Help Possible Ich Outbrake

[kittrulz]

Today I came home and found about 10-15 dead fish in my 30 gal fish tank. I have about 7-9 more in an old breeding net either dying or very weak (to the point that they can't swim away from the filter grabing them or swim far off the bottom. I also have some fish doing something unsual. The are diving stright to the bottom and hitting it once they get there. From what I can see it appears to be ich, however some of the dead ones have spots on thier tails and some do not. I'm not totally sure that this is what it is as most of my dead ones have been dead awhile. This tank is fairly new and has had fish in it for a good 6 months with no problem. I have introduced no new fish other then what fry have out grown another tank and that tank appears fine. As of yesterday there were no dead ones and appeared to have no problem. I have one cory catfish, 2 snails, guppy and swordtail fry at various sizes. I also have one large live plant. I have began treatment for ich already, but I am unsure if I may be going ahead of myself without knowing the cause.

Please help I do not want to loose the whole lot!!

 

[kittrulz]

UPDATE: I have lost 2 more fish and probably 2 more within the hour. 75% of the remaining fish are sitting on the bottom right hand side of the tank. What the heck is going on???

also... i do not have anything to test my fish water right now.. i will pick some up tomorrow and anything else suggested to me. (Did not figure this would happen so quickly)

 

[WILDER]

Immediate water change and increase aeration.

How many fish and which type did you have in the tank before they died.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Whitespot looks like the fish has been sprinkled in salt. Or spots the size of a grain of salt.

 

[kittrulz]

Immediate water change and increase aeration.

How many fish and which type did you have in the tank before they died.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Whitespot looks like the fish has been sprinkled in salt. Or spots the size of a grain of salt.

I will test tonight when I get home.... the spots appear like they are sprinkled while others seem to have just lost some color in their tails

Approx 30+ (maybe)in the fish tank before this happened. Most (99%) are guppy fry. As of this morning my 4 swordtail fry appeared ok.

As of this morning.... of the fish that were in the tank when I went to sleep, 50% are dead. Whatever it is, is massively taking out my fish.
Questions: Should I remove everything and bleach it out (including rocks) and just have the remaining fish in a bucket or tank while they are being treated and put nothing else in the water? Should I be treating with ick stuff in the first place? Should I increase the heat in the "ICU" as I have seen it advised? also, How do I "steralize" my live plant from this problem?

Any help would be great!

 

[WILDER]

Add a whitespot med. Make sure you can use the full dose with the fish you keep.
Remove black carbon from filter if you use it.
Increase aeration, as the high temp and med reduce 02 in the water.
Raise temp to 30.
Treat another week once spots have disappeared.

Preform a gravel vac and water change before adding the med and raising temp.

 

[WILDER]

A pic of whitespot. The spots look bigger in the pic.

 

[kittrulz]

Here are the stats of the tank:
Before the water change
General Hardness:180
Alkine:40
pH:6.0
NO2:0
NO3:200

After the water change
General Hardness:180
Alkine:180
pH:7.5
NO2:.5
NO3:0

I still lost more fish.. but not as many as yesterday. I have seperated those that are showing symptoms from those that appear active. I fed them after the change and it appeared that everyone in the "big" tank had an appetite. I'm also treating both tanks with an ich med.

Are their any more suggestions??

And thanks to the help that has been offered so far!!

 

[WILDER]

What's the make of the test kit you are using?
Your nitrate reading was high at 200.
What's your tap nitrate reading?

How long after the water change did you test the water. As it's quite hard to believe that your nitrate reading gone from 200 to 0, with just one water change.

How often do you maintain the tank?

Keep preforming water changes.
Act the correct amount of med back to water removed.

 

[kittrulz]

I now have another of my tanks getting white sprinkled spots on them. This one however had new tetras added to the tank. But, it appears nothing similar to the others. all of the fish are active and eating. I am treating this one with ick meds. but do i need to change the water as I have just chaned it about a week ago. The tank is clean and clear. It contains 3 tetras, 4 swordtails, 3 guppies, corry catfish and a full grown alge eater. I have approx a 20-25 gal. fish tank. this is my breeding tank.

as for the other one... it seems under control. I had to add a new heater as the one i have is not big enough to heat the tank up (at least to the higher heat required to treat the parasite). I have lost about one a day. As of last night i found no fish with problems or sypmtomatic. so hopefully its just the treating is all that is required. Amazingly one of the females has even had babies! however those will not go into the fry tank until the meds are completed.