Advice Needed

[canuck]

I've got 10 red wag platys (4 of which are less than 6 weeks old), 4 black skirt tetras, 4 other tetras that are pink and silver and I can't remember the name of for the life of me and a rubber lip pleco in a 29 gallon tank. There were two plecos until sometime today, when one of them died.

Tonight, all the platys and most of the black skirts have white spots on them. The pink tetras don't seem to have them and the remaining pleco seems to be okay as well. I'm guessing that this is ich, from what I've read in other messages on this forum.

The fish are all crowding into the corners of the tank, both top and bottom. Is this another symptom of ich? Or might this all be due to something else?

I bought the pleco that died about a week ago. Could it have been infected when I got it and spread it to the rest of my tank?

I tested the tank before I put the new pleco in last week and again tonight. Both times it tested as follows:

Ammonia : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 0
pH : 7.8 (I only tested this tonight, not last week)
Temp : 78 degrees

If it is likely ich, are the treatment tablets at my local fish store the best way to treat it? Do I need to do a water change before or after the treatment?

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Your tank is cycling because you have no presence of nitrates, how long has the tank been set up for?
I would advise liquid meds personally, what temp is the tank set at?

 

[@ombomb]

Your tank is cycling because you have no presence of nitrates, how long has the tank been set up for?

I think it's more likely that the tests are completely wrong.

2 plecs in a 29G and no amonia / nitrite / nitrate is virtually impossible.

What tests are you using?

How old are they?

I does sound like ICH to me, best treatments are liquid based IMO, do a water change, treat the tank and slowly raise the temperature to around 82F. The important thing is to work out what casued it. My guess is a mini cycle brought on by the addition of a heavy waste producer into a tank which already had a pretty high bioload and your tests are giving you a false reading.

Can you take some water to your LFS to test?

Or better yet buy some liquid based API test kits.

 

[canuck]

Your tank is cycling because you have no presence of nitrates, how long has the tank been set up for?
I would advise liquid meds personally, what temp is the tank set at?

The tank has been set up for about a year and the temperature is 78 degrees.

What tests are you using?

How old are they?

I using a liquid test kit that is about a year old. Do they have a shelf life? I just checked the box but I don't see any kind of expiry date on it. I'll take some water to my LFS to double-check today.

The important thing is to work out what casued it. My guess is a mini cycle brought on by the addition of a heavy waste producer into a tank which already had a pretty high bioload and your tests are giving you a false reading.

I got these plecos to help get rid of some algae growth, on the recommendation of my local LFS. If they're heavy waste producers, does the tank need a water change more often? I have been doing a water change every two weeks.

Thanks to both of you for your help - I appreciate it.

 

[@ombomb]

Yes they do have a shelf life, particularly nitrate test kits which are pretty much useless after 6 months.

I sounds to me as though the tank had a heavy bio load and high nitrates, which will have been the cause of the algae. Adding a plec was pretty much the worst thing you could have done I'm afraid. Yes they will eat the algae, but they make more waste than most fish. Add this waste to a tank with already streched biological filtration and you end up with too much amonia for your bacteria to deal with which causes bad water quality which can bring on white spot.

With a tank that size, with a plec, I would do a weekly water change of at least 30% and do a good gravel vac at the same time which will keep the water quality good AND slow algae growth.

 

[canuck]

I sounds to me as though the tank had a heavy bio load and high nitrates, which will have been the cause of the algae. Adding a plec was pretty much the worst thing you could have done I'm afraid. Yes they will eat the algae, but they make more waste than most fish. Add this waste to a tank with already streched biological filtration and you end up with too much amonia for your bacteria to deal with which causes bad water quality which can bring on white spot.

Well, I bought a new test kit today and got the following results:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 40
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 150
Alkalinity: 80
pH: 7.8

Obviously the nitrates weren't reading properly on my old kit, if not everything. I had the water tested at my local PetsMart (the local LFS was closed today, of all days ) Their results were the same as this.

The girl at PetsMart suggested I use a liquid antibacterial called Melafix along with the ich treatment. Is this good advice?

So far today, 6 of my fish have died. Their fins and tails have seemed to get really tattered and some of the ones that are still alive are looking this way as well.

The white spots seem to have changed into what looks almost like little bits of cotton tonight, too.

Is there hope for the rest of these fish at this point? Is there anything else I should be doing (or anything I shouldn't be?)

Again, thanks for any advice...

 

[@ombomb]

Does it look like this:

If so it's columnaris, which is very bad news.

Have a read through this thread which has some good info on treatment.