I cant believe what has happened

[Country joe]

3 weeks ago I bought a new 125 litre tank, in my big tank I had 25 Cardinal Tetras, which had been in the tank for a 5 months, so we're good.
I think I did everything proper, I moved everything in my 70 litre tank, substrate and ceramics from established filter were placed in bins with heaters and airstones, plus rocks and wood.
A few days later I checked water in the 125 and everything is okay, so I added the 25 Cardinals I now realise it was too many in one go.
A week later all was good apart from a nitrite reading of .5 which I immediately added one small bottle of Tetra Safe Start, the next day nitrite reading was nill so everything was good , I then noticed some of the tetras had ich, so right away I dosed tank with Esha Exit, and Esha 2000, I have used this treatment for ich twice before and it worked a treat. But not this time.
I lost 20 tetras in one-day I'm devastated, it's enough to make me pack up.but I'm wondering I will carry on the two day Esha treatments, I also have 3 Gold Honey Gouramis and Amano Shrimp, that appear OK but I'm not confident in losing them also.
Should I try with Cardinals again, as I really like them, or try something like Dwarf Rainbow fish.

 

[GaryE]

An outbreak of ich is curious, though painful. It's a killer. If you hadn't added any new fish or plants carrying the parasite, it shouldn't have happened. Stay the course on the treatment. Remember it isn't a disease, but a parasite that takes advantage of chilled fish, or highly stressed ones. It has to come from a host though.

Esha's not sold in my country, so I can't comment on how good it is.

As a longtime rainbow breeder, including producing lots of dwarf Melanotaenia praecox, I have come to consider that beautiful fish as a tb vector, along with lacustris. I stopped keeping rainbows because they were so often ill upon arrival, but I don't think I've seen any fish with as many tb lesions in stores as that species. I wish it weren't so.

 

[Country joe]

Thanks so do you think dwarf Rainbow fish are just too sickness prone to go for. And are they OK with Amano shrimp?

 

[bgarthe33 51]

Sorry for your loss.

IMO, the 20 cardinals lost all at once was not due to Ich. Ich doesn’t kill massive numbers suddenly. Your high nitrites might be the cause or other water parameters. Was your new tank water the same as your old tank? If you stay with cardinal Tets, just add them gradually and see how it goes. Good luck.

 

[Country joe]

Oh I think it could be over I have only one tetra with a small patch of white at the dorsal fin, I take it, this is fungus, but the Esha 2000 that I've added along with Esha Exit for Ich, may help.
I still can't believe one week ago I had 28 Cardinals swimming in new tank looking good, now I've got seven left, strange how the three Honey Dwarf Gouramis have not showed any sign of Ich, and appear good, touch wood.
But I've decided to soldier on, when all clear I will give the tank a month to settle and if water testing is good, I slowly introduce more Cardinals starting with 6 and take it from there.
Having had Ich twice before and cured it quickly with Esha when spotting the white spots I wasn't too worried, how wrong that turned out to be, anyway I know the Cardinals were now stressed after reading point 5 nitrite. And getting it back to nil I was confident it was okay.
Anyway onward and upwards.

 

[raylove2]

When fish are stressed and/or subject to poor water conditions they are likely to produce excess mucus to protect themselves. This can be mistaken for white spot and adding any type of treatment can make things worse (because it is adding yet another chemical into the mix).
Not sure what you were doing in the new tank in the days that you were keeping everything else in buckets? Were you cycling it and if so, how?
When moving everything to a new tank and using all the old hardscape etc... I usually just switch it all in straight away, including as much if the old water as possible (though I give the substrate a good vacuuming which uses quite a bit if the old water). If you add the substrate and media a few days before the fish with a view to cycling it first, you need to add ammonia to feed the bacteria otherwise they will die. The water might test OK but that might be because it has reverted to an un-cycled state. You need to add the fish at the same time as all the other stuff to achieve an instantly cycled tank (sort of - other factors such as level of planting, level of stocking and relative sizes of the donor and recipient tank for instance).
The last time I thought I had an outbreak of ich, but what I suspected was probably mis-identified mucus, I used the temperature treatment and raised it to about 86F. The 'spots' disappeared after a few days without any losses.

 

[GaryE]

Epystilis is also something to look at, given that it didn't spread to the gouramis. It's a secondary infection that generally goes hand in hand with a water quality issue, or a bacterial infection.

It doesn't usually kill quickly. Ich can if it was missed for a week or so and got a really roaring head start. It is a fatal parasite. But it's also kind of easy to spot, so it doesn't usually get a head start on the medications.

 

[Country joe]

It looks like i have 6 Cardinals left that are now clear of white spots. The three days of dosing meds is now finished
Been dosing tank daily with Seachem Stability which will finish in three days
Tested water today an d all appears good. So what should I do now. Do you think k it's a good idea to leave for a month, and then if still good slowly add small amount of cardinals or anything you would do differently.