Ich emergency

[Tsar-bomba]

Also can’t treat the water till tomorrow, as the pet store closed

 

[Peepss]

That’s okay, just doing the water change will make a small difference. Treat it as soon as you can and hopefully you can save everyone. Keep us updated and ask more questions!

 

[Tsar-bomba]

Ok, some of my guppies are in shock as I used Betta water decloreanizer that may not have removed all of the chemicals

 

[Peepss]

When you do water changes, turn off the tank lights and let the fish rest. They will be stressed after the change and movement and any additional stress is unnecessary for them. Turning off the light should help. Guppies & tetras are very sensitive to water changes in my experience so they should perk up in the morning. Leave their lights off for 8-10 hours. If you don’t have live plants lean more toward 10 hours.
Are you using tap water?
If so, Have you tested your source?


Did you use the Tetra AquaSafe for Bettas?


I have always used SeaChem Prime as a dechlorinator & prep. It is fairly inexpensive & you should be able to find it at your LFS.

Once you test your water you will have a better understanding of what your fish truly need.

How long has this tank been running?

 

[Colin_T]

If you have a blue/ iridescent shark (Pangasius sp), you should return it to wherever you got it from.
These fish are a schooling fish that grow to more than 2 feet in length and require huge tanks or ponds to live in.

------------------------------
Whitespot (Ich) is a protozoan parasite that gets introduced into your aquarium with diseased fish or contaminated water, plants or other items form a contaminated tank.

The easiest and safest way to treat whitespot is to raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The heat will kill the parasites and you won't need medications/ chemicals.

Do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean before raising the temperature. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before any new water is added to the tank.

Clean the filter, wash filter media in a bucket of tank water.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels.

The following link has information about treating whitespot. The first post on page 1 and second post on page 2 are worth a read.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/


Melafix, Pimafix and Bettafix do nothing to whitespot parasites. Malachite Green or Copper will kill protozoans but Malachite Green is carcinogenic (causes cancer) and Copper kills invertebrates like shrimp.

 

[Tsar-bomba]

All fish in affected tank are fine, but can I do 2 water changes of 25%
Instead of one 50% change

 

[seangee]

I'm not sure why so many people are reluctant to do large changes. If you take half of the bad stuff out of a tank it means you leave half of it behind. Here is a simple table to show the effect of a few changes of differing amounts (for simplicity this assumes the bad stuff is not increasing)

	25% change	50% change	75% change
Original value	100​	100​	100​
1st change	75​	50​	25​
2nd change	56​	25​	6​
3rd change	42​	13​	2​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Yes of course you can do smaller changes. The question is why would you want to?

 

[FishGuest5123]

I do 75% water changes every week when cleaning and often do another 50% mid week on my larger bio load tanks. Some of my fish in those tanks are 3+ years old so obviously good for them.

 

[Fishmanic]

I do 50-60% changes every 7 to 9 days in all 3 of my tanks. My tanks all have 2 filters each.... one hamg on back filter and one sponge filter. Works for me and my fish.

 

[Tsar-bomba]

Well, good and bad news.
Good news: my ich affected fish is clearing up, less spots now
Bad news: both of the platys died

 

[Tsar-bomba]

My tank is cured

 

[Tsar-bomba]

i lied, A year later it killed my betta

 

[FishGuest5123]

A year later? What killed it?

 

[JuiceBox52]

I think your betta probably died from something else or you reintroduced the disease