I Feel Like A Horrible Fish Mama

[coyemuse]

So about a week and a half ago My spotty platy looked a little ragged. and since he was known to be bullied by my other fish, I moved him to my 10g to recoup with the guppies.
 
Well Ive had 1guppy die and in my75g Ive had a danio and a swordtail die (in the last day).
 
I was horrified to discover that the 75g is showing full blown ich. And I didnt know... almost every fish in the 75g has the white spots and ragged fins.
 
Last night i did a 25% water change on both tanks.
 
My question is, with the catfish, cories and kuhlii, do i still do full doses or do i need to restrict?
 
Also, the meds say remove the carbon.... is that the removable pad stuff? I have 2 marineland filters...

 

[DoubleDutch]

Is it really Itch? Not every white spot is Ich. Fish with Ich usually don't have ragged fins. More likely it's a bacterial infection / finrot occuring when waterconditions are worsening. Can you five waterreadings (amminia, nitrite and nitrate). I can be wrong !! Don't know the filters, but carbon are black sponges, black pads, aso.

 

[the_lock_man]

It'd be a good idea to post up a photo, so that the diagnosis can be confirmed, but ragged fins isn't usually associated with ich, as DoubleDutch rightly says. Ichj looks like individual grains of salt or sugar, sitting on the surface of the fish.
 
If it is ich, then generally speaking, yes you do need to do half-doses where you have scaleless fish, such as those you listed. The reason the manufacturers say to remove the carbon filter is that the carbon/charcoal is there to remove heavy metal pollutants. However, most ich medications are based upon copper, which, yes you've guessed it, is a heavy metal. So, if you have a carbon filter (which will have little black granules in it), remove it and chuck it away. Buy 2 new ones. When the medication course has finished, put 1 of the new carbon filters into the filter, and leave it for 2 weeks. This will rid the water of any trace of the copper. THen remove it and chuck it away. Do not put the 2nd new one in. Leave it in your fish cupboard until you need to remove another medication. Instead put another sponge, or more ceramic bionoodly things in.
 
If it isn't ich, then DOubleDutch will probably again be right, in that it's finrot. You do not need any medication for this, although there are plenty available. All you need is daily 50% water changes, until the fish have recovered.

 

[coyemuse]

its 430am but this is what i have:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
theres two guppies that have white crystal type spots. one has small amount of ragged edges on the fins
 
in the big tank there are 2 danios  that have the crystals but all of them have slightly ragged fins. the swordtails and platies are ragged finned.
 
The gourami doesnt show signs of either.
 
I wont be able to get a tank reading til after work tonight

 

[the_lock_man]

Well, I'd say that was ich, although the photos aren't wonderfully clear, I'm 99% certain it is.
 
Treat as per the instructions on your bottle, including where it says about continuing treatment even after the spots dissappear. The protozoan parasite is impervious to the medication when it is in the protective whitespot, it is only when they are in the free-swimming stage of the life-cycle that the treatment will work. Hopefully the instructions will say how to treat in the presence of scale-less fish. It would be sensible, too, to increase the temperature in the tank to around 28C - this will speed up the metabolism of the protozoa, so they'll get to the free-swimming stage quicker.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The other issue that you probably are dealing with is that ich can lead to secondary conditions, which is probably where the ragged fins are coming from.
 
Deal with one problem at a time... ich first. 
 
Then, deal with water quality and the (what appears to me to be) fin rot.  

 

[coyemuse]

so am I supposed to do water changes while im treating the ich?

 

[the_lock_man]

Follow the instructions on the bottle - some call for water changes, others don't. Once the ich med is done, then water changes to treat for the fin rot.

 

[coyemuse]

ok. the bottle im using doesn't have any info on water changes.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Really doubt it is Ich. The guppy looks awefull, but no Ich to me. Only doubt i've about the blurred pic of the white fish (is it a platy).

 

[snazy]

It's itch and it's advanced stage combined with fin rot or a bacterial infection. You need to do as big water changes and as often as you can to improve water quality to give your fish a chance. You need to redose the removed water with meds of course.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I would follow the advice from snazy above.  Normally I would just deal with the ich as prescribed on the bottle... but this seems to be an extreme case which means you need extreme measures.
 
 
Here's what I would do:
 
1 - Start with a massive water change - 75% or so. (Remove carbon from filter, if its there.  And raise tank temp to 82-84F)
2 - Dose meds according to package directions (increasing aeration to increase oxygen available in the tank).
3 - DAILY - vaccum the substrate and change 50% of the water.  Redose the meds at 50% strength to make up for the removed meds during the water change.
 
4 - Repeat the ich treatment like this until the ich is gone for a full week...
 
 
5 - Once the ich is gone, then you can consider using Pimafix and Melafix to deal with the fin rot afterwards.

 

[coyemuse]

Alright ill start when I get home. how long should I wait between water changes?

Really doubt it is Ich. The guppy looks awefull, but no Ich to me. Only doubt i've about the blurred pic of the white fish (is it a platy).

the white fish are danios

 

[coyemuse]

So I know you said to treat the ich first, but will melafix mess with the ich meds?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It will decrease the oxygen available, and I think its best to just stick to one med at a time.