Nightmare situation........... bless you for taking them on!!
Personally...........although it is a MASSIVE task I would also try and separate the males and females to stop any more breeding however, you will have to be careful about the males fighting, etc, as even without any females in the tank this is possible.
Right..........water changes without shocking....... how mant tanks have you got? In his sort of circumstance I would use ANYTHING I had..... ice cream tubs, glass bowls, tupaware (sp?), sinks, etc! Heat with lights if necessary or 'hot water bags'.
I would bag up the fish in sets of four of five (or more if they are small) with the yucky water (just thought fish bags may be difficult so may have to improvise with anything that floats!!) Next......... take about three hours to acclimatise them. Leave the bags (or floating containers) in the new clean tanks/containers for 15-30 minutes, then add a small amount of clean water every 15-30 minutes until the bag is full. This will take hours but I think this is the only way to reduce the stress as they will have adapted to the appalling water. Use lots of stress coat or general stress reducer as well.
As for the abundance of sick fish........ I wonder if for ease these should go in separate tanks too... although then you have four different categories of tanks..... 1) Sick males. 2) Sick Females. 3) Males. 4) Females.
Does this help at all? If you have anything else you think I might be able to help with feel free to PM me if it's easier.
Out of interest...... how much did you buy the lot for? There is a possibilty to not only save these fish but f you were to sell them you might be able to cover the cost that you will be spending on meds, tanks, etc!!
Good luck and well done again for rescuing although you have a hard run ahead of you but I'm sure you know that!
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Thanks everyone for the great advice and I will be posting some pictures soon mabey tomorrow after Mass...
