Fish Died - What Now?

[Clbrtwewill]

I guess this is kind of a rough "welcome back" for me. Had fish for four years up until two years ago and it's amazing what a person can forget in such a small amount of time. I had an established gourami, an established betta colony and an established breeding angel tank during college.

I have a 15 gallon aquarium w/ filter & air stone. Let the water sit for two days treated before adding one fish. Was planning on cycling w/ one fish. Added fish gradually after "Floating" and did not put store water in my tank.

Fish started showing ich after about 12 hours.

Treated aquarium w/ coppersafe safe for 14 gal to treat ich after reading online & bottles at pet store.

Carbon has not been placed in filter yet.

Fish has died - lots and lots and lots of white spots on fish and it was becoming pink/raw/bloody looking in past 24 hours.

What do I do now? Let the tank sit & complete a fishless cycle, or introduce another fish? Ich has a free swimming stage so it can still be in there, right? Do I need to empty/scrub the tank out already?

I'm reading if I wait 48-72 hours ich will die off if it can't find a host - what about that?

I also realized I forgot two major components here - heater & ph test kit which I will be getting tomorrow.

Thanks!!

 

[the_lock_man]

If it were me, I'd do a proper fishless cycle adding bottled ammonia. With the time it will take, all the Whitespot bugs will have died with no host to reproduce on. I'd imagine that the ammonia wouldn't do them much good either.

 

[fluttermoth]

I would do a fishless cycle. As you've found out fish-in cycles can end in disaster for the fish.

Don't bother with a pH test kit; pH is irrelevant for the majority of tropical fish. You want test kits for ammonia and nitrite (and a bottle of ammonia, of course!); those are the two things that will kill your fish, and you need to be able to monitor them to know when your cycle is done.

 

[SirGoodFish]

You should be able to kill off ich by raising the temperature in the tank. It would help the fishless cycle, too.

Sir Good Fish

 

[fluttermoth]

Just out of interest, what kind of fish was it that died, OP?

 

[Clbrtwewill]

Thanks for the ideas... I'm going to look into getting a bottle of ammonia after doing some more reading.

It was a dwarf gourami.. .from my prior experiences w/ flames I remembered they do die frequently (inbreeding issues I think)

 

[ShinySideUp]

Don't bother with a pH test kit; pH is irrelevant for the majority of tropical fish.

Whilst the statement is largely true. It is still important to check pH as if it gets too low the bacteria colony-building process may stall or even stop.

 

[fluttermoth]

Don't bother with a pH test kit; pH is irrelevant for the majority of tropical fish.

Whilst the statement is largely true. It is still important to check pH as if it gets too low the bacteria colony-building process may stall or even stop.

Oh, doh, I'd forgotten about that Well picked up, SSU!