the nets or anything else.

 

[solchitlins]

So I'm currently looking at and trying to decide on if I should buy a $50 two liter bottle of seachem paraguard or a $10 box of dog dewormer "safe guard".

My fish are miserable at 85 degrees :' -(

 

[AWolf]

I swear by UV lights and diatom filters. The diatom filter is run once or twice a month on all of my tanks. Over thirty years ago I started using diatoms and have never had ich since. Back then, UV was for the saltwater tanks. But today, there is no good reason not to have UV on freshwater tanks. I now buy the UV that hangs inside of the tank instead of buying powerheads, to move the water gently.

Both of my Parents were Ichthyologists ('ich' lol) that studied SA cichlids, bringing them in from the wild often. These fish had every parasite you could think of, but they kept a diatom filter running, and dosed them with single treatments of blue and yellow and red colored medicines (I was too young to remember anything but the colors). Point is, diatom filters are awesome, because these wild caught fish were scrubbed of infection within a few days, and lived long lives in captivity. I've asked to be buried with my diatom filter, so I'll be ready for that aquarium in the sky.

 

[solchitlins]

I'm going to buy the 2L of paraguard.
I read the dog dewormer could kill off my snails, hundreds of MTS dying in the tank at once probably inst good for water quality

 

[Mikevwall]

Uv sterilizer!
Crank up the temps. No meds, no mess.

 

[solchitlins]

I'm not buying any more equipment but thanks, maybe someday down the road

 

[Clear Water]

As far as uv goes you have to slow the flow down to get it to kill parasites.(big unit slow flow) I have never had ich in my tanks and I don't use diatom filters but have in the pass. I don't think there the miracle cure but they can help. How long do you quarantine your fish? Do you see losses in your q.t.

All these fish were health and eating well before they got sick?
If so then you had to bring it in and contaminated the other tanks wither thru a net or adding water from another tank.

 

[WaterLife]

...
For the ich issue, just use Kordon Ich Attack (not Kordon Rid Ich). It's gentle on fish and safe for plants and inverts.
Paraguard may be the next recommendation. I've never tried anti-parasitic/dewormer meds for treating ich though.
Don't waste time and money on trying to cure ich with a UV sterilizer nor a diatom filter.

 

[bigbadjon]

There seems to be a real opposition on this forum to using medications. The Kordon product recommended is less than $5 and works everytime. Good advice Waterlife.

 

[Pattern8]

I've had really great success with using Paraguard, especially when the infection is spotted early. It also does not require activated carbon to be removed as it perciptates out of the water column after 24 hrs.
I would start use of it ASAP. If the infection is able to proceed into a second wave you most likely will experience some loses. If after a few days of treatment you believe the infestation is more advanced than you thought you could discontinue use of Paraguard and use Metro-plex + Focus in a medicated food mix. I've done this myself and to be honest, even though Seachem does not recommend it, I've even continued use of Paraguard while treating with the medicated food mix. I've done this in a tank with sensitive wild caught Otos and Cory cats.
One other thing of importance is to continue medicating for at least 3 weeks even if no sign of infection is present. I've made this mistake. I read so many posts from people discouraging the use of medication that I stopped after a week and came to regret it.

Also something to consider going forward: I now also use Paraguard in the recommended higher concentration for one hour dips on any new livestock I receive. I then use the normal dose for a one week period in my quarantine tank. This practice has spared me a lot of frustration!

 

[solchitlins]

I'm doing the paraguard. More fish are showing ich now, which is a bummer but to be expected?
No deaths in the main tank yet....knock on wood.

The Kordon stuff is almost the same price btw, $5 a bottle, maybe, but 130gallons x 2 weeks of nightly doses= a ton of it

 

[WaterLife]

What's the tank temperature?

I've never seen ich hit so fast and hard like what you are showing (pleco pic is kinda blurry to really tell if that is 100% ich). Usually just a few visible ich cysts/spots show up daily.

If the water quality isn't that great, I'd suggest doing some water changes (vacuum too). If the water they live isn't healthy, even medicating with the best meds won't do much.

 

[Nlewis]

Like Water eluded to above, water changes and vacuum. Also bump your heat up which speeds up the life cycle of ich. Whenever I've gotten inch I've raised my temp as high as my heaters would take it, upwards of 86 degrees. Some of your plants may take a hit due to the higher temp but it will make your battle with ich shorter.

 

[Bushkill]

What's the tank temperature?

I've never seen ich hit so fast and hard like what you are showing (pleco pic is kinda blurry to really tell if that is 100% ich). Usually just a few visible ich cysts/spots show up daily.

If the water quality isn't that great, I'd suggest doing some water changes (vacuum too). If the water they live isn't healthy, even medicating with the best meds won't do much.

I agree, that's pretty fast and aggressive even for ich. There's got to be an underlying stress factor that's weakening them to that degree and that quickly. Water changes can only do good things. My overcrowded guppy tanks tell me when I'm just a day or two behind on water changes.

 

[Mikevwall]

A uv sterilizer costs 30 bucks, cheaper than replacing fish and lasts a heck of a lot longer than any meds without the potential of adverse side effects. But I understand if you don't wanna spend more money.

 

[solchitlins]

Water is at 83.
I had it at 86 for a few days and the fish and plants were miserable. Had to scoop handfuls of leaves out of the water multiple times per day. My fish were zipping up and down the airstone bubbles and acting bizarre.
My lfs freshwater specialist told me to make the temp only a couple degrees higher than normal, normal is 78 here. She said going bonzo with the heat will only give my fish respiratory problems and hurt things. Also seachem advises not doing a lot of water changes during treatment. I change the water once a week, about 50%. I don't vacuum substrate because it's sand and heavily planted. There isn't clear areas of substrate.

Water parameters are great.
Not sure what is stressing them out.
:-(

 

[solchitlins]

Edit:
I can't find where I read that about thewater changes. I swear I read somewhere where the Seachem rep wrote to continue regular water change schedule and better to do less than more waterchanges...butfor the life of me I can't find it now.

 

[Bushkill]

My simple head tells me they recommend scaling back on water changes, because it dilutes the med. in the water column. Just a simple rationalization at first read.